Virtual Book Launch: Community-Led Regeneration

We are hosting a virtual gathering of activists and academics to present the book Community-Led Regeneration and discuss the experiences of London communities opposing social housing demolition. The book chronicles how resident groups opposed demolitions and proposed community-led schemes, through their collective use of planning mechanisms and other strategies, both formal and informal. The book has been published as Open Access with UCL Press and can be downloaded for free or purchased here: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/ro_homepage_products/products/125696

The book includes seven case studies: Walterton and Elgins Community Homes (WECH), West Ken and Gibbs Green Community Homes, Cressingham Gardens Community, Greater Carpenters Neighbourhood Forum, Focus E15, People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House (PEACH), and Alexandra and Ainsworth Estates. Drawing from their experiences, the book describes a toolkit which includes the use of formal planning instruments, as well as other strategies such as sustained campaigning and activism, forms of citizen-led design, and alternative proposals for the management and ownership of housing by communities themselves, who have come together and formed as a way to manage their homes and public space better. 

In the book launch, we will hear from some of these resident groups about their experiences, what has happened since the book was written, how the communities have been coping through lockdown and what challenges they foresee in the coming months.

Confirmed speakers

Panellists: 

• Michael Edwards, Just Space, UCL
• Richard Lee, Just Space
• Sarah Sackman, barrister, author of one of the chapters of the book
• Jonathan Rosenberg, WECH and West Ken and Gibbs Green
• Linda Sanders, West Ken and Gibbs Green
• Elizabeth Knowles, Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate
• Elena Besussi, Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate, UCL
• Tom Keen, Cressingham Gardens Community
• Gerlinde Gniewosz, Cressingham Gardens Community
• Saskia O'Hara, Focus E15

Authors:

• Pablo Sendra, UCL
• Daniel Fitzpatrick, UCL

Chair:

• Iqbal Hamiduddin

Please sign up via Eventbrite to recieve the Zoom joining link.