With increasing worldwide migrant mobilities it is not always clear who has the right to the city. What is the role of the newcomer in an urbanized world?
About the programme
The moving populations which cross borders heading to Europe and North America contest and destabilize both territorial certainties and established urban policies. In public debates these displaced people are often framed as passive recipients of the State, NGO or philanthropic practices. However, newcomers themselves organize, struggle and generate movements of insurgent citizenship, claim the right to the (centre of the) city and enact the production of collective housing and shared common spaces based on principles of solidarity and mutual help.
During this NIAS Talk we explore commoning practices used by the newcomers as a way of self-organisation and the concept of spatial justice for an increasingly heterogeneous urban society.
About the speakers
Michael Keith – Keynote speaker is Professor at the University of Oxford’s Center on Migration, Policy and Society, and Director of the PEAK Urban Research Programme which aims to aid decision-making on urban futures.
Maria Kaika is NIAS fellow 2019-2020 and Professor of Urban Regional and Environmental Planning at the University of Amsterdam. She is currently researching ‘debt as biopolitics’ at NIAS and will be discussing the newcomers right not only to the city but to the heart of the city, to have access to the political, social and cultural activities of urban life.
Mohammed Badran is a cultural anthropologist and consultant. He is a member of the Network for Refugee Voices and founder of the Syrian Volunteers in the Netherlands. Badran is working to change the current narrative on refugees and refugee experiences across Europe, and emphasises meaningful participation by both newcomers and local communities.
Charalampos Tsavdaroglou is a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Amsterdam. He will be a discussant for this talk and his research interests include critical urban theory, autonomy of migration, and intersectional, decolonial and affective geographies.
Fenneke Wekker (moderator) is a Sociologist and Head of Academic Affairs at NIAS.
This NIAS Talk is organized by Prof. M Kaika and Dr. Ch Tsavdaroglou (University of Amsterdam), in collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Science (NIAS-KNAW). It is sponsored by NIAS and by the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions Research Fellowships Programme.