How are religious organisations responding to societal challenges in urban areas? How can urbanists work with neurotechnology to transcend dystopian or utopian visions of the future? How is the next generation of urban scholars engaging with and responding to international research, the climate pluriverse, new technologies and emerging urban inequalities? What are the critical priorities for urban research around the world, and how can they be addressed through international collaboration and innovative approaches?
These are some of the questions we will be discussing during the Sheffield Urbanism Summer Programme! We have planned what we hope will be a stimulating and engaging two weeks of activities, workshops, and talks, organised with colleagues across the Faculty of Social Sciences.
**Sign up below before places go! Please note, spaces may be limited! **
The summer programme has been collaboratively developed between UI staff and Associates across the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Below is an overview of key activities, with links to further information, registration details and information on how to sign up.
If you can’t get along, or our events are fully booked, don’t worry! We are using lots of different ways to record, document and share what we are up to, through film, photos, blogs and podcasts.
We will make as much available as possible on our Urban Institute website and , via our page, or through the series.
Future Religions / Religious Futures. Sacred Spaces and Social Innovations. (IN-PERSON WORKSHOP)
A one-day workshop for academics, practitioners and activists to discuss how religious organisations respond to societal challenges, (re)creating spaces where faith inspires social, cultural, economic and environmental advancements. The conference will also reflect on the first ten months of the project “” (2024 - 2026), funded by the.
- When: Monday 23rd June, 0900-1700 (lunch provided)
- Where: St Mary’s Church, Sheffield
- How: In-person only
- Participants: Academics, practitioners and activists
- How to register:
- Find out more: UI Associate/School of Architecture and Landscape, Krzysztof Nawratek, k.nawratek@sheffield.ac.uk
Valuation, Space, Power Workshop (IN-PERSON ECR WORKSHOP)
Today, many socio-economic struggles centre not on the organisation of production but on the recognition of, and claims over, asset values. Valuation extends beyond mere price-setting to encompass broader socio-political processes that define what is considered valuable, by whom, and through which practices and institutional mechanisms. Consequently, it is important to understand the relationship between the circulation of value, the extraction of rent, the production of space, and their mediation by valuation practices. This workshop will explore the intersections of valuation, space and power to understand how economic value is constituted, where it is created and located, and who claims that value.
Paper sessions will be structured around 5 masterclasses with leading scholars, who will also provide feedback to ECR presenters: - State, power and borders in the (re)spatialisation of finance; Adam Leaver (University of Sheffield) - Financial accounting and calculative practices; - Public policy and the asset form; - Valuation and the built environment; & (Copenhagen Business School) - Global wealth chains
- When: 23rd - 24th June
- Where: ICOSS Building, University of Sheffield
- How: In-person only
- Participants: Early Career Researchers (PhDs, postdocs or early career lecturers)
- How to register: Limited places may be available depending on wait-list
- Find out more: UI Associate/CRAFiC, School of Management, Dr Rafaella Lima, r.lima@sheffield.ac.uk
Neurotechnically-enabled Urbanism: What are the Issues and Challenges for Urban Life? (IN-PERSON WORKSHOP)
Guests: , , and .
This workshop provides a critical view of the emerging neurotechnical urban landscape focusing on, for example, the cognitively enabled workplace, smart home, and military operations. It examines the novel neural interfaces inserting humans directly ('in the loop') into socio-technical systems, the different types of cognitively augmented or enhanced cyborg humans that are being produced, and the differential capacities of the neurotechnically enabled geo-technical milieu. It concludes by considering how urbanists might work with neurotechnology in a way that can transcend both dystopian warnings of mind control and utopian visions of superhumans.
- When: Tuesday 24th June, 1200-1700 (lunch provided)
- Where: The Wave, Sheffield University
- How: In-person only
- Participants: Academics, practitioners and activists - invite only
- How to get an invite: Email Simon Marvin, s.marvin@sheffield.ac.uk
- Find out more: Neurotechnically-Enabled Urbanism: What are the issues and challenges for urban life? | Urban Institute | The University of Sheffield
Reciprocity, Positionality and Humour - Conducting Successful International Research (IN-PERSON PhD MASTERCLASS)
Guest:
Susan Banki will lead a workshop for PhD researchers about the possibilities for meaningful and enriching research – meaningful and enriching also for her research participants. Drawing on examples from research in Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia, Japan, Indonesia, and Myanmar, Susan will discuss the importance of reciprocity, positionality, and a sense of humour.
- When: Wednesday 25th June, afternoon
- Where: The Wave, Sheffield University
- How: In-person only
- Participants: PhD students, registration required
- How to register: Please complete this by Friday 13 June
- Find out more: Dr Hannah Lewis, School of Politics, International Relations and Sociological Studies, and Migration Research Group.Email: h.j.lewis@sheffield.ac.uk
Climate Pluriversations (IN-PERSON ECR GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP)
If your work challenges dominant climate narratives, engages with plural ontologies, or seeks to advance decolonial, Indigenous, relational, or speculative approaches to climate futures, this is a space for you! We warmly invite early career researchers, postdoctoral scholars, PhD candidates nearing submission and anyone poised to begin their grant writing journey across all disciplines to join us in a Grant Writing Workshop on the idea of the climate pluriverse. This is not just a workshop - it is a call for action to co-design the pluriversation platform - and operational infrastructure for translocal responses to the climate crisis.
- When: Wednesday 25th June, 1230-1700 (lunch provided)
- Where: ICOSS Conference Room, Sheffield University
- How: In-person only
- Participants: Early Career Researchers, PhD candidates (travel bursary available)
- How to register: Email Tanzil Shafique, t.i.shafique@sheffield.ac.uk
- Deadline: 19th June 2025
- Find out more: See here or contact UI Associate/School of Architecture and Landscape, Tanzil Shafique, t.i.shafique@sheffield.ac.uk
Anarchitectures of the Future, University of Bath (HYBRID KEYNOTE LECTURE)
The modern promise of progress opened up the future: it turned it a source of aspiration and possibility, an untapped reservoir, an irresistible infatuation. For over two hundred years, the future was modernity’s call and its consolation, its clarion call and its lullaby. But, after progress, the future is not what it used to be. Given over to the contingencies and upheavals of an earth at loose ends with itself, the future has been rendered precarious when not marked by the threat of catastrophe.
What might it take to dare give up the future in order to give ourselves over to its outside, to other planetary rhythms of urban life?
Reprising the impulses and motifs of Gordon Matta-Clark’s experiment in “anarchitecture” and his aesthetics of collapse, as well as much of what I’ve learned from the exceptional work of the Urban Institute, this talk makes a case for accompanying the ongoing collective unrest that is the elaboration of urban social life for now, in the planetary mess that is the present tense. Experimenting with the question of the future and its outside in the urban planetary present, I probe the potential of a theory of social change after progress, one capable not of building a future but of elaborating infrastructures of sociality out of bounds.
- When: Wednesday 25th June, 1730-1900
- Where: Diamond Lecture Room 5, Sheffield University
- How: Hybrid
- Participants: Open to Public
- How to register: . Registration closes Friday 20th June.
- Find out more: See here or email UI Associate/School of Architecture and Landscape, Tanzil Shafique, t.i.shafique@sheffield.ac.uk
New Frontiers of Urban Inequality: Power, Technology and the Politics of Everyday Life,, Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL (HYBRID KEYNOTE LECTURE)
In her keynote lecture, Saffron Woodcraft will explore the evolving landscape of urban inequality in the 21st century. Drawing on her long-term research on urban regeneration, inequalities, and the co-production of knowledge in shaping equitable cities, Dr Woodcraft will explore the emergence of new forms of inequality linked to digital infrastructure and data citizenship. Examining how traditional theories and metrics of urban inequality fail to capture these shifting realities, which increasingly affect both marginalised and middle-income urban populations, she advocates for trans-disciplinary approaches to urban knowledge production, policy design, and planning that foreground local knowledge, community agency, and shared prosperity.
- When: Thursday 26th June, 1000-1100
- Where: Sir Frederick Mappin Building, Mappin St, S1 4DT, Sheffield University
- How: Hybrid
- Participants: Open to Public
- How to register: . Registration closes Friday 20th June.
- Find out more: See here or contact Emerging Urban Inequalities Conference Committee: emu-conference-group@sheffield.ac.uk
Emerging Urban Inequalities: The Experiences of Voluntary Action Sheffield, , CEO, Voluntary Action Sheffield (HYBRID KEYNOTE LECTURE)
In this keynote lecture, Helen will share the learning from Voluntary Action Sheffield (VAS) through supporting social action and neighbourhood conversations about the power of people in addressing inequality in Sheffield. VAS is made up of people who care about making a difference and want to leverage their understanding, experience and any position or privilege to support others. Helen is a passionate advocate for social action and for social justice.
- When: Friday 27th June, 1415-1515
- Where: Sir Frederick Mappin Building, Mappin St, S1 4DT, Sheffield University
- How: Hybrid
- Participants: Open to Public
- How to register:. Registration closes Friday 20th June.
- Find out more: See here or contact Emerging Urban Inequalities Conference Committee: emu-conference-group@sheffield.ac.uk
Emerging Urban Inequalities (IN-PERSON ECR/PHD CONFERENCE)
Guests: and
We invite you to register for the Emerging Urban Inequalities PhD and Early-Career Researcher Conference, a two-day event bringing together researchers exploring the diverse and contested geographies of urban inequality.
The conference will feature four thematic panels:
- Housing and Displacement
- Spatial Inequality and Everyday Urban Spaces
- Children, Youth, and Urban Play
- Finance, Financialisation, and Property
There will also be two keynote speakers, Saffron Woodcraft and Helen Sims.
The city has often been identified as the crucible of modern life, a space in which future opportunities may be forged. With more than half of humanity living in cities, our urbanising condition is marked by social, environmental, and economic injustices within urban places and between them. Such harsh realities are deeply intertwined with challenges around urban governance, land financialisation, displacement, gender and sexual inequalities, and racial discrimination. These are intensified by public health emergencies, global and national political crises and climate change. By combining robust, theoretically-driven empirical research with socially-relevant questions, scholars can help illuminate emerging urban inequalities. Postgraduate and early career researchers play a critical role in shaping such interdisciplinary debates. Thus, this conference will be a space for cross-fertilisation and productive dialogues that point towards a more equitable urban future.
- When: Thursday 26th - Friday 27th June, All Day (lunch and refreshments)
- Where: Sir Frederick Mappin Building, Mappin St, S1 4DT, Sheffield University
- How: In-person only
- Participants: Places for participation available - priority to University of Sheffield ECRs/PhDs
- How to register: Registration closes Friday 20th June.
- Find out more: Emerging Urban Inequalities Conference Committee: emu-conference-group@sheffield.ac.uk (Claire Zhuo Pang, Hannah Sender, Mateus Lira, Olamide I Udo-Udoma Ejorh, Yu-Tung Wu)
- Programme:
NB: Please also see the online edition of the EMU conference detailed below, for 3rd July.
The Sheffield Urbanism Showcase (IN-PERSON SHOWCASE EVENT)
to attend the first Sheffield Urbanism Showcase!
Sheffield Urbanism is a vibrant and inclusive community of interdisciplinary scholars in the Faculty of Social Sciences dedicated to understanding and positively impacting urban inequalities and injustice around the globe. It is an initiative brought together by the Urban Institute and our Associates in the Schools of Schools of Geography and Planning, Architecture and Landscape, Politics, IR and Sociological Studies, Management and Education to name a few.
Short provocations will be offered by colleagues on themes including: Power, technologies and housing financialisation - Governance, planning and infrastructures in the city - Climate, water and energy justice in space and place - Citizenship, identities and solidarities in times of crisis - Mobility, place and the lifecourse - Epistemic urban politics and knowledge activism
International scholars from South Africa, Ghana, Somalia, Brazil, Lebanon, Pakistan, India and China will offer reflections on connections with urban challenges and research priorities in their contexts.
- When: Tuesday 1st July, 0900-1615 (lunch provided)
- Where: Diamond, Workroom 2, University of Sheffield
- How: In-person only
- Participants: Open to staff, students and external visitors where places available
- How to register: . Registration closes Friday 27th June.
- Find out more: Email: b.perry@sheffield.ac.uk or t.goodfellow@sheffield.ac.uk
- Programme: See here.
Urban Research Labs in Times of Conflict and Post-Truth (IN-PERSON PUBLIC EVENT)
Guests: and
In this public event, Mona Fawaz from the Beirut Urban Lab and Nausheen Anwar from the Karachi Urban Lab will be in conversation with Tom Goodfellow and Beth Perry about the challenges of doing urban research in times of conflict and post-truth. The event will be opened by University of Sheffield Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Robert Mokaya and chaired by Dr Malcolm Butler, Vice President and Director of International. The format will be an ‘in conversation’ style discussion between Mona, Nausheen, Tom and Beth, followed by short responses from Abdi Tahir, Hilin Research Institute, Somalia and Joao Tonnuci Filho, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Following a Q and A with the audience, there will be a drinks reception.
- When: Tuesday 1st July, 1645-1900 (including drinks reception)
- Where: Diamond, Lecture Theatre 5, University of Sheffield
- How: In-person only
- Participants: Open to staff, students and external visitors where places available
- How to register: Registration closes Friday 27th June.
- Find out more: See here or email: b.perry@sheffield.ac.uk or t.goodfellow@sheffield.ac.uk
Emerging Urban Inequalities, Online Edition (ONLINE ONLY ECR/PhD CONFERENCE)
We’re excited to host an online edition of the Emerging Urban Inequalities conference to create a more inclusive space for doctoral students and early career researchers who are unable to attend the in-person event in Sheffield. This special event offers a space for critical and inclusive conversations around urban change and inequality.
The online conference will feature two thematic panels: Spatial Inequality in Everyday Urban Spaces; Housing and Displacement.
- When: Thursday 3rd July, 1300 BST
- How: Online only. Link will be shared after registration
- Participants: ECRs/PhDs
- How to register: . Registration closes Friday 27th June.
- Find out more: Emerging Urban Inequalities Conference Committee: emu-conference-group@sheffield.ac.uk (Claire Zhuo Pang, Hannah Sender, Mateus Lira, Olamide I Udo-Udoma Ejorh, Yu-Tung Wu)
- Programme for main in-person event: