“Overlookedness: Where do we go from here?”

“Overlookedness: Where do we go from here?”

Event 3 of the Urban Studies Foundation Seminar Series Grant 2023-2024
Overlooked Cities: Thinking and doing global urban studies differently

Programme 10-11 June 2024

The purpose of the Durham event is to reflect on the first two events (in Bandung, Indonesia and 
Bloemfontein, South Africa) and to consider what now, where do we go from here? We no longer need to say that overlooked cities matter (Ruszczyk et al., 2021; Nugraha et al., 2022). In our (Overlooked Cities Collective) emerging research on overlookedness, there is a sensibility, an act of care. We believe there needs to be a particular focus on relations between cities and within cities, as well as the power relations in urban spaces. We need to continue to push to do research differently.

Further research areas include:
• How do we do the looking, what are our methodological approaches? 
• Could we look through narratives, longitudinal studies, through story telling?
• How can we expand our conversations beyond academia, such as engaging with CSOs / NGOs? 
How do we make a space for the organisations who are doing the work while also exploring how 
they make a space for us? 
The questions that we pose our invitees and collaborators are:
• How do we address the fact that at times, people want to be overlooked, that they do not want to 
draw attention to their actions?
• Can we collaborate in comparison, how do we do this with dialogue in mind? How do we not 
obscure urban logics without re-categorizing? 
• What are the other concepts we should be in conversation with?

For more information, please contact: h.a.ruszczyk@durham.ac.uk and yimin.zhao@durham.ac.uk

Monday 10 June 2024, in person, Room W007
9:15 – 12:00 Overlookedness fieldtrip to Bishop Auckland, County Durham
Led by Danny MacKinnon and Sanne Velthuis, Newcastle University
Bus will depart from Lower Mount Joy campus (please arrive at 9 am)

12:15 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 13:15 Welcome by Hanna Ruszczyk (host) and Sam Nowak (Urban Worlds Cluster)

13:15 – 14:10 Setting the scene Jenny Robinson (UCL) and Hyun Bang Shin (LSE)
Reflections on involvement in Workshop 1 Bandung, Indonesia and Workshop 2 
Bloemfontein, South Africa and with the concept of overlookedness 
15 – 20 min each speaker and then Q&A

14:10 – 15:00 Intervention Mary Lawhon (Edinburgh) and Danny MacKinnon (Newcastle)
What does overlookedness look like in your work?

15 – 20 min each speaker and then Q&A

15:00 – 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 – 17:00 Roundtable
What does overlookedness look like in your work?
Colin McFarlane, Cheryl McEwan, Marcus Power, Yimin Zhao, Julia Wesely (Wien), 
Hanna Ruszczyk and Emma Ormerod (Newcastle)
7 minutes each speaker with an object or 3 slides, followed by Q&A17:00 Drinks

Tuesday 11 June 2024, TLC 116 and ZOOM (Meeting ID: 987 7256 8470; Passcode: 963979)
https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/98772568470?pwd=UTBkSnZHZExQUVFseWV3YU14SlA0dz09 

9:00 Welcome by Yimin Zhao (host)
9:10 – 10:30 The overlooked North East (geographical and intellectual)?
Jessi Lehman, Marijn Nieuwenhuis, Bridget Shaffrey, and Jason Luger (Northumbria)
Discussant: Hyun Bang Shin

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 – 12:00 Looking back, looking forward: ECRs in action
Geetika Anand, University of Cape Town
Jiahui Zeng, Tsinghua University
Chester Antonino Arcilla, University of the Philippines Manila
Joshua Vargas, Singapore ETH Centre, Future Cities Laboratory
Aireen Grace Andal, Macquarie University
Discussant: Hector Becerril (CONACYT)
12:00 – 12:30 Closing by Isolde de Villiers (Western Cape; USF Award PI