primary management team

Environment & Urbanization Special Issue, Vol. 34 No. 2

Guest Editors: Camila Cociña, Alexandre Apsan Frediani, Stephanie Butcher, Caren Levy and Michele Acuto

This special issue of Environment and Organization, guest edited by Camila Cociña, Alexandre Apsan Frediani, Stephanie Butcher, Caren Levy and Michele Acuto, brings together papers from sites of action in Mumbai, Freetown, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Cali, and networks in Latin America & Asia. The papers share original research, practices, experiences and theoretical reflections about the construction of pathways towards urban equality. Although operating in distinctive and diverse ways and sites, these pathways all invite us to reflect on the ways in which the different dimensions of urban equality are advanced, and to interrogate both urban planning practices and knowledge production processes. Some of these papers were produced under the international research programme Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW), which reinforces an overall focus in this issue on questions of the co-production of actionable and transformative knowledge.

The issue also contains four Feedback papers. These include a field note that follows previous research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave for residents of “slum” settlements in Bengaluru and Patna, India, exploring the impact of the second wave and the differences over time. A second paper examines the impact of the pandemic from a global perspective, identifying emerging trends in the responses of local city governments and speculating on some likely outcomes. The second two papers offer fresh perspectives: one, from Iran, by focusing on the views of urban planning professionals on children’s participation in local planning; another, from Kampala, through documenting internal divisions within a civil society partner involved in a settlement upgrading co-production initiative. 

Contributions from the KNOW team include: 

Editorial 

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Editorial: Addressing urban inequalities: co-creating pathways through research and practice

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By Camila Cociña, Alexandre Apsan Frediani, Stephanie Butcher, Caren Levy, and Michele Acuto

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GENERAL ARTICLES 

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How co-production contributes to urban equality: retrospective lessons from Dar es Salaam

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By Kombe Wilbard, Alphonce G Kyessi, and Tatu Mtwangi Limbumba

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The “slow anatomy of change”: urban knowledge trajectories towards an inclusive settlement upgrading agenda in Freetown, Sierra Leone

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By Joseph Macarthy, Braima Koroma, Camila Cociña, Stephanie Butcher, and Alexandre Apsan Frediani

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Co-producing knowledge to address disaster risks in informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: pathways toward urban equality?

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By Cassidy Johnson, Emmanuel Osuteye, Tim Ndezi, and Festo Makoba

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Rethinking planning education for urban equality: higher education as a site for change

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By Neha Sami, Ruchika Lall, Geetika Anand, and Shriya Anand

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Researching with care: ethical dilemmas in co-designing focus group discussions

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By Yael Paden, Tim Ndezi, and Jane Rendell 

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Crafting urban equality through grassroots critical pedagogies: weave, sentipensar, mobilize, reverberate, emancipate

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By Adriana Allen, Julia Wesely, Paola Blanes, Florencia Brandolini, Mariana Enet, Rodrigo Faria G Iacovini, Rosario Fassina, Bahiá Flores Pacheco, Graciela Medina, Alejandro Muniz, Soledad Pérez, Silsa Pineda, Marilyn Reina, Luz Amparo Sánchez Medina, and Juan Xavier