Melanie Lombard and I are delighted to have received the 2025 AESOP - Association of European Schools of Planning Prize for Excellence in Teaching for our module "Urban Informality" and our related book "Urban Informality: An Introduction." Read more here: aesop-planning.eu/resources/ne...

Our members out in force today! 👊

Check out our recently published Otros Saberes Toolkit (www.contested-territories.net/toolkit-otro...) – an overview of 24 experiences in Europe and Latin America that engage with alternative forms of territorial knowledge, particularly those marginalized by hegemonic academic and policy frameworks.

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity. TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

Great initiative! Look forward to the first episode and to see what made it onto the Urban Radar in February 2025.

In the middle of Bolivia’s worst fire season, I went with @umbamoxos.bsky.social to the scorched plains on edge of the Amazon, where archaeologists are drilling into the deep history of the mysterious forest islands. For @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...

"Memories in the Water: A Testimony from Xochistlahuaca" – In our latest #CoastalCommons video-blog, four voices—a child, a young woman, an adult woman, and a trans woman—share memories and *affects* tied to the rivers of Costa Chica. @urbanstudiesfoundation.org cityjournal.online/memories-in-...

Geography for Everyone? Despite growing diversity at GCSE, at A level & uni #geography is one of the least diverse subjects. The subject, & its institutions, are not serving all teachers nor all young people. Change is needed. Read the full report ⤵️ geography.org.uk/geography-fo...

The first domino in what will surely be a cascade. The uni sector needs some radical new political impetus, and quickly www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We're delighted to be formally launching Sheffield Urbanism next week with a series of public events (alongside internal workshops to cook up future plans...) All of the below are open to the public, see below for details on how to sign up!

2024 finished with a new article (in Spanish) cowritten with colleagues from the UK and Bolivia. It's called: Multilocality and related identity challenges of Indigenous youth in Bolivia p3.usal.edu.ar/index.php/mi...

2024 terminó con un nuevo artículo coescrito con colegas del Reino Unido y Bolivia. Se titula: La multilocalidad y los desafíos identitarios de jóvenes indígenas en Bolivia p3.usal.edu.ar/index.php/mi...

‘There was so much fear’: the battle to keep children out of Colombia’s armed gangs

Latest from me: this year, the time I spent travelling around a surreal, forlorn, often broken country was brilliantly soundtracked by English Teacher's This Could Be Texas, an album for our times www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

On the day of the new NPPF, our report out with @wildjustice.bsky.social shows how housebuilders are failing to protect nature. Across 42 new estates we audited only a half of the ecological features they promised are in place. #NPPF #planning #wildlife www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Year in an unequal and disturbing world - I wrote micro reviews of three books that inspired me this year. alphacity.blog/2024/12/11/t...

Last Friday we were joined by Paula Meth from @uofglasgow.bsky.social for the launch of ‘Living the Urban Periphery’, co-authored with @goodfellowtom.bsky.social and a range of other authors! With fantastic discussant comments from @philipphorn.bsky.social NB the book is free & open access online!

After four intense years, our project on Community Energy and the Sustainable Energy Transition (CESET) came to an end in September. We came together with this wonderful team of international researchers to share our collective learnings. Watch it here: youtube.com/watch?v=uY1l...

Are you a Bolivianist? Follow our starter pack, and drop me a note if you'd like to join it! go.bsky.app/Pf4B9yW

"Colombia outlaws child marriage after 17-year campaign" www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Spending my weekend re-reading through Ale Barrientos's and Joaquin Cuevas's "Altopía" which offers such a rich account of urban Aymara (indigenous) futurism (www.gokongo.co/comic/15_alt...).

@sheffielduni.bsky.social #Geography and #planning I teach on a module called Environmental Justice at a time of crisis. Today we designed student cafe spaces with #lego. There were circular economies, sharing spaces, accessibility and transport links, and an energy producing dance floor with a DJ.

If you’re looking for some weekend listening, download The Trapped. A shocking expose of the country you really live in. A 4 year investigation in 1 podcast. You won’t regret it. thetrapped.co.uk Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7vwTNdv... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Been thinking about the process of writing lately, partly as a result of chats with different people about how they write. So, apropos of nothing, & on the off chance that this may be of use to someone, here’s three quick things I’ve learnt about writing: cityfragment.wordpress.com/2024/11/22/t...

Disponible el video del evento "Cartografía y justicia social": youtube.com/watch?v=YRIR... Hasta el 31 de marzo, convocatoria homónima de artículos en "Justice Spatiale" para reflexionar sobre las posibilidades y procesos para la justicia social desde la cartografía: www.jssj.org/contribution...

Science fiction is vast and the nature of imagined future worlds is diverse, thank goodness. #afrofuturism #africanfuturism #indigenousfuturism lithub.com/writing-towa...

"Latin American Studies through a broad interdisciplinary lens: cultural studies, history, social sciences, environmental and digital humanities." #latinoamerica #latinoamericanistas bsky.app/starter-pack...

I’m putting together an Iberian & Latin American Studies (literature, film, and history) Starter Pack for those of us migrating from the other site. I’ll be updating the list as more join! go.bsky.app/FQXc4sg

🎙️Dr. Stephanie Canizales shares 📚 Sin Padres, Sin Papeles & takes us inside her research with unaccompanied undocumented children, and life in a sanctuary city. 🎧⬇️ @womenknowhistory.bsky.social @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social #AcademicSky @ucpress.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/0z44...

Para los nuevos seguidores: muy bienvenidos! Aquí encontrarán una descripción del proyecto.

Pokemon Go players have been unwittingly mapping the entire world to train a geospatial AI model whose most obvious use cases are for robotic navigation and possibly the military www.404media.co/pokemon-go-p...

If you are interested in the current crisis of the University of Sheffield, please keep having a look at this page as much useful information is going to be published in the next few days and weeks. @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk @unison.org.uk ucu.group.shef.ac.uk/campaigns/st...

Looking forward to this!

Our “Read to Respond” series addresses the current climate of misinformation by highlighting articles and books that encourage thoughtful, educated debate on today’s most pressing issues. Today we share resources on caring for others in uncertain times: read.dukeupress.edu/journals/pag...

On Thursday, in an all-staff meeting with over 1000 attendees online and in person, 944 attendees participated in a vote with 93.3% saying they have “no confidence” in the VC and University Executive Board.

High time for the University of Sheffield Executive to resign and be replaced by a more competent and compassionate team, which is prepared to work WITH rather than AGAINST its staff and students. @sheffielducu.bsky.social www.thestar.co.uk/education/re...

pls share: funded by EPA: Economy & Space, up to 8 travel + accommodation stipends available to enable doctoral & postdoctoral researchers to participate in the "ideational geographies" workshop at UBC, June 11-13, 2025. Application details: blogs.ubc.ca/peck/researc...

Some say that exiting twitter is a route out of tolerating diverse views. Surely the core reason is to help erode the user base (and thus market value) of a platform blatantly run and manipulated by a billionaire owner. Once everyone is on bluesky we can have robust debate here.

Congratulations @samburgum.bsky.social! Looking forward to reading it.

Such a nice crisp snow morning in Sheffield. Good time to leave the toxic X environment and join this platform!

Proud to be part of team who has been working on this: “Palestine: Spaces and Politics”. An introductory curriculum to Palestine in context, using a spatial lens. Most resources are open access, prioritizing Palestinian authors. #menasky, #geosky palestine.araburbanism.com

We are now accepting applications for the next round of USF Seminar Series Awards funding! 🏙️ The deadline is 17th February 2025, and you can read more about the call on our website. 📢 Please share 📢 www.urbanstudiesfoundation.org/funding/semi...

artículo medido y perspicaz sobre la crisis actual en Bolivia por Gabriel Rodríguez García en NACLA nacla.org/bolivia-en-s... '...la falta de renovación interna y la ausencia de alternativas que permitan proyectar un futuro más allá del caudillismo.'

Some of you, especially those teaching, researching, or studying informal ways of living, working and governing, may be interested in our new book (written with Melanie Lombard): "Urban Informality: An Introduction" (bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/urban-inform...) @brisunipress.bsky.social

Reflections from our knowledge exchange on territorial struggles and Otros Saberes in Cali (Colombia): youtu.be/VPXlAgeK9UU?... Part of our Contested Territories network (www.contested-territories.net)

Yet another starter pack... For all those interested in critical urban geography, broadly defined! go.bsky.app/RgsNWsi