School of Geography - Faculty of Environment

PROJECTS & WORK IN PROGRESS

Current Projects

Philip Leverhulme funded artist in residence, Jai Redman

The artist Jai Redman is the School of Geograhy's Artist in residence funded by the Leverhulme Trust between Feb - Sept 2009. The aim of the residency is to examine local power relationships and conflicts in urban regeneration in the city of Leeds, the changing attitudes to public space and levels of public engagement and understanding with urban change, and Leeds' evolving civic identity. The artist will collaborate with students and academic staff in Geography’s Urban Cultures and Consumption research cluster (UCC), as well as community activists, researchers and architects through the Leeds based ‘Love it, Share it’ network to develop research into the power structures and social impact of Leeds' recent urban redevelopment. This builds upon similar research by the artist during his ‘Thin Veneer of Democracy’ boardroom table project and the Manchester ‘OpenCity’ project.

Jai Redman is an artist, activist and the creative director of UHC (Ultimate Holding Company) an established collective of visual artists based in Manchester. The themes of the group's practice are the built environment, power relations, and ecological/social justice. UHC was recently awarded the Art Gene Open Prize for its unique boardroom table project entitled 'The Thin Veneer of Democracy' and were finalists in this year’s ‘Best of Manchester’ Awards. Jai has spent over a decade campaigning on issues of ecological and social justice and is a regular public speaker on the contemporary role of art in political resistance and the ethical responsibilities of graphic designers. For more information see UHC's website: www.uhc.org.uk, www.jairedman.co.uk or www.jairedman.blogspot.com 

Autonomous Geographies

I am currently co-managing on an ESRC grant (see www.autonomousgeographies.org) with jenny Pickerill at Leicester University which explores the ways in which social activists and community groups are developing self-managed models for organising social and economic life beyond the welfare state. The impetus for the project was to develop the concept of ‘autonomy’, which derives from the Greek ‘auto-nomos literally ‘to legislate for oneself’. Our premise was simple, that many groups are keen to promote greater self-management as a way to respond more urgently, and find solutions, to many crises we face in our lives such as rapid climate change, poor democratic accountability amongst elected representatives, and privatisation leading to the loss of key public services. There is also much interest in self-management in the light of the real problems faced by the welfare state in managing many aspects of civil society. What this adds up to are signals for how we might conceptualise post-welfare state policies, as the state devolves responsibility form managing key aspects of the welfare system. Three case studies are drawn upon including an exploration of independently and volunteer-run social centres, eco villages, and tenants groups resisting privatisation. Various publications including magazine articles, journal papers, videos, a blog, conference papers, reports and a journal special issue are available via the project website.

Latin American Social Movements

My work in Latin America focuses on autonomous movements in two contexts in Latin America. First, I work with a volunteer run collective who build water systems in the autonomous Zapatista communities (see www.kiptik.buz.org) and undertake an bi-annual fieldtrip to Chiapas from the University of Leeds (Chiapas Fieldtrip). Second, I have written a guide to the autonomous Argentinian social movements (http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/publications/TakingBackControl). The context for this work is the crisis of December 2001 in Argentina which signalled huge capital flight from the country, defaulting on international loans, food shortages and widespread unemployment which led to country-wide civil unrest and the toppling of the incumbent President. What this work uniquely explains are the widespread experimentations with organising social and economic life in novel ways. One of these involved the emergence of the Unemployed Workers Movement (MTD), who are neighbourhood-based groups of unemployed people, many of whom had lost access to employment through the era of privatisation and harsh fiscal reforms during the 1990s. The paper explains that in their neighbourhoods, the MTDs have developed economic and social structures to insulate themselves from unpredictability in the global economy and provide essential services within the neighbourhood such as children’s clubs, bakeries and brick making workshops. They have also developed a system of ‘educacion autonoma’ (autonomous education) due to the lack of formal state education, and a desire to educate themselves with skills geared towards community development.

Who runs Cities

Concurrently, I am also working on a collaborative research project funde din part by the Leeds Trades Council entitled ‘Who runs Cities?’ (see www.whorunsleeds.org.uk) The main aims of the project are: to uncover the networks of decision-making power and the major power holders in Leeds and the city region; to understand the relationships between public policy, local actors, economy and interest groups, and how the outcomes flow through and shape the power networks; to determine who ‘owns’ Leeds and understand the relationship between ownership and power; to discover in relative terms who is benefiting and who is not from the direction in which Leeds is taking, and to critically examine the map out the recent past and present of privatisation and regeneration processes; to demonstrate who runs Leeds and how in order to help open up the democratic process, hold power holders to account and redistribute downwards decision-making power to citizens; to produce an influential and far-reaching report into power, ownership and democracy in Leeds that will shape both public debate and the evolution of public policy in this area; and to make available a range of educational and accessible resources (e.g. guides, websites, teaching resources, pamphlets, events) tailor-made for both the general public and more targeted audiences such as MPs, trade unionists, community workers, teachers, public sector workers etc.