Inclusive Cities

Date: Wed 3 February 2021

Time 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm (GMT)

Time 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm (CET)

Dr. Eva Garcia Chueca from the Barcelona Centre For International Affairs will kick off the webinar to speak on advancing urban rights that underpin equality and diversity in the city. Birmingham’s Dr. Phil Jones will then chair a panel discussion, joined by Dr. Chueca and Dr. Justin Varney (Director of Public Health, Birmingham City Council), and Simion Blom (from the Amsterdam green party GroenLinks), to have a dialogue around community cohesion and inclusivity in diverse cities like Amsterdam and Birmingham.

Speakers.

Dr Eva Garcia-Chueca

Eva Garcia is a Senior Research Fellow of the Global Cities Programme at CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs). PhD in Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). She holds a Master’s Degree in Citizenship and Human Rights: Ethics and Politics at the University of Barcelona (2010) and a European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation at the European Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (2005), undertaken in Italy and Denmark. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law at UB (2004). Since 2011, she is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra. From 2015 and 2016, she was one of the 20 experts from all over the world who took part in HABITAT III Policy Unit on the Right to the City and Cities for all. The work of this Policy Unit nurtured the drafting of the New Urban Agenda adopted at HABITAT III. From 2007 to 2014, she served as Executive Coordinator of the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights of the global network United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). In this framework, she created and coordinated the Inclusive Cities Observatory. Her main interest areas are the right to the city, public policies, local government, postcolonial studies, social emancipation, urban art and urban social movements.

Her edited book 'Advancing Urban Rights: Equality and Diversity in the City' is available for download here.

Dr. Justin Varney

Justin Varney is Director of Public Health at Birmingham City Council, one of the most diverse cities in the UK. Originally training in General Practice, Dr Varney's career has included roles in the NHS, local and national government and he has a strong background in building partnerships across the public, private and community sector to improve people’s health and wellbeing. He has led national programmes of action on physical activity, health and work, sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, pharmacy and allied health professionals. He has a broad range of experience, including periods as a community diversity and inclusion advisor on LGBT inclusion to the Department of Health and Metropolitan Police, faculty member for the Healthcare Leadership Academy, and representative for the International Association of National Public Health Institutes in the development of the World Health Organization’s Global Action Plan on Physical Activity.

Simion Blom

Simion is a Council member for the Municipality of Amsterdam, Amsterdam green party GroenLinks: His portfolios are Diversity and anti-discrimination policy, Primary education, Pre-school, Childcare and after-school facilities, Masterplan Amsterdam Southeast, Community Wealth Building.

Dr Phil Jones

Phil Jones is a cultural geographer who focuses on issues related to the city. His work deals with a number of research areas including urban regeneration, cycling and the arts. He has a particular interest in research methods, including qualitative GIS, mobile interviewing and arts-based approaches. Phil will be chairing this panel discussion.

Accessibility.

This event will taking place via Zoom, and a live transcript will be available. If you have any additional accessibility requirements, please feel free to contact us at studentequality@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Questions.

You can submit any questions to panellists anonymously via the Question and Answer function. Instructions on how to do this will be explained at the start of the event. Feel free to submit questions in advance by emailing them to studentequality@contacts.bham.ac.uk using the title 'Inclusive Cities'.