The contribution of academics to urban reform coalitions

The contribution of academics to urban reform coalitions: managing change in politically contested contexts

In this lecture Professor Diana Mitlin of the Global Development Institute and African Cities Research Consortium, University of Manchester, explores how academics engage in politics through their involvement in urban reform coalitions.

This in-person session will discuss the significance of urban reform coalitions for academics, the political dimensions of coalition-based collaborations and their efficacy for working with multi-stakeholder groups on themes including justice and redistribution. Diana will draw on the experiences of the African Cities Research Consortium to explore the potential importance of coalition-based approaches to development and elaborate on our findings to date. Using these experiences, she will outline the different ways in which academics have contributed to coalitions and suggests some of the outcomes that have been generated. Diana will then turn to the motivations and/or benefits of such coalitions for academics themselves and consider the reasons for their participation. Finally, she uses these experiences as a lens through which the implications of coalition-based activities (including academic contributions) for poverty reduction and citizen-state relations can be understood.

The session is organised the Urban Institute and Institute for Global Sustainable Development and will be chaired by Philipp Horn, Senior Lecturer School of Geography and Planning.

Biography

Diana Mitlin is Professor Global Development Institute | The University of Manchester. She is also Research Associate at the International Institute for Environment and Development, and editor of IIED’s journal, Environment and Urbanization. From 2020, Diana has been CEO of the FCDO-funded African Cities Research Consortium.

Diana’s work focuses on urban poverty and inequality, including urban poverty reduction programmes and the contribution of collective action by low-income and otherwise disadvantaged groups. She has had a particular research focus on issues of urban basic services, tenure and housing. Diana works closely with SDI (Slum/Shack Dwellers International), a trans-national network of homeless and landless people’s federations and support NGOs. This collaboration enables her to learn from the experiences of grassroots organizations in addressing social injustice, poverty and inequality.