‘We’re all in this together’ has become one of the choruses of life under this pandemic.

Since the arrival of the COVID-19 in 2020 people everywhere have learnt new ways of practicing togetherness apart. This has taken the form of neighbours singing to one another from balconies, clapping hands and banging pots and pans for essential workers, streets organising grocery shopping for vulnerable households, and friends and families coming together online for Zoom quizzes and even the occasional disco. Yet while we may indeed all been in the throes of this pandemic together, our experiences of it are often vastly different. The COVID-19 pandemic has thus highlighted not only the multiple practices involved in living together in this world, but also the paradoxes which riddle shared human life with inequalities and hardships.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the city – the principal site of collective life in the 21st century. Over the course of this seminar we will hear from three speakers as they reflect on the interplay between practices and paradoxes of togetherness in their work on cities. Speaking from backgrounds across academia and industry, we will hear about practices of togetherness by families and neighbourhoods; designing inclusive urban spaces through participatory design; and alternative economies of exchange through sharing.

Speakers:

Cara Mazetti: PhD candidate in Human Geography (University of Bristol) studying how people live together in cities through research with families and neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa.
Finlay Mcnab: Founding Director of Streets Reimagined – an urban design practice based in Bristol with a focus on the creative and collaborative process of reimagining streets and urban spaces.
Martin Parker: Professor of Organisation Studies and lead for the Bristol Inclusive Economy Initiative (University of Bristol).

Following the panel discussion, we will break into smaller groups to discuss how the City Futures Theme activities might address some of the challenges that the debate has highlighted.

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The event is open to external attendees and will be held via zoom. Registered participants will receive the link to join in a separate email.

We’re all in this together, or are we?