![\"Screen-Shot-2013-09-11-at-6.03.22-PM\"](\"http:\/\/sds.parsons.edu\/designurbanecologies\/files\/2013\/09\/screen-shot-2013-09-11-at-6-03-22-pm.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Following hard-won liberation struggles against various forms of colonialism, India, Brazil, and South Africa have now emerged as power players on the global stage. While their governments are imbued with the history and rhetoric of past left movements, these countries\u2019 major cities are spaces of contestation, pitting the need for universal housing, water and electricity access and employment against the realities of global austerity in the neoliberal age.<\/p>\n
This tension is brought closer to home through mega events such as Brazil\u2019s upcoming World Cup (2014) and Olympics (2016), as well as South Africa\u2019s World Cup (2010) and India\u2019s Commonwealth Games (2010). These events seek to transform urban centers of the Global South into cosmopolitan world cities, at the expense of retracting public spaces and services, displacing hundreds of thousands, and further marginalizing the urban poor. How do left governments in these countries address the contradiction of fighting for social justice in a neoliberal world?<\/p>\n
Urban Convergences will take this framework as an opening for a series of discussions on how activists, government actors, and academics are confronting these new realities for a vision of a socially just city in the 21st century.<\/p>\n
Convened by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung\u2014New York Office in conjunction with \u201cParsons The New School Graduate Program in Design & Urban Ecologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Registration at the bottom of this page. Free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
PROGRAM<\/p>\n
Friday, 9\/27<\/p>\n
6:00-6:30pm Registration at The New School<\/p>\n
6:30-6:40pm Welcoming Remarks
\nStefanie Ehmsen, Co-director, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung\u2014New York Office<\/p>\n
6:40-8:00pm Keynote Addresses
\nLeda Paulani, Municipal Secretary for Planning, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil
\nMiloon Kothari, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, India<\/p>\n
8:00-9:00pm Opening Reception<\/p>\n
Saturday, 9\/28<\/p>\n
9:15-9:30am Welcoming Remarks
\nMiguel Robles-Dur\u00e1n, Director, Design & Urban Ecologies Department, Parsons The New School for Design<\/p>\n
9:30-11:00am The World Cup, Spectacle Capitalism, and the Attack on Fair Housing<\/p>\n
The upcoming Brazil World Cup has drawn much attention of late. Billions in taxpayer money have been spent, while the rights and needs of the urban poor have been ignored, leading to mass protests around the country. Indeed, with the World Cup shortly followed by the 2016 Olympics, Brazilians must grapple with a form of spectacle capitalism that privatizes the gains and socializes the costs of mega events \u2013 at the expense of the poor and the working class. In this context, what lessons can be learned from South Africa\u2019s 2010 World Cup, as well as India\u2019s 2010 Commonwealth Games, both in terms of what to expect and how we can fight?<\/p>\n
Eloisa Varela, Joint People\u2019s Committees of the World Cup, Brazil
\nPaul Divakar, General Secretary, Dalit Human Rights\/NCDHR, New Delhi, India
\nSamuel Queiroz, People\u2019s Committee of the World Cup, Fortaleza, Brazil
\nAly Karam, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
\nModerated by Ay\u015fe \u00c7avdar, Istanbul, Turkey<\/p>\n
11:00-11:30am Coffee Break<\/p>\n
11:30am-1:00pm Focus on Brazil<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s favelas are known the world over. Painful reminders of the human cost of capitalist exploitation, these shanty towns are nonetheless vibrant with culture, economic activity, and political power. The militarized state treatment of favelas, combined with the retraction of basic services and displacement of its population, threatens to quash this character and further isolate and marginalize the country\u2019s urban poor. What should we know about the struggles in Brazil\u2019s favelas and how they connect to other battles over housing justice and the right to the city?<\/p>\n
Joana Barros, Federation of Organizations for Social and Educational Assistance, Rio de Janeiro
\nBenedito Barbosa, National Director, Center of Popular Movements, S\u00e3o Paulo
\nCosme Felippsen, Federation of Organizations for Social and Educational Assistance, Rio de Janeiro
\nModerated by Gerhard Dilger, Director, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung\u2014S\u00e3o Paulo Office<\/p>\n
1:00-2:00pm Lunch<\/p>\n
2:00-3:30pm Focus on India<\/p>\n
India has a greater population than the whole of the Americas; it has more distinctive cultures and living languages than Europe. Amidst this great size and diversity is a proud left tradition; there is a variety of socialist and communist parties, some of which have governed whole municipalities or regions for decades. India also has some of the world\u2019s largest housing challenges, with slums like Dharavi, in Mumbai, housing close to a million people on less than one square mile. How have different municipal governments dealt with the multiple housing crises of the urban poor? What can we learn particularly from the actions of left municipal governments?<\/p>\n
Manisha Verma, Joint Secretary, National Advisory Council of India, New Delhi
\nAmita Bhide, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
\nJayshree Satpute, Director, Nazdeek Alliance for Socio-Economic Rights in South Asia, New Delhi
\nBalakrishnan Rajagopal, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
\nModerated by Ethan Earle, Project Manager, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung\u2014New York Office<\/p>\n
Sunday, 9\/29<\/p>\n
10:45-11:00am Welcoming Remarks
\nRachel Laforest, Executive Director, Right to the City Alliance, New York<\/p>\n
11:00am-12:30pm Focus on South Africa<\/p>\n
The African National Congress broke South Africa\u2019s apartheid, brought democracy to the country, and became an international symbol of proud, successful resistance to colonialism. Today, the ANC retains much of its power but little of its original revolutionary anti-colonialism, instead actively dispensing austerity policies. Nonetheless, the ANC continues to employ leftist rhetoric, and many open socialists work actively within its ranks. How do social movement groups seeking transformative change in today\u2019s South Africa relate to the ANC? In what ways does the party\u2019s left-wing past create opportunities as well as obstacles in the quest for greater housing justice?<\/p>\n
Muziwakhe Gerald Ndlalose, President, Abahlali baseMjondolo, Durban
\nPatrick Bond, Director, Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
\nNajuwa Gallant, Tafelsig People\u2019s Association, Cape Town
\nDavid Ntseng, Church Land Programme, Durban
\nModerated by Rachel Laforest, Executive Director, Right to the City Alliance, New York<\/p>\n
12:30-1:30pm Lunch<\/p>\n
1:30-3:00pm Workshops<\/p>\n
Gentrification in the Global North: New York and Berlin
\nIngo Bader, Alliance Against Rents for Profits, Berlin
\nPeter Marcuse, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York
\nModerated by Katharina Weise, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Berlin<\/p>\n
Water & Food: Organizing for Access to Basic Human Rights
\nManisha Verma, Joint Secretary, National Advisory Council of India, New Delhi
\nMuziwakhe Gerald Ndlalose, President, Abahlali baseMjondolo, Durban
\nModerated by Sanjay Bharti, Dalit Human Rights\/NCDHR, New Delhi<\/p>\n
Theory on the Streets: Toward a Theoretical Framework for 21st Century Housing Justice
\nPatrick Bond, Director, Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
\nMiguel Robles-Dur\u00e1n, Director, Design & Urban Ecologies Department, Parsons The New School for Design
\nModerated by Lynn Lewis, Executive Director, Picture the Homeless, New York<\/p>\n
3:00-3:30pm Coffee Break<\/p>\n
3:30-5:00pm Housing Justice and Left Governments: Opportunities and Obstacles<\/p>\n
In this concluding session, panelists will reflect on the previous days\u2019 conversations, with a specific focus on the chances and limits of left governments. Which characteristics are shared between Indian, Brazilian, and South African housing conditions and the movements that struggle to improve them? How can the Left come to terms with the contradictory nature of governing in a neoliberal environment?<\/p>\n
Josette Cole, Director, Development Action Group, Cape Town, South Africa
\nMiloon Kothari, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, India
\nLeda Paulani, Municipal Secretary for Planning, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil
\nModerated by Albert Scharenberg, Co-director, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung\u2014New York Office<\/p>\n
Location: The New School
\nFriday and Sunday: 55 West 13th Street, Arnhold Hall (2nd Floor), The New School
\nSaturday: 65 West 11th Street (enter at 66 West 12th Street), Wollman Hall (5th Floor, Room B500), The New School<\/p>\n
Registration for Urban Convergences from Fri, 9\/27- Sun, 9\/29. To register go to : http:\/\/www.rosalux-nyc.org\/urban-convergences\/<\/p>\n
Registrants will be contacted in the days before the conference to confirm attendance. This is due to space constraints, and is meant to ensure that as many interested people as possible have the opportunity to attend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following hard-won liberation struggles against various forms of colonialism, India, Brazil, and South Africa have now emerged as power players on the global stage. While their governments are imbued with the history and rhetoric of past left movements, these countries\u2019 major cities are spaces of contestation, pitting the need for universal housing, water and electricity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-past-events"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n