iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Sally Watson @salawatson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

“We have given up so much public space to cars, and if you live in a city with kids you live in constant fear that they will be hit by a passing vehicle”, Banchini said. “It restricts our movement so much that we almost can’t see it anymore.” www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

theguardian.com

Reclaiming the streets: the architects clawing back Europe’s car-centric spaces

The European Prize for Urban Public Space’s shortlist highlights projects helping people cope with climate crisis

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Upcoming events on urban utopias and urban political contestation within the interdisciplinary group ‘Where is Urban Politics?’ at Groningen, led by Marian Counihan and Christian Lamker ⬇️

sites.google.com

WUP Seminar Series - Events

Upcoming events | Save the Dates

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 18/08/2026

On Sunday, parents across the five boroughs got a night to themselves while NY's Cutest enjoyed free activities with NYC Parks staff at select recreation centers. Free & accessible child care doesn’t just make our city more affordable — it gives parents time to rest, recharge, or enjoy a night out.

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Owen Garling @ojgarling.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Always surprised by the council-provided BBQs in Australia. Well-used, clean and generally not vandalised. Also, the flame is contained under a plancha. An important part of Australian social and cultural infrastructure.

A council provided barbecue in the Sydney seaside suburb of Coogee.

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Pr Carlos Moreno - IAE Paris1 Sorbonne University @carlosmorenofr.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Applications are now open! If your organisation is developing innovative ways to make active play more accessible, inclusive and equitable for children and young people, I encourage you to apply.

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

This is how recognition of the value of local commerce for place-making looks like. Boosting hospitality & leisure is an excellent first step; now the govt should help councils subsidise rents for local artisans, dry cleaners, grocers—so we stop the homogenisation & globalisation of our high streets

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Today with 40+ other organisations and individuals, I’ve supported a vital call, for more space for children to play on their doorsteps, as Andy Burnham - central to Labour's 2008 national play strategy - is himself on the doorstep of No. 10. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Andy Burnham and Ed Balls playing on swings at the launch of the 2008 National Play Strategy.

Full text here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hapPkX028b7YY7dczC5hdOXyFfbZayGn/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=110161622811866488176&rtpof=true&sd=true

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Urban Truth Collective @urbantruth.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

This is worth reading, for excellent communication & story-telling. “I’m driving less. I don’t want to see the world through a driver’s eyes any more. Before I began driving less, I had long had a melancholic sense that the city lifestyle I lived was cut off...” #UrbanTruth From @irishtimes.com

irishtimes.com

I’m driving less. I don’t want to see the world through a driver’s eyes any more

Before I began driving less, I had long had a melancholic sense that the city lifestyle I lived was cut off from the seasons and nature

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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Registration is open for 'Thinking the City' at Cambridge and 'Justice in Local Space' at LSE, where I will be presenting on care-washing in the built environment and the affective dimensions of urban spatial encroachment (aka the 'putting lipstick on a pig'* and 'to hell with SUVs' papers)

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Owen Garling @ojgarling.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

"Social connection is not the goal people seek out directly — it is the byproduct of accessible, funded, convenient everyday environments and connected neighborhood networks." www.gehlpeople.com/projects/soc...

gehlpeople.com

"Social Infrastructure Is Essential Infrastructure": How public spaces make the affordable, joyful city possible

A two-year federally funded research collaboration between IPK and Gehl, focused on advancing new research into social infrastructure New York communities.

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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Just yesterday I had a writing meeting for our paper on SUVs with my co-author Dan Guillery, and we were wondering how we would reply to the objection that people do not really care about this. *This* is how people get to care about something they don't know it's hurting them: more media attention!

theguardian.com

‘At a crossroads’: will piling-up crises force Europe to put brakes on SUV culture?

Bigger cars including electric can cause multiple harms, yet resistance to rise of US-style vehicles has had mixed support

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

For our book City of Equals Avner de Shalit and I had research assistants conduct interviews in 10 cities in 6 countries. One regular finding was that people wanted to be able to communicate with local officials who would understand their problems, and not ignore them as unimportant people.

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

A neighbour-led feminist walk, focused on highlighting women in street names, plaques and buildings: “There’s many stories, but little visibility”

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Saving for later! “In extending rebellion against the practical intentions of the built environment to that of pervasive technologies, there emerges the potential to thwart one’s artificial predictors and regain agency over both individuated and shared experience.”

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Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory @memoryplace.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

What is the relationship between memory and place? Centre Director @suttonprofessor.bsky.social reflects on our work: how memory is shaped by place, why interdisciplinary collaboration matters, and how research grounded in local environments can speak to wider global questions. youtu.be/N3ce_7IP-aI

youtu.be

John Sutton — Principal Investigator and Director | CSPM

YouTube video by Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory

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uonphilosophy.bsky.social @uonphilosophy.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

A creative walkshop exploring ideas of home and public space! Tue 28/4/26 - 5.30 - 7.30 The Carousel Hockley Led by our philosophers Alice Monypenny and Olley Fairey with artist Amelia Daiz. Deets: tinyurl.com/45uahaps Sponsored by Royal Institute of Philosophy. #philosophy #home #nottingham

tinyurl.com

Blueprint of the city as our home | Meanderers

Guided walk, philosophical discussion and creative Cyanotype workshop exploring the idea of the Third Space and the city as a home

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Sadiq Khan @sadiqkhanlondon.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

NEW: Today I’m announcing plans to deliver at least one new late-night youth club in every London borough - the biggest investment in youth clubs ever made by a Mayor. We’re bringing youth clubs back. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Mayor allocates £30m for a youth club in every London borough

The mayor says the late-night clubs would offer activities, mental health support, mentorship and food.

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

CFP for grad students & early career researchers on phil of place! It will be at the University of Cambridge at the end of May, with a dedicated day to early career talks & discussion w invited speakers, and a second day w invited talks (I will be presenting on care-washing & urban policy)

philevents.org

Thinking the City: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Place

This conference aims to establish a sustained and systematic philosophical engagement with the city as an object of inquiry within analytic philosophy. While cities profoundly structure our social, mo...

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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Just accepted: my Phil Compass article on affective injustice! It synthesizes the debate into an overarching definition ('the unjust interference w people’s affective lives, w regard to their own affective practices or through those of others') & brings out many connections between existing views/1

philpapers.org

Pilar Lopez-Cantero, Affective injustice - PhilPapers

Oppression, marginalization, and other forms of disadvantage often come with emotional burdens, such as feelings of insecurity or stress. At the same time, some features of oppression are emotional in...

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Shen-yi Liao 廖顯禕 @liao.shen-yi.org · 18/03/2026

Through a conversation, I'm now convinced that the elevator is one of the most important public transit infrastructures. All good urbanist NUMTOT transit nerds should care deeply about it. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/08/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The American Elevator Explains Why Housing Costs Have Skyrocketed (Published 2024)

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods @iconeighbours.bsky.social has recently published two reports on the state and value of local parades (rows of local shops) as social infrastructure. Today they ran a super interesting webinar on the main findings and two successful case studies/1

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

A couple of questions: 1) Can anyone recommend any (critical, early) reviews of Pride in Place that I might not have found? 2) Is anyone familiar with examples of Pride in Place boards talking about or engaging with space for play? I have found a few but guess there are more. Thank you!

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Jose Pina-Sánchez 🇪🇺 @jpinasanchez.eurosky.social · 02/03/2026

'In Defence of Walkability as a Crime Prevention Strategy'. New preprint with @ianloader.bsky.social We challenge the consensus that walkable neighbourhoods are more criminogenic. We highlight two flaws in the literature: i) overreliance on police statistics; and ii) neglect of motoring offences.

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Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory @memoryplace.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Place is not passive—Memory is not settled We work across cognitive science, social science & the arts to examine how people find their way. In contested pasts & rapidly changing environments, understanding place and memory underpins how we locate ourselves—intellectually, socially and historically

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Fantastic news! It is also really good that this will be for pedestrians exclusively, with separate plans for new bike lanes. These do need to be protected and safe, but (although not all urbanists agree) it is super important to have pedestrian only zones, particularly for children and the elderly

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Just attended Prof Evelyne Schmid’s talk, hosted by Antwerp’s Urban Studies Institute. Very interesting talk on how local actors engage with international law, the mismatches between urban life and treatises conceived to improve it, and the role of “legal intermediarians”/1

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Great workshop today at Antwerp on Moral Psychology & The City! Elisabetta Gobbo talked about affect & gentrification; Jamie Draper presented his expressive theory of spatial inequality; Marian Counihan gave a super useful taxonomy of urban diversity & I shared my wip on affective rights to the city

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Shen-yi Liao 廖顯禕 @liao.shen-yi.org · 17/02/2026

This is probably already obvious to all the urban planning nerds, but I don't feel like it has broken through to normies like myself. Among many reasons why street parking is bad is that—especially with giant cars nowadays—it's bad for pedestrian visibility at intersections!

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Pilar Lopez-Cantero @lopezcantero.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Very happy about this— I’ve learned a lot from Bennett School’s (and its predecessor institute’s) research on place and identity over the years, and it’s directly influenced how I conceived my project on emotion and urban justice. Excited to be part of it and to expand the phil of urban policy!

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Back to reading about litter and waste in anticipation for this talk:

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International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) @is4urbanhealth.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Does living near a #park reduce your risk of chronic disease? Join Georgia Tech's School of #Architecture for Episode 50 of Redesigning #Cities hosted by Ellen Dunham-Jones & feat. Dr. Larry Frank — renowned #urban scholar behind the term #walkability Feb 13 | 3:30 PM ET Register: bit.ly/4kvs6ko

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Jeff Sebo @jeffsebo.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

The NYU Wild Animal Welfare Program is thrilled to be hosting an event on how cities can manage human-wildlife conflict! Join us for a preview of our upcoming report and discussion with Colin Jerolmack and Adalene Minelli. Feb 23, 4pm ET, followed by a reception. sites.google.com/nyu.edu/wild...

AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Brilliant and exhaustive thread on the 15-minute city and the latest astonishing disinformation about the concept, this time applied to a proposed restriction of road use *to cars* in Oxford.

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

This is a depressing but very accurate example of what philosopher Joel Krueger calls “ecological affective injustice”—ways in which the environment can disrupt emotional well-being and spatial agency, built on & building upon oppressive and unequal social relationships/1

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Zak Bond @zakbond.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

⚠️Registrations of the most commonly-sold pick-up trucks have nearly doubled in just over a decade! 📈Our new analysis has found a major increase in the number of large, US-style pick-up trucks on UK roads over the past decade - with serious implications for pedestrian safety, particularly children.

theguardian.com

Number of US-style ‘battering ram’ pickup trucks on UK roads has nearly doubled in a decade

Exclusive: Campaigners say ‘menacing vehicles’ are putting children at risk owing to their large front blind zones

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Urban Studies Foundation @urbanstudiesfoundation.org · 27/01/2026

📢 Upcoming Seminar: Urbicide in Palestine Join the #USFSeminarSeries event on Jan 29, 17:00 (GMT+2)! 📢 It explores colonial planning and spatial violence with Abaher El-Sakka, Abdullah Al Bayyari & Maha Samman. Co-organised with Mada al-Carmel. 📍 Online 🌐 Arabic/English 🔗 ow.ly/Wpm450Y44vb

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Just came accross the concept of ‘motonormativity’, which will be the subject of this very interesting workshop at #OUVEMA. I will sadly miss the event, but these reseaechers rise several philosophically interesting questions to think about in the future

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Today's reading: Nathan Whelan-Jackson on disability and urban maps. V interesting claim that cities involve different 'stances' or ways to engage w the environment, & that disabled people often have to justify their presence--a threat to agency that is partially addressed through mapping technology

pdcnet.org

More than Merely Present: Mobile Maps and Agency in the City - Volume 4, 2024

E-mapping technologies are a recent technological intervention promising to promote accessibility for disabled city residents. As part of their promise, they seem to position disabled people as agents...

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

An easy to follow and accessible explanation of some of the main arguments for and against preservation of urban heritage (this is published in Think, a philosophy journal aimed at the wider public managed by @triphilosophy.bsky.social; highly recommend it to the non-philosophers in here)

cambridge.org

Urban Preservation | Think | Cambridge Core

Urban Preservation - Volume 24 Issue 71

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The Philosopher @philosopher1923.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Sunday read: "Livability" Simona Capisani argues for a justice-based framework of climate mobilities grounded in a right to livable locality, centering embodied human relationships to place with a capability approach. #Philosophy #ClimateChange #housing www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/the-new...

thephilosopher1923.org

Livability

As climate change shrinks and shifts the human climate niche, millions face heightened risks of displacement, immobility, and loss of well-being. This essay argues for a justice-based framework of cli...

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

“From the perspective of young people …the cage is a piece of the city that is theirs: a space in which they can have greater autonomy and agency than perhaps anywhere else”.

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AFFINITY @affectinthecity.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

This week the EU announced plans to regulate housing: more availability, less short-term rentals. @eurocities.eu summarizes the news with reactions from city officials, and warns about the conditions that are needed to make the plans work: sufficient funding, practical tools, and city involvement

eurocities.eu

European Affordable Housing Plan: Cities ready to deliver, but need the right tools - Eurocities

Cities welcome the European Affordable Housing Plan, a timely recognition that the housing crisis is a European emergency. But does it gives cities the tools to act?

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Jimmy Reid Foundation @reidfoundation.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Cities aren’t built for older people – our study shows many can’t walk fast enough to beat a pedestrian crossing. Many older people with reduced mobility say they feel ‘hurried’, ‘rushed’ and ‘unsafe" when walking around their city. theconversation.com/cities-arent...

theconversation.com

Cities aren’t built for older people – our study shows many can’t walk fast enough to beat a pedestrian crossing

Many older people with reduced mobility say they feel ‘hurried’, ‘rushed’ and ‘unsafe" when walking around their city.

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Clean Cities @cleancitiescampaign.org · 11/12/2025

🚦 Road transport remains the only major mode in Europe without a dedicated EU safety authority. Establishing an EU Road Safety Agency would help move the EU closer to zero deaths on our roads, particularly as automated vehicles become more widespread. etsc.eu/etsc-and-par... @etsc.eu

etsc.eu

ETSC and partners urge European Commission to establish dedicated EU Road Safety Agency

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), alongside six major European civil society organisations, has sent a joint letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen…

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