Podcast appearances and mentions of leslie kern

On this episode, my guest is Leslie Kern, PhD, the author of three books about cities, including Gentrification Is Inevitable And Other Lies and Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World. Her work provokes new ways of thinking about and creating cities that are more just, equitable, caring, and sustainable. Leslie was an associate professor of geography and environment and women's and gender studies at Mount Allison University from 2009-2024. Today, she is a public speaker, writer, and career coach for authors and academics.Show Notes* Gentrification and touristification* Naturalization of gentrification* The new colonialism* Intersectionality* Who's to blame: renter or landlord?* The hipster and the safety net* The invisible face behind gentrification and touristifcation* Transactionality or hospitality? The case of Airbnb* Commercial gentrification* The right to stay putHomeworkLeslie Kern - Website - InstagramGentrification Is Inevitable and Other Lies - USA - Canada Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World - USA - CanadaHigher Expectations: How to Survive Academia, Make it Better for Others, and Transform the UniversityThe Tenant Class by Ricardo TranjanTranscriptChris: [00:00:00] Welcome, Leslie, to the End of Tourism Podcast. Thank you for taking time out of your day, to speak with me. Thank you. To begin, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to tell us where you find yourself today and what the world looks like there, for you.Leslie: Sure. I find myself in Cambridge, Ontario.It's a city of about 130,000 people. If I looked out my window right now, I would see a lot of blowing snow. It's about minus 27 Celsius with the windchill, or something hideous like that today, so taking the time to talk to you this morning means I don't have to go out and shovel anything just yet. So.Chris: Well, thank you. Thank you for joining us. it's a great honour and I'm really looking forward to this conversation that bears a great deal of complexity. So, I had invited you on the pod in part to explore your book, Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies. And [00:01:00] in it, Leslie, you write that“Gentrification has come to be used as a metaphor for processes of mainstreaming, commodification, appropriation, and upscaling that are not necessarily or directly connected to cities. In this story about gentrification, gentrification stands in for any sort of change that pulls a thing or a practice out of its original context and increases its popularity, priciness, and profit-making potential.”Given that some of our listeners might not have heard of the term “gentrification” before, although I doubt it, but given that those who have heard it might understand it also to be what you and others refer to as a “chaotic concept,” I'm wondering if you'd be willing to take a stab at defining it for us today?Leslie: Yeah, absolutely. If we [00:02:00] look to, I guess, a kind of typical scholarly definition of gentrification, it would be describing an urban process in which middle or upper class, or in some other way, privileged households start to move into a neighbourhood or area of the city that has historically been more working class, or perhaps an immigrant neighbourhood, perhaps more industrial, and begin to remake that neighbourhood, kind of in their own image, thus driving up housing prices both in the rental and ownership markets, driving up the cost of living in the area, and critically, as part of the definition, resulting in some level of displacement of the older inhabitants of that neighbourhood. “Displacement” meaning they've been kind of priced out or otherwise pushed directly or indirectly to leave and [00:03:00] move to some other neighbourhood.So, typically with gentrification, the definition is centred around it being a class-based process, but in more recent decades, many scholars, myself included, have wanted to broaden that and to acknowledge that other axes of power and privilege, for example, race, gender, ability, age, sexuality, and so on, also play a role in contributing to the kinds of forces that propel gentrification. And we can maybe get into some of that later.So for myself, in the book, I talk about gentrification as “any kind of process of taking over claiming space and remaking it in the image and for the interests and benefit of a more powerful group of people, or perhaps even corporations, to some extent.” So, [00:04:00] gentrification is really the process of taking and claiming space. And I also do include displacement as part of that process, although I also acknowledge that sometimes people can be kind of psychologically displaced, even if they aren't necessarily physically pushed out of their neighbourhoods.Chris: Mean it's something that I was noticing in Toronto before I left and moved and migrated here to Oaxaca. It's something that I think in the last five or ten years has become an unfortunate mainstay of city life in the vast majority of places, of urban places in the world.And this is also something that I've seen quite a bit here in Oaxaca, Mexico in a somewhat prolific tourist destination. And so, in places that have [00:05:00] been deemed “destinations” in this way, there's often a kind of reductionism, here anyways, and in other tourist destinations in which gentrification and what's sometimes called touristification is confused.And so one definition of “touristification” is simply “the process of transformation of a place into a tourist space and its associated effects.” So a kind of very vague and broad definition. But we also understand that gentrification can happen in places that aren't necessarily tourist destinations.And so, we've also discussed in the pod the possibility that a place doesn't necessarily need tourists in it to have touristic qualities or context what we might say. [00:06:00] And so I'm curious for you, do you think it's important to distinguish the two concepts, gentrification and touristification? And if so, why?Leslie: Yeah, great question. I think a distinction, to some extent, is important in that, yeah, there may be elements of touristification, for example, that are somewhat unique to that process, especially in terms of the kind of impact that it might have on local inhabitants who may not necessarily be displaced, but who may see their everyday lives kind of radically altered by the touristification of an area.And as you say, gentrification happens in all kinds of areas, many of which are not geared to tourism, although sometimes that is a kind of later effect of gentrification, is that tourists might be drawn to certain neighbourhoods or places that they would not have otherwise gone to in the past.As [00:07:00] you mentioned in your earlier question, there's been some concern in the gentrification literature that it's a bit of a chaotic concept, by which it is meant that it's maybe too broad of an umbrella [term], and so many different kinds of processes are kind of lumped together under that umbrella. I think it's a useful umbrella, but under that umbrella, we can try to be clear about what we're talking about when we look at particular locations, and try to articulate the impacts that these processes are having on the local community, economy, environment, and so on.Chris: Thank you, Leslie. Thank you for that. So your book is broken up into chapters that reveal the deeper realities behind the tropes or lies sometimes spouted about gentrification. And there are often many. And so I'm curious if after having done the research and writing for this book, and it was published in [00:08:00] 2022, so perhaps there's been some deeper reflection in that regard, I'm curious what you feel might be the most important lie about gentrification that requires our attention and why?Leslie: Ooh, really putting me on the hook to like pick a favorite child there. No, I'm joking. Ultimately, I mean, I guess the most straightforward answer would be the first one that I discuss in the book, which is right there in the book's title, which is the idea that gentrification is inevitable. And we can kind of unpack that a little bit further, as I do in the kind of first main chapter of the book, which is to say that in some accounts of gentrification, it's presented as a sort of natural process, right? As something that is just akin to evolution, for example. So there's this idea that if you kind of start with, for example, a working class or immigrant [00:09:00] neighbourhood, lower income community, with some other kinds of attributes that might not make it seem wealthy or desirable, that over time, just through, I don't know, a kind of mystical series of properties, the way that species evolve or human beings develop from fetus and baby to an adult through this series of difficult to trace impacts, that somehow it just happens. Right. And of course, the problem with that, again, is that if we think it's natural, then we don't really think there's any way to stop it.And also when we describe something as “natural,” we often imbue it with positive qualities. Well, if it's “natural,” it's just meant to happen. It's just the way things are. And why would we want to stand in the way of that process? From a kind of political standpoint, it becomes very problematic, because it means that there's not really a [00:10:00] willingness perhaps on the part of those who have some power and influence to slow down gentrification, to pause it, to use whatever tools they might have in their kind of legislative toolbox to create guardrails around the process happening or to try to prevent it altogether. And from a kind of community response standpoint, it can be very disempowering to believe that gentrification is inevitable, unstoppable, that once you see those first, white, middle-class families move into your neighbourhood, “boom, you're done. It's over. The clock is counting down to the time when it's not your neighbourhood anymore and you'll just have to leave, so why bother to do anything about it?”And as I also try to show in the book, you know, it's hard to fight gentrification, but there are examples around the world of communities that have pushed back and kind of “pumped the brakes on gentrification,” as one [00:11:00] activist described it to me. So, we, I think, don't want to fall into this trap of believing that communities themselves are powerless, or that our politicians and policy-makers have absolutely no tools that they can use to change this.So I would say that is probably the most important kind of first line myth or lie that we need to challenge. And then we can kind of go down the line and pick apart some of the other ones, which is how I've structured the book as you point out. Yeah.Chris: Thank you, Leslie. Yeah, I mean, that was a really jarring chapter for me, in part because of this notion that not only is quote gentrification inevitable or natural, but that the city is, according to different philosophers and thinkers, imbued with this kind of biological life and [00:12:00] and that it follows as you were mentioning certain processes that are “ natural” as far as evolution is concerned.And imediately, this brought me back to my research on what's often referred to as 19th century social evolutionist thought, these notions that were often created or maintained by kind of, elite, wealthy, white men in the 19th century, not all of whom were academics, some of them were bankers, for example, among other things, but essentially promoting this notion that certain races or genders or types of people had evolved along the natural processes of evolution either faster than others or got ahead in certain ways, and that, of course, this was a way for those people, not only the non-academics, but those in academia [00:13:00] to employ hypotheses theories as a way of justifying colonial histories and the ongoing conquests of different people around the world. And so, in that context, I'm curious if you imagine or think that gentrification understood or described as “natural” in this way is a kind of extension, a historical extension of that kind of colonial power play of the 19th century.Leslie: Yeah, I absolutely do. And there are many ways in which the power dynamics and even the language or the vocabulary around gentrification mirrors that around colonialism with all of the problematic tropes there of neighbourhoods or areas of the city being taken over where “there's really nothing there,” right?[It's the] same kind of justification for colonialism. “There's nothing there. [00:14:00] There's nobody there that we need to care about,” so European colonizers are entitled to this land. Similarly, with the way that many developers, for example, I think, rationalize or justify the kind of projects they engage in.“Oh, there's nothing really happening in that part of the city. There's not really a community there. It's just a space of problems or deviation from the norm or disorder. And so we, as developers, as city planners, we're going to bring order and light and civilization, quite frankly, to these neighbourhoods.”So I'm sure you're hearing in this, all those echoes around colonialism. And this point around the social evolution part of it, I think that is the kind of darker, maybe less acknowledged side of gentrification, is that when we start to talk about neighbourhoods as “nothing's happening there, there's nobody there.” [00:15:00] Who's “nobody,” right? Who falls into that category of “nobody,” right? It's poor people. It might be unhoused people, working-class people, people of colour, queer people, disabled people, sex workers, right?“All people who we don't really think of as kind of counting as citizens, people who we don't think have a legitimate voice in the city, people who we don't think have a right to the city or a claim on the city.” And they're just seen as disposable, as easily displaceable, as not really contributing anything to the community or to the city at large. So I think there's definitely a sense of kind of hierarchy in terms of, “who are the seemingly new people who are coming in, right?” And they're viewed as “bringing all of these kind of gifts and benefits to the neighbourhood, and in some ways, perhaps even uplifting the poor [00:16:00] or downtrodden inhabitants of the ghetto or the barrio or whatever. And the locals should somehow be grateful to receive gentrification similarly to the way that people were, say, ‘oh, you should be grateful to receive an education if you're from the lower-classes or working-classes.'”So, yeah, I think there's definitely echoes and traces of that same kind of logic, right? It's a logic of superiority, a logic of dominance, a logic of control that resonates, whether it's colonialism or social evolutionism. Um, yeah.Chris: Wow. Fascinating. Fascinating stuff. I mean, this is, I think, to a large degree culture or what we call culture or what culture might be is made on the tongue, and that the, the kind of unacknowledged ways in which we speak the world into being [00:17:00] is something that's been direly overlooked in our time. So thank you for speaking to that in that way. And I think it's something that we would properly kind of continue to wonder about as we speak and as we think, and perhaps before we speak as well.You know, you mentioned in there the different types of people that are often displaced as a result of gentrification. And this shows up quite a bit in your book. So I wanted to ask you about what you refer to as “intersectionality,” an intersectional approach to gentrification.Some of the conventional critiques that you mentioned in the book, including the economic critique (kind of follow the money), the aesthetic critique (the kind of clean lines and fancy bakeries that show up), as well as the class critique, which you mentioned kind of upward mobility, among others.That said, you focus a good portion of the book, I think, on this neglected importance of intersectionality. And so I'm curious, why do you think an intersectional approach has been ignored in the [00:18:00] past, and why might it be crucial for a cohesive or integral analysis of gentrification?Leslie: Hmm. I think an intersectional approach has been kind of sidelined, if you will, in part because most of the key kind of prominent gentrification scholars of the late 20th century and into the 21st century have been, honestly, white men probably themselves from middle-class backgrounds, or obviously university educated scholars and they've been, like neo-Marxist, or Marxist. That's their theoretical perspective. That's their training. They come from a kind of Marxist, political economy, background. That's the lens of analysis that they bring to whatever kind of problem they're looking at in the world, including gentrification.And they've done brilliant work, right, and created a lot of really foundational [00:19:00] concepts, gone and done really important empirical work so that we can actually see what the impacts of these processes are. And there's nothing I want to take away from that being a key voice within the field of gentrification studies, but I think too often either there's been kind of minimal lip service paid or kind of outright pushing to the side of feminist perspectives, anti-racist perspective, anti-colonial perspectives and more, because it's sort of seemed like, well, “class is the main driver and anything that maybe disproportionately impacts women or people of colour, or queer folks or elderly people, that's like a side effect, right? Like the main driver is class and those people are simply impacted because they also happen to fall into lower income brackets.”So it's a pretty neat and tidy [00:20:00] story and you can kind of see why it has some appeal. So I think, you know, those political economy, neo-Marxist scholars is not that they don't care about race or gender or other factors. They're just like, “well, it's all really rolled up under the umbrella of ‘class.' And if we just figure out the ‘class' piece, then those other things will kind of fall into place.” But for feminist scholars, critical race scholars, anti-colonial scholars and so on, they've wanted to point out that assuming that class is the primary driver behind things is maybe an assumption that we've held onto for too long without questioning it. And instead of seeing racial impacts and so on as something that's just happening off to the side through a class process, maybe we want to also look, especially in something like an American context, but in other places as well, at the deeply foundational layer of race to the development of cities, to the development of the [00:21:00] nation, and we can't kind of sideline the impacts of racial discrimination and the kind of hierarchy of race that has developed over many centuries in these locations and say, “oh, well it's a secondary factor.”For myself, I'm a feminist scholar. My background is in women's and gender studies before I kind of accidentally stumbled into being an urban geographer. And to me it was always kind of obvious, but I think I've had to argue this point so often that processes like gentrification, neoliberalism, urban revitalization, as it's called, doesn't just kind of impact women as a tangential side effect, but that gender inequality or assumptions about gender roles and so on are like part of what drives the process. And so I try to bring that out in the book by looking at different kinds of examples of the ways in which different sorts of [00:22:00] communities or people are impacted to hopefully show, to hopefully make a case for this idea that taking an intersectional perspective doesn't deny the class factor at all, but that it allows us to look at gentrification through a more nuanced lens and one that respects the fact that class is not the only, and not always the most salient marker of hierarchy and status in our societies.Chris: Hmm, hmm. Yeah, I did go to university a long time ago, and it seemed that what was offered up on the proverbial, kind of conceptual, bill, politically speaking was, here are your five major theories or perspectives and kind of like choose one and decide what you like the best and then argue for it or against it.But it does seem that the more apertures that we have onto the world, without necessarily needing [00:23:00] to collapse our considerations into a single one can broaden our understanding of the world deeply, right? Deeply, deeply. And it's something that I see anyways less and less of.I think there's more and more possibilities for experiencing that in our time, but I think there's a lot of processes that are happening in which there's less and less of it that's actually occurring - a kind of collapse of maybe ontological diversity or philosophical diversity.I don't know what to call it, but seems prevalent and at least from this little aperture. So.Leslie: Yeah, I would agree with that, as someone who, just in my own little brief lifetime here on this earth has been peddling my little feminist arguments for 30-plus years. And then we add on to that, the 30 years before that and 30 years before all of the previous generations. It seems like we are, [00:24:00] not just from a feminist perspective, but we are kind of constantly having to make these arguments for that ontological diversity, as you put it, or even just the idea that, oh, you can view things through different lenses and learn different things about whatever kind of process or force or issue that you're interested in.Chris: Hmm. Well, thank you for that. I'd like to, if I can, Leslie, there was something I've been wrestling with for a while and it was very much front and centre, this kind of inner wrestling when I was reading your book.And so, I'd like to share that with you at the moment if I can, and we'll see where it takes us. So part of the reason that I left Toronto a decade ago was that the housing crises, that perhaps for some wasn't yet a crisis in Toronto, has of course ballooned. But in the past five years I've watched that same housing crisis play out here in Oaxaca.[00:25:00] And what arose almost immediately in the, we'll say media sphere, the online world and certainly on the streets as well, was a kind of xenophobic campaign or campaigns blaming tourists, digital nomads, and “expats” for the rising cost of rentals and housing. Now, while not entirely misguided, the percentage of such people is insignificant in comparison to the total population of renters and homeowners here.And then I ask myself, well, “why isn't anyone questioning the role of homeowners and landlords, those who actually decide the price of rental units, those who decide to turn long-term rentals into Airbnbs, and those who are, some of them anyways, more often than not, part and parcel of the political ruling class in many places?” Why not blame them?And so, if you think about this enough, you can [00:26:00] begin to imagine that the willingness to blame specific people, types, classes, races, et cetera, can ignore the cultural, economic and structural elements of society that allow and encourage such dynamics to emerge. And it seems to me that you speak to this, to some degree, in your book writing, how“it is not helpful in a critique of gentrification to get overly stuck on the styles and preferences of a group, when, for many decades now, gentrification has been propelled by much stronger forces than aesthetic trends.”And in another part of the book, you write that “cultural factors cannot be hastily dismissed, not when their power is easily co-opted by capital. Trends in denim and facial hair are not responsible for gentrification, but when large groups of people are redefined as a class based on their tastes, occupations, and aesthetics, they become a market and a justification for urban [00:27:00] interventions.”And so my question has to do with what I might call, I don't know if this is something that shows up in your work or in your research, but a kind of “ecological analysis,” one that doesn't necessarily separate people into essentialist categories, but contends with how maybe the rules of the game produce the player's behaviour and beliefs.And so I'm wondering, you know, in your research, is that something that is tended to, a way of, “okay so, we're not going to only blame or ask the tourists to take responsibility or the digital nomads, et cetera, and we're not only gonna blame or ask the landlords to take responsibility, but understand that they live and inhabit a kind of web of relations that has, for a long time, created the context that allows them or even [00:28:00] encourages them to proceed in a particular way?Leslie: Yes, a hundred percent. I really love the way that you put that there and giving it that kind of label of like an ecological perspective there. I think it's so important to do in the book. You know, the first quote that you read there, I think has to do with this idea that, “oh, you know, hipsters were causing gentrification” kind of thing.And I wanted to kind of, not defend the hipster per se, but to just say, well, in a city like New York, for example, the takeover of midtown Manhattan and the absolute sort of pricing out of regular people, well, from Manhattan as a whole in many cases is not to do with artists and yoga teachers moving into those neighborhoods. It has to do with massive multinational corporations buying up housing, developing condos, like all of these other things that [00:29:00] are going on. And as you say, I mean, I think it is useful to question and critique landlordism for example, and even home ownership itself, but there's a reason why people engage in these practices and as you say, it's because of these all sorts of other like prior sort of conditions and causes this kind of web of possibilities that so much of our... the policy, the legislative world, our national context shapes for us.Like in Canada for example, home ownership is, as you well know, sort of seen as the ultimate goal in the housing market. Renting is seen as very much a kind of transitional stage for people. And the idea is to eventually, sooner rather than later, own your own home.And of course there's all kinds of cultural myths around that, of homeowners being like responsible people and better citizens and all this kind of stuff that is, maybe like [00:30:00] largely nonsense. But why, in this context, do people become homeowners? Well, this is the way that we've been told “you secure your retirement in the absence of a truly kind of robust old age security net.” Yes, we have some. We have pension, old age pension, but for many people, the home is ultimately their social safety net, and government policy has very much been set up to encourage us to treat our homes in that way and to rely on paying off a mortgage and having that home to be the basis of survival into our old age.Right. And there are many other things. That's just one example. So I think, as you say, it's really important to kind of look at that whole ecosystem. And that doesn't mean that we don't say, “well, okay, what are homeowners doing that might be potentially problematic and contributing to the problem?”Well, that could include things like turning units into Airbnbs or acting in NIMBY-ish (Not In My Backyard), kind of ways that limit, for example, the amount of affordable housing that might go up in their neighbourhood and other things. Of course, all of those dynamics have to be critiqued, challenged, pushed back against. But, keeping, at the same time that kind of zoomed out perspective of like what's going on on a larger scale, in the kind of corporate and investment world and the government policy-making world, I think at least helps us to understand why these different groups are kind of positioned in the way that they do and the kind of range of possibilities that they see for themselves within that web.Chris: Mm mm Yeah. Yeah. That reminds me of a moment that I had here in Oaxaca, maybe three or four years ago. There was a student group that had come down from a Canadian university, and they were here for a couple weeks, and I was having dinner with them. Not all of them, but there was maybe four of the women from the student group that I was having dinner with.And one of them was probably in her, I would say [00:32:00] mid-fifties, an indigenous woman from Ontario. And the other three were much younger, probably in their early twenties. And they were suddenly talking about the sudden or at least recent kind of housing crisis in their university town, we'll call it, maybe a small city, but big town. And how in previous years they could afford the rent, but suddenly, and of course this was 2021-2022, when a lot of these dynamics started changing extremely rapidly. And I was kind of moderating the conversation at first. And then it turned out, she wasn't so quick to out herself as a landlord. But the indigenous woman, the 55-year-old kind of alluded to it and then said, “well, you know, for a lot of people, it's a pension plan. “It's my retirement plan, essentially.” And it was this really interesting dynamic about how these four women, who had come to this place and were in the same program, studying the [00:33:00] same thing, that one of them had to perhaps, unbeknownst to her, undermine the economic life and possibilities of those younger women by virtue of requiring a retirement plan.Right. And I think at least in Canada, in countries that are very much still welfare states, that it speaks to a, the incredible degree in which the care that's offered, especially to the elderly, is almost entirely top-down. There's so little, if any, community care.And, you know, of course this is a very kind of small example, a very kind of minute example. I think maybe a common one. But of course you also have other examples of, as you mentioned before, corporations... is it BlackRock this massive mutual fund that I know in, in Europe and places like Barcelona and the major cities there end up buying entire apartment buildings or blocks even, and evicting [00:34:00] the residents and then setting up Airbnb buildings, essentially. So, I mean, there's this incredible kind of degree of difference and diversity in terms of how, as you mentioned landlordism and rent is affecting people.But I just wanted to mention that. It was a really kind of interesting moment for me to see this dynamic and the young women kind of complaining about, you know, I guess the future, the present and the future of their economic lives. And then, this older woman also not necessarily complaining, but very much concerned about her ability to live as well, economically and to thrive economically into her older age.Leslie: Yeah. And there's these kind of ironic situations popping up all over the place where so for example, someone might have a public pension. And as you point out, many public pensions are deeply invested in real estate income trusts. This is like a huge piece for example, in Ontario, of [00:35:00] Ontario public workers' pensions, but around the world as well, and I don't have the details, but a story that was in the news several years ago about a man somewhere in Europe who was being evicted from his apartment because that one of these real estate investment corporations was taking it over and was gonna redevelop it in some way. But his public pension was invested in that very same company. Right?So many people are kind of caught in these loops where it's like, we would very much like to not be like, displacing ourselves or our neighbours or community members, but we don't necessarily have control over how our pension funds are invested, right? Like you might have a choice like, “oh, I'd like to divest from fossil fuels, for example, or from tobacco or military, like arms deals.” Like, sometimes, you can opt out of those things in your pension funds, but there's not really a way to like opt out of real estate investment.My substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.It's such a huge part of those things now. So I think that's an area where there's increasing kind of research and critical perspectives on that in gentrification scholarship and so on that I think is really important to look at, because it's also very hidden, right? This is another aspect I think of contemporary kind of gentrification touristification even, is that there's no face to it, right? There's no face to this process. And maybe that's why it's tempting to take, as you put it a minute ago, that kind of like xenophobic perspective or to blame “expats” in the case of Oaxaca and touristification or in cities to be like, “oh, it's these urban hipsters, maybe these like trust fund kids” or whatever label people might want to put on someone, because there's a face, right? There you can look and be like, “that's the problem.” But the reality is there is no face, right? There's no individual or even group of individuals that's easy to identify. And people doing [00:37:00] research into some of this pension fund stuff that I'm talking about, they hit very opaque walls, even just trying to get the information about how these companies work, the kinds of decisions they make, what their rubrics are around what they call “socially responsible investing.”So it's very deliberately mystified and hidden from us, and I think that is part of the challenge now is like, how do you fight this monster that you can't see, that you can barely name?So yeah, that is I think one of the kind of frightening things, if you will, about, whether we call it “gentrification,” or we think about it in this broader sense of the housing crisis, who's the face of that, the cause of that crisis? Very hard to say in many cases.Chris: Wow. Yeah, I know that these mutual fund companies that end up buying, you know, whole city blocks or buildings, apartment buildings, and then tending to renovictions or whatever they [00:38:00] might use in order to get people out. Once the buildings are “ renovated” as Airbnbs, what happens is those corporations end up outsourcing all of the operational and cleaning duties to companies that they're not involved with at all. So, again, you could have this person who's in front of you, who might be a cleaner or who comes ou in and out of the building or who might run the reservation books or something like that, but they've never met anyone from that mutual fund company. Right. They just get a paycheck.Leslie: Yeah. And it's happening on this kind of global level. The people behind the company that's investing in that building in Oaxaca, like they may have never set foot there, and they may never set foot there. Right? So it's happening from around the world, from thousands of kilometers away from behind these kind of screens of, as you said, these kind of shell companies and these subcontracted, property management companies.I mean the story you were just telling about the woman who's a landlord, like on that small scale, not that [00:39:00] there's nothing problematic about it, but it is also like, you know, she's probably met her tenants, right? She probably occasionally sets foot in the property that she owns and that she rents out, and there's like some aspect of a relationship there. It's still, you know, a problematic power dynamic and all of that, but it's on a very different scale than the investor from London who's has a stake in a condo in Oaxaca. Like, it's a very different web of of relations that goes into that.Chris: Yeah. And even if someone like that, and I've had many, many landlords over the years and I've been blessed to have a number of them who are really incredible people and really incredible in terms of showing up when they're needed in that regard. But it's something, I discussed on a previous episode regarding the Airbnb-ization of the world, a couple years ago. And one of the themes that came up was around hospitality, right? [00:40:00] And even if you have people who are kind of really engaged and really excited and responsible about having a tenant in their home or in a particular building, the kind of transactional nature of that rent almost (and then of course the history of it) precludes, almost by default, the possibility of there being a kind of host-guest relationship, right? Instead of that we are “clients” and and, and “salespeople,” businesspeople to some degree.Right. So another layer of it is this question of like, “well, is it even possible within the dynamic or structure that renting implies and incurs, is it even possible to create a dynamic wherein a person can be understood as a guest in another person's home, and another person can be understood as a host to people who are coming to live in their home? Right? That that same [00:41:00] woman, the 55-year-old landlord said that she had tenants who refused to leave for, I dunno, a year and a half or two years, and once they finally did, left her with a $40,000 damage bill. So, I think there's just layers and layers that are extremely difficult to kind of get into, I shouldn't say in terms of dialogue, in terms of investigation, but in terms of the possibility of creating different dynamics that would maybe represent or produce the kinds of dynamics and worlds that, I think, a lot of people would want to live in.Leslie: Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I think in a lot of cases, and you honestly don't have to dig very deep, you can open up CBC News and see some poor, sad landlord story most days of the week or listen to kind of corporate or larger scale landlords talk and they often see tenants as a nuisance.“The tenants themselves are a problem,” and if they could invest in real estate and still make [00:42:00] these returns without actually having tenants, that would probably be ideal. And I think that is also part of the push to an Airbnb is that with a temporary guest, you know, a week, a weekend or whatever, you don't have the same responsibility to them as you do to someone with a year lease or perhaps the right to stay there for a longer period of time. So, all you have to do is kind of provide this very basic amenity of the space. You can even impose all these rules on them that you maybe otherwise wouldn't be able to do if it was a longer-term rental.You know, the people who check-in have many fewer rights than actual tenants do. And so in some ways it makes that relationship even more transactional and even more hands off in many cases. And of course there's the quicker profit motive is really the main driving force behind that. But I think there's also this piece of it where it's like, “well, how can I maximize the profit potential of this space with as little actually dealing with other human beings and their needs [00:43:00] as human beings as possible.And yeah, I think that is really, again, from my kind of feminist perspective, that is also interested in thinking about how do we create systems of care in our cities, and what does “care” mean, and what are our responsibilities to one another that, when we look at something like Airbnbification and the touristification and gentrification more generally, those things, in many cases kind of act against the possibility of creating more caring and careful spaces.Chris: Hmm, hmm. Yeah. Thank you for that, Leslie. I have a couple more questions for you, if that's all right?Leslie: Yes, go ahead. Yeah.Chris: All right. Wonderful. So this next question maybe requires a bit of imagination, which I think you have a good amount of, and it has to do with rent.And so one of the lies that you highlight in your book is the belief that gentrification is natural and hence forth inevitable. [00:44:00] And of course, as we've been discussing, nothing is natural nor inevitable and you make an excellent case for that throughout the book. And I feel that there is an equally and perhaps more subtle incarnation of this myth, of this inevitability, in regards to rent, that we as urban people or modern people who grow up in contemporary societies often reinforce and even naturalize a kind of rent slavery that most people rarely see, that most people rarely see their lives as indentured to their landlords.And so, when we talk about gentrification, does this show up at all? Should it? You know, this notion that, “well, if we can come to gentrification and understand that it's in fact not natural and it's not inevitable, can we do the same thing for rent? Because, maybe I haven't read much of the research, but it doesn't seem to be something that [00:45:00] people are so quick to aim their arrows at, we'll say.Leslie: Yeah. I love that question. And I think A, you're right that there hasn't been enough conversation about that. There has not been nearly enough attempts to kind of denaturalize this and B, that that perspective is emerging and growing. If I could recommend a book called The Tenant Class by Ricardo Tranjan. It's also a Toronto-based author, and he does an amazing job in this very short book of basically laying out the case against landlordism, and it totally, as you say, kind of denaturalizing and pushes back on this idea that it's inevitable that there are a class of people that own property and a class of people that rent property, and that this is not inherently a deeply problematic relation. You know, this idea that it's not in some way akin to some kind of indentureship. And he really asks us to look deeply again at this [00:46:00] idea that, if you're a landlord, “well, I have a mortgage to pay, so it's somehow natural that this other person will pay my mortgage for me,” which, when you start to think about it, like it's really messed up in a way. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. So yeah, I think looking more closely at some of these ideas, these kind of statements that come out, and again, you can see it in news articles, these kind of horror stories, and not to diminish, I'm sure, what are very real, like economic and psychological impacts of the so-called kind of nightmare tenant and all of those kinds of things.But you'll hear those kinds of statements: “you know, I have a mortgage to pay.”Well, why is this other person paying your mortgage, then?And then we could probably take a step back and be like, “why do we have mortgages to pay?” But that's maybe another conversation.But yeah, so I definitely recommend that book, The Tenant Class, as a really quick, easy to read, and kind of unforgettable primer on this question. And [00:47:00] I really appreciate you asking it, and I hope your listeners will be like, “oh, yeah, I gotta dig into that a bit more too.”Chris: Yeah.Yeah. I mean, you know, in part because, as prices have risen in most western countries in the last four or five years, there's of course, of course, protests and backlash among people, and “oh, this bakery raised their prices” or “ my rent's going up,” and all these things. But specifically in terms of products and services, you know, people complain or they just accept the fact that prices have risen to a degree that's pricing a lot of people out of their lives, really. But, you know, in the conversations I've had with people and in the literature that I've read, there's no consideration, I think, that the businesses who are raising their prices have had their rents raised, that so much of a business' costs include rent, right? And that very few businesses actually [00:48:00] own the building that they're working out of.Leslie: Yeah, commercial rent is a whole other story because, you know, the protections on residential rent are not what they could be in most places around the world, but there's no protections on commercial rent, like no limitations there. So it's entirely possible that local bakery, their rent could go up by, like double. It could go up from $20,000 a year to $60,000 a year. There's no restrictions on that. There's nowhere to appeal that. There's nothing. So, they are, in some ways, even those small businesses, especially, independent businesses and so on, are very at risk of this. And there's a whole branch of kind of retail gentrification studies as well that kind of looks at the impacts on the local economic landscape of things like this as well. Yeah.Chris: Hmm. Wow. Thank you for unveiling that for us. I mean, uh, so much.So my last question, Leslie, has to do [00:49:00] with what is mentioned in your book, what you refer to as “the right to stay put.”And so,“the right to stay put is a common rallying cry in response to the dangers of displacement. Drawing inspiration from the broader notion of the right to the city, the right to stay put insists that communities are entitled to remain in the places they have contributed to. Furthermore, the right to dwell extends beyond simply having a home in an area, encompassing the right to continue using commercial, community, and public spaces and institutions, as well as the dignity of defending such rights. Importantly, it recognizes that agency is a critical factor. People do not want to be forced to move, nor do they want to be forced to stay in place. Rather, people value choice, the ability to participate in [00:50:00] decisions that affect their communities and the right to resist when they need to.”And so I'm curious what you think it would take for people, say, in urban environments to achieve or enshrine the right to stay put or the right to dwell in their places.Leslie: Yeah, I think we could talk about kind of two main avenues. One would be more of the top-down approach, which is to work to enshrine anti-displacement measures in neighborhoods, which can include everything from rent control or rent stabilization, to the right to return when there are redevelopment projects going on, to deeply affordable housing in new developments, to communities themselves taking on the role of becoming developers, but creating housing within the community for the [00:51:00] community. Not to draw in new residents or not to primarily draw new residents. Again, we're not trying to like, build a fortress around communities or anything, but rather to say, “this is housing that we're earmarking for people from the local community who are struggling with their rent or struggling to find housing, or who need perhaps entry-level home ownership opportunities and to kind of provide that.So there's the kind of top-down approach, really pushing our local governments to have things like community benefit ordinances when new developments are happening that force developers to actually pay attention to what the community needs and to provide those benefits and such.And then, from the kind of ground-up or more grassroots piece, the right to stay put is the the willingness, the ability to organize and come together in some of the places that I mentioned throughout the book. You know, it really [00:52:00] is community-level organization where people have really rallied to make it deeply difficult for planners or developers to kind of roll in and roll out their vision without any pushbacks, to the extent that their neighbourhoods become less of a target for gentrification, because it's like, “oh yeah, we wanna build something there. Oh, that's gonna be a real pain in the butt. The community is not gonna let us get away with what we wanna do.” And that means really making it possible for people to come out to meetings, organizing protests, that kind of right to resist. Sometimes taking... You know, we have long histories in many cities of squatters movements and perhaps we need to revitalize some of that old energy, as well. A kind of refusal to leave. And to find ways, you know, perhaps they don't always have to be kind of in-your-face protest ways, but what are ways to mobilize things like mutual aid to help make sure that our [00:53:00] neighbors are supported, for example, if they have to go before a landlord-tenant board, how can we use community resources and knowledge to actually support one another to stay in place?And that can be everything from addressing food insecurity to having a local rent bank, to partnering with nonprofits, churches, other religious institutions that may have an interest in building social and nonprofit housing to create some of those options.So I think it's about looking at the kind of wide range of alternative forms of housing and housing provision, looking at community mobilizing, community resources, and also tackling the local policy agenda to make staying put as possible, or to enshrine it as a right at a kind of higher level, as well.Chris: Hmm, hmm. Yeah, you go into [00:54:00] great detail about this in the book, and I'm very grateful for that. And the right to stay put kind of jumped out, the text jumped out of the page at me, because living here in Oaxaca, I came to know about this declaration that was created in 2009 by people in a number of communities here in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca who were meeting with their migrant kin who had gone to work in California and the people who had stayed in the community.And the declaration is literally translated as “the right to not migrate.” The way it was translated in English by the author of the book of the same name, was “The Right to Stay Home.” And so while there's a lot of differences between these contexts in terms of rural, indigenous communities here in Mexico and modern urban communities in the global north, there is this sense, [00:55:00] this kind of perhaps shared context wherein the ability to to stay in a place in order so that community can be conjured and maintained and of course enjoyed and lived in, seems to thread its way through these different social movements from the global north into the global south.So, I'm really grateful to see that and to know that there's similar understandings, of course not the same, but similar understandings that are even somewhat unorthodox and unexpected given the political context that sometimes challenge them or preclude something like that from coming up.So that's a little way of saying thank you for your time today, Leslie. On behalf of our listeners, I'd like to thank you for your willingness to join me and to speak to these often complex issues. And on behalf of them, I'd also like to ask you how they might find out more about [00:56:00] your work and your books: Gentrification Is Inevitable And Other Lies, Feminist City: Claiming Space In A Manmade World, and finally Higher Expectations: How To Survive Academia, Make It Better For Others, And Transform The University.Leslie: Yeah, thank you so much for this conversation. People can find out about me and my work at my website, which is just lesliekern.ca.If you just google my name, it will come up easily enough. Feminist City and Gentrification Is Inevitable And Other Lies. For an international audience, you can find those books through Verso books in the US and UK. There's also many translations of both of those books, so you may have the opportunity to read it in your local language if you want to do that as well.The more recent book, Higher Expectations is available from my Canadian publisher Between the Lines Books and in the US [00:57:00] from AK Books, as well. And there's also Epub versions and for the first two books, audiobook versions as well. And I've written lots of articles on these topics as well, in the Guardian and other places.So you can get a little snippet of my thoughts if you, again, Google my name and all of these things will come up in short order. So thank you for letting me share that as well.Chris: Yeah, of course. I'll make sure that the links to all those pages that you mentioned are available on the End of Tourism website and the Substack when the episode launches.And once again, Leslie, a really beautifully revealing conversation today. I think it's something that will not just provoke generally, but provoke a willingness in our listeners to reconsider some of the assumptions that they've had about gentrification.So, once again, thank you for your time today.Leslie: Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed the conversation. Appreciate it. Get full access to Chris Christou at chrischristou.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Interactors,Every week it seems to get harder to ignore the feeling that we're living through some major turning point — politically, economically, environmentally, and even in how our cities are taking shape around us. Has society seen this movie before? Spoiler: we have, and it has many sequels. History doesn't repeat exactly, but it sure rhymes, especially when competition for power increases, climates collapse, and the urban fabric unravels and rewinds. Today, we'll sift through history's clues, peek through some fresh conceptual lenses, and consider why the way we frame these shifts matters — maybe more now than ever.PRESSURE POINTS AT URBAN JOINTSLet's ground where we all might be historically speaking. Clues from long-term historical patterns suggests social systems go through periodic cycles of integration, expansion, and crisis. Historical quantitative data reveals recurring waves of structural-demographic pressure — moments when inequality, elite overproduction, and resource strain converge to produce instability.By quantitative historian Peter Turchin's account, we are currently drifting through some kind of inflection point. His 2010 essay in Nature anticipated the early 2020s as a period of peak instability that started around 1970. That's when people earning advanced degrees, entering law, finance, media, and politics skyrocketed from the 1970s onward. Meanwhile, the number of elite positions (like Senate seats, Supreme Court clerkships, high level corporate positions) remained fixed or even shrank. This created decades of increased income inequality, elite competition, and declining public trust that created conditions for events like the rise of Trump, polarization, and institutional gridlock.The symptoms are familiar to us now, and they are markers that echo previous systemic ruptures in U.S. history.In the 1770s, colonial grievances and elite competition led to a historic revolutionary realignment. It also coincided with poor harvests and food insecurity that amplified unrest. The 1860s brought civil war driven by slavery and sectional conflict. It too occurred during a period of climate volatility and crop failures. The early 20th century saw the Gilded Age unravel into labor unrest and the Great Depression, following years of drought and economic collapse in the Dust Bowl. The 1960s through 1980s unleashed social protest, stagflation, and the shift toward neoliberal governance amid fears of resource scarcity and rising pollution. In each case, ecological shocks layered onto political and economic pressures — making transformation not only likely, but necessary.Spatial patterns shifted alongside these political ruptures — from rail hubs and company towns to low flung suburban rings and high-rise financialized skylines. Cities can be both staging grounds creating these shifts and mirrors reflecting them. As material and symbolic anchors of society, they reflect where systems are strained — and where new forms may soon take root.Urban transformation today is neither orderly nor speculative — it is reactive. These socio-political, economic, and ecological shifts have fragmented not just the city, but the very frameworks we use to understand it. And with urban scale theory as a measure, change is accelerating exponentially. This means our conceptual tools to understand these shifts best respond just as quickly.Let's dip into the academic world of contemporary urban studies to gauge how scholars are considering these shifts. Here are three lenses that seem well-suited to consider our current landscape…or perhaps those my own biases are attracted to.Urban Political Ecology. This sees the city as a socio-natural process — shaped by uneven flows of energy, capital, and extraction. This approach, developed by critical geographers like Erik Swyngedouw and Maria Kaika, highlights how environmental degradation is often tied to social inequality and political neglect. Matthew Gandy, an urban geographer who blends political theory and environmental history, adds to this view. He shows how infrastructure — from water systems to waste networks — shapes urban nature and power.The Jackson, Mississippi water crisis, for example, revealed how ecological stress and decades of disinvestment resulted in a disheartening breakdown. In 2022, flooding overwhelmed Jackson's aging water system, leaving tens of thousands without safe drinking water — but the failure had been decades in the making. Years of underfunding, political neglect, and systemic racism had hollowed out the city's infrastructure.Or take Musk's AI data center called Colossus in Memphis, Tennessee. It's adjacent to historically Black neighborhoods and uses 35 methane gas-powered turbines that emit harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other pollutants. It's reported to be operating without proper permits and contributes to air quality issues these communities already have long experienced. These crises are vivid cases of what urban political ecologists warn about: how marginalization and disinvestment manifest physically in infrastructure failure, disproportionately affecting already vulnerable populations.Platform Urbanism. This explains much of the growing visible and invisible restructuring of urban space. From delivery networks to sidewalk surveillance, digital platforms now shape land use and behavioral patterns. Urban theorists like Sarah Barns and geographer Agnieszka Leszczynski describe these systems as shadow planners — zoning isn't just on paper anymore; it's encoded in app interfaces and service contracts. Shoshana Zuboff, a social psychologist and scholar of the digital economy, pushes this further. She argues that platforms are not just intermediaries but extractive infrastructures. They're designed to shape behavior and monetize it at scale. As platforms replace institutions, their spatial footprint expands. For example, Amazon has redefined regional land use by building vast fulfillment centers and reshaping delivery logistics across suburbs and exurbs. Or look at Uber and Lyft. They've altered curbside usage and traffic patterns in major cities without ever appearing on official planning documents. These changes demonstrate how digital infrastructure now directs physical development — often faster than public institutions can respond.Neoliberal Urbanism. Though widely critiqued, this remains the dominant lens. Despite growing backlash, deregulated markets, privatized services, and financialized real estate continue to shape planning logic and policy defaults. Urban theorists like Neil Brenner and economic geographer Jamie Peck describe this as a shift from managerial to entrepreneurial cities — where the suburbs sprawl, the towers rise, and exclusion is reproduced not by public design input, but by tax codes, ownership models, and legacy zoning. Like many governing systems, the default is to preserve the status quo. Institutions, once entrenched, tend to perpetuate existing frameworks — even in the face of mounting social or ecological stress.For example, in many U.S. cities, exclusionary zoning laws have long restricted the construction of multi-family housing in favor of single-family homes — limiting supply, reinforcing segregation, and driving up housing costs. Even modest attempts at reform often meet local resistance, revealing how deeply these rules are woven into planning culture.These lenses aren't just theoretical — they are descriptively powerful. They reflect what is, not what could be. But describing the present is only the first step.NEW NOTIONS OF URBAN MOTIONSIt's worth considering alternative conceptual lenses rising in relevance. These are not yet changing the shape of cites at scale, but they are shaping how we think about our urban futures. Historically, new conceptual lenses have often emerged in the wake of the kind of major social and spatial disruptions already covered.For example, the upheavals of the 19th century. This rapid industrialization, urban crowding, and public health crises gave rise to modern, industrial-era city planning. The mid-20th century crises helped institutionalize zoning and modernist design, while the neoliberal turn of the late 20th century elevated market-driven planning models.Emerging conceptual lenses of the 21st century are grounded in complexity, care, informality, and computation. These are responses to the fragmented plurality of our planetary plight — characteristic of the current calamity of our many crises, or polycrisis. Frameworks for thinking and imagining cities gain traction in architecture and planning studios, classrooms, online and physical activist spaces, and experimental design projects. They're not yet dominant, but they are gaining ground. Here are a few I believe to be particularly relevant today.Assemblage Urbanism. This lens views cities not as coherent wholes, but as contingent networks that are always in the making. The term "assemblage" comes from philosophy and anthropology. It refers to how diverse elements — people, materials, policies, and technologies — come together in temporary, evolving configurations. This lens resists top-down models of urban design and instead sees cities as patchworks of relationships and improvisations.Introduced by scholars like Ignacio Farias, an urban anthropologist focused on technological and infrastructural urban change, and AbdouMaliq Simone, a sociologist known for his work on African cities and informality, this approach offers a vocabulary for complexity and contradiction. It examines cities made of sensors and encampments, logistics hubs and wetlands. Colin McFarlane, a geographer who studies how cities function and evolve — especially in places often overlooked in mainstream planning — shows how urban learning spreads through these networks that cross places and scales. As the built environment becomes more fragmented and multi-scalar, this lens offers a way to map the friction and fluidity of emergent urban life.Postcolonial and Feminist Urbanisms. This lens challenges who gets to define the city, and how. Ananya Roy, a scholar of global urbanism and housing justice, Jennifer Robinson, a geographer known for challenging Western-centric urban theory, and Leslie Kern, a feminist urbanist focused on gender and public space, all center the voices and experiences often sidelined by mainstream planning: women, racialized communities, and the so-called Global South. These are regions, not always in the Southern Hemisphere, that have historically been colonized, exploited, or marginalized by dominant empires of the so-called Global North. These frameworks put care, informality, and embodied experience in the foreground — not as soft supplements to be ‘considered', but as central to urban survival. They ask: whose knowledge counts and whose mobility is prioritized? In a world of precarity and patchwork governance, these lenses offer both critique and more fair and balanced paths forward.Typological and Morphological Studies. These older, traditional lenses are reemerging through new tools. Once associated with the static physical form of cities, these traditions are finding renewed relevance through machine learning and spatial data. These approaches originate from architectural history and geography, where typology refers to recurring building patterns, and morphology to the shape and structure of urban space. Scholars like Saverio Muratori and Gianfranco Caniggia, both architects, emphasized interpreting urban fabric as a continuous, evolving record of social life. As mentioned last week, British geographer M. R. G. Conzen introduced town-plan analysis, a method for understanding how plots and street systems change over time. Today, this lineage is extended by Laura Vaughan, an urbanist who studies how spatial form reflects social patterns, and Geoff Boeing, a planning scholar using computational tools to analyze and visualize urban form also mentioned last week. AI models now interpret urban imagery, using historical patterns to predict future trends. This approach is evolving into a kind of algorithmic archaeology. However, unchecked it could reinforce existing spatial norms instead of challenging them. This stresses the importance of reflection, ethics, and debate about the implications and outcomes of these models…and who benefits most.While these lenses don't yet dominate design codes or capital flows, they do shape how we think and talk about our cities. And isn't that where all transformation begins?CHOOSING PATHS IN AFTERMATHSConcepts don't emerge in a vacuum. History shows us how they arise from the anxiety and urgency of uncertainty. As historian Elias Palti reminds us, frameworks gain traction when once dominant and grounding meanings begin crumbling under our feet. That's when we invent or seek new ways to make sense of our shifting ground. Donna Haraway, a pioneering feminist scholar in science and technology studies, urges us to stay with this mess and imagine new futures from within it. She describes these moments as opportunities to 'stay with the trouble' — to resist closure, dwell in complexity, and imagine alternatives from within the uncertainty.Historically, moments of systemic crisis — from the 1770s to the 1840s, the 1930s to the 1960s — have sparked shifts not just in spatial form, but in the conceptual tools used to understand and design it. Revolutionary and reformist movements have often carried with them new ways of seeing: Enlightenment ideals, socialist critiques, environmental consciousness, and decolonial frameworks. We may be living through another such moment now — where the cracks in the old invite us to rethink the categories that built it.In 1960, five years before I was born, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan gave a speech called “Wind of Change”. It was a public acknowledgement of the decline of British empire and the rise of anti-colonial nationalism around the globe. Delivered in apartheid South Africa, it was a rare moment of elite recognition that a global shift in political and spatial order was already underway. Britain's imperial dominance was fading just as American dominance was solidifying.Today, we see echoes of that moment. The U.S. is facing economic fragmentation, growing inequality, and diminishing global legitimacy, while China asserts itself as a counterweight. Resistance and unrest in places like Palestine, Ukraine, Yemen, Congo, Sudan, Kashmir, (and many more) mirror the turbulence of previous historic transitions. Once again, the global “winds of change” are shifting, strengthening, and unpredictably swirling. It can be disorienting. But the frameworks I've outlined above are more than cold attempts at academic neutral observations, they can serve as lenses of orientation. They help guide what we see, what we measure, and what we ignore. And in doing so, they shape what futures become possible.Some frameworks are widely used but lack ethical depth. Others are less common but are full of imagination and ethical reconfigurations. The lenses we prioritize in public policy, early education, design, and discussion will shape whether our future systems perpetuate existing inequalities or purge them.This is not just an academic choice. It's a civic one.While macro forces of capital or climate are beyond our control, it is possible to shape the narratives that impact our responses. The question remains whether space should continue being optimized for logistics and financial speculation, or if there is potential to focus on ecological repair, historical redress, and spatial justice.Future developments will be influenced by current thoughts. The most impactful decision in urban design may come down to us all being more intentional in selecting the concepts that guide us forward.REFERENCES This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

Ever wondered why some neighborhoods transform seemingly overnight while others remain unchanged? This episode looks into the complex web of gentrification through three articles published in the last few years. We kick off with a deep dive into the term's origins and its multifaceted meanings, drawing from an insightful article by Planetizen. Along the way, we tackle the often misunderstood triggers of gentrification and challenge the conventional wisdom that luxury condos are the main culprits, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as discussed in a compelling piece from The Atlantic.We then shift gears to explore recurring trends, comparing shifts from the early 20th century with those from the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on Leslie Kern's book, "Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies," we unravel how remote work is shaping smaller cities and the varied pressures behind gentrification across regions. Our discussion underscores the necessity of involving local residents in community development to ensure new amenities benefit existing communities, not just newcomers. We also highlight the limitations of market-rate housing and call for improved public engagement in urban planning. This episode is packed with nuanced insights and actionable ideas to better understand and address the complexities of gentrification.Show Notes:Episode Articles:The Pandemic Disproved Urban Progressives' Theory About Gentrification: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/06/dc-solar-power-ponzi-scheme-scandal/673782/Gentrification is Complicated. But It's Not Inevitable: https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/gentrification-is-inevitable-and-other-lies-leslie-kern What Is Gentrification? https://www.planetizen.com/definition/gentrification PlanetMoney Reel on Gentrification: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8U3_b4vFCW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link To view the show transcripts, click on the episode at https://bookedonplanning.buzzsprout.com/Episode artwork by Georgia de Lotz on UnsplashFollow us on social media for more content related to each episode:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/booked-on-planning/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BookedPlanningFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookedonplanningInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookedonplanning/

In dieser Folge teilt Stadtplanerin Julia Girardi-Hoog ihre Vision der feministischen Stadt der Zukunft mit uns. Wir gehen der Frage nach, wer eigentlich den Zebrastreifen erfunden hat und warum in Taiwans Straßen regelmäßig “Für Elise” zu hören ist. Jana aus meinem Team stellt das Buch “Feminist City” von Leslie Kern vor. Und: What can be right but never wrong?Wie gefällt dir Jeannes Varieté? Wo ist dein liebster Zebrastreifen?Schreib mir per E-Mail an jeanne@ohwow.eu oder auf Instagram an @jeanne_drach! Abonniere den Jeannes Varieté Newsletter: ohwow.eu/newsletter.Links zur FolgeLeslie Kern: Feminist City. Claiming Space in a Man-Made World (verso)Leslie Kern: Feminist City (Unrast)“Feminist City – Leslie Kern” in Janas Blog zuckerbaeckerei.comAuf allen Ebenen: Feministische Stadtplanung - myGiuliaJulius Uhlmann: http://europeanzebra.eu, @european.zebraTaiwan garbage truck, to the tune of Beethoven's Fur Elise. (YouTube)Classical trash: how Taiwan's musical bin lorries transformed ‘garbage island' - The GuardianIn dieser Folge haben mitgewirkt: Jeanne Drach, Anna Muhr, Jana Wiese; Trompete: Almut Schäfer-Kubelka. Foto: Christian Zagler. Grafik: Catharina Ballan. Strategische Beratung: Milo Tesselaar.Dieser Podcast wird präsentiert von OH WOW. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When designing spaces, why is a feminist lens important? What might egalitarian social spaces look and feel like? How might museums, parks and cities be designed differently to include the needs of women, caregivers and girls? Historically,  a male-centric perspective has been dominant in the design of spaces - particularly cities - which has led to a series of decisions and standards with long-term consequences on the experiences of others, including women and girls, people with diverse gender expressions, racial and ethnic minority groups, neurodivergent groups and other under-represented people.  In this episode, we talk with Nourhan Bassam - a leader and innovator in the field of Feminist Urban Design. We discuss safety, ease of mobility, how the 'othered' groups may travel through and across spaces differently and more frequently. Impacts on indoor and outdoor museum, public and parks spaces include navigation, orientation, feeling and experiencing ease and safety.  Some of these measures have been discussed and implemented in museum and cultural spaces, but there is still much to learn from applying a feminist lens the designs of museum buildings, museum experiences, public spaces, cultural spaces, and connection experiences like transportation and arrival to your site.  Nourhan hopes by raising awareness about the barriers faced by women and the many othered groups, her work will inspire individuals, communities, and policymakers to take action and create spaces and cities that are safe, inclusive, and empowering for all. Nourhan LinkedIn Nourhan's website   Links to resources:  Bell Hooks book, Feminism is for Everyone. Vienna applied gender mainstreaming 30 years ago Vienna, Aspern neighborhood Vienna and human-centered thinking Gendered mobility; The 15 minute city Barcelona's super block (superilla)   Safer Parks Project: Safer Parks final report Safer Parks Project, Dr Anna Barker, Leeds University Safer Parks merges with Make Spaces for Girls   City of Milan, Sex in the City Milan Gender Atlas - identify accessibility resources Leslie Kern book, The Feminist City  Book, Cities and Gender by Helen Jarvis, Jonathan Cloke, Paula Kantor  Geo Chicas project, Las Calles de las Mujeres: Map of streets named after women in cities in Latin America and Spain, to make visible the gap that exists in the representation of female figures in cities. Safetipin - a social organization working to make public spaces safer and more inclusive for women. They collect data using mobile phone applications. Nourhan Bassam's book, The Gendered City: How today's cities continue to fail women - expected to be published Dec 2023.   Connect With Us Have questions or topics you'd like us to explore on the podcast? Or a Guest recommendation? Have a project in mind needing user-, visitor, or community centered research or strategy? drop us a line with your idea or inqury!

Torniamo dalla nostra pausa estiva con un libro che volevamo portare da tempo, questo mese analizziamo "La città femminista" della scrittrice, urbanista e attivista canadese Leslie Kern. In questo testo l'autrice esplora i modi diversi in cui uomini e donne, per usare un linguaggio molto binario, esperiscono lo spazio urbano L'esperienza urbana delle donne è infatti determinata, fra altri fattori, anche dal genere. Tutte le forme di pianificazione urbana, scrive Kern, derivano da un insieme di valutazioni sul cittadino tipico, che non a caso si declina al maschile. Anche la maternità è un punto centrale del libro e di come questa esperienza cambi quella che poi facciamo una volta che diventiamo genitori. Ma non solo, l'autrice ci spiega anche cosa sia la gentrificazione e perchè è il contrario della collettività.Come sempre vi suggeriamo di dare uno sguardo al libro se vi interessa l'argomento perchè, passando per lo spazio urbano, Leslie kern tocca diverse tematiche da diversi punti di vista. Insomma, aggiungiamo un altro interessante pezzo di puzzle che stiamo costruendo insieme.

Of all of the processes that are reshaping cities today, gentrification is probably one of the most misunderstood. In her new book, Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies, Leslie Kern addresses seven of the myths about gentrification and exposes the ideologies that make it seem like a natural and desirable process. Leslie Kern is associate professor of geography and environment and women's and gender studies at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick. She joined us last October to talk about how and why gentrification happens and how to resist it.

Esta palabra complicada, en realidad, describe un fenómeno muy común en las ciudades contemporáneas.  Seguro conocés algún barrio de tu ciudad que era tranquilo, económico, lleno de gente que charlaba en las veredas y en los bares. Y que, de a poco, lo fueron modificando para volverlo un lugar de moda, fino, con locales gastronómicos de vanguardia y alquileres carísimos. La gentrificación, en parte, es eso.  Para saber más, nos juntamos a dialogar con: Leslie Kern: escritora canadiense, autora de “La gentrificación es inevitable y otras mentiras”  Nicolás Artusi: periodista cultural argentino, escritor, conductor de radio y TV.  Ricardo Klein: sociólogo uruguayo, docente e investigador. 

TW: Vanaf 20:30 min. hebben we het meermaals over aanranding, verkrachting. Dit gaat gepaard met veel traumalachjes. In deze aflevering leggen Harriet en Sietske hun natuurlijk habitat onder de loep: de stad. Aan de hand van het boek Feminist City van Leslie Kern onderzoeken we hoe de anarchafeministische stad eruit zou moeten zien. Daarvoor vragen we ons af waarom we toch zo graag in de stad vertoeven, terwijl de stad ingericht is op able-bodied witte cis-mannen. We praten over toiletbezoek, nachtelijke wandelingen door het park, vervelende mannen, gentrificatie en nog veel meer. Heb je ideeën over hoe de anarchafeministische stad eruit zou moeten zien? Stuur dan een mail naar poetsdiemuur@riseup.net.

After a Jane Jacobs quote and respective bike moments including new rail trails, Vancouver cycling infrastructure and truck pollution, Faith and Val chat to Dr Lauren Pearson about her research on gendered barriers to cycling, including Adults' self-reported barriers and enablers to riding a bike for transport, Barriers and enablers of bike riding for transport and recreational purposes in Australia and What a girl wants: A mixed-methods study of gender differences in the barriers to and enablers of riding a bike in Australia. Also see The Conversation: How to get more women on bikes? Better biking infrastructure, designed by women, ABC: Limited escape routes on new Melbourne bike path a safety risk to women, cyclists say and Treehugger: Biggest Barrier to Biking Is the Fear of Cars Lauren discusses how lack of inclusivity, adequate planning and lack of safe seperated infrastructure influences how women perceive if they will ride a bicycle, as well as impacting upon mens participationNews includes recent Paris referendum on e-scooters, Victorian Road safety inquiry calls for submissions, War on Cars podcast: Feminist City with Leslie Kern and Conspiracy    

Miasto dla Kobiet, które się właśnie ukazało nakładem wydawnictwa Czarne, to nie jest podręcznik o tym jak projektować inkluzywne miasta. Książka Leslie Kern to bardziej pamiętnik, w którym przytacza historie ze swojego życia przeplatane faktami i danymi. Choć opisuje doświadczenia mieszkanki miast Ameryki Północnej, to opisywane sytuacje i problemy są często uniwersalne i wnoszą nowe spojrzenie na nasza polską rzeczywistość. Magdalena Milert w najnowszym Międzymiastowo przybliża nam spojrzenie Leslie Kern opisane w książce „Feminist City”.

Philip spends time with author and educator Leslie Kern discussing her latest book Gentrification is Inevitable & Other Lies. In their conversation they explore the ways in which the harms of gentrification are rooted in several overlapping systems and how to identify and work against the lies of gentrification inevitability. The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip's Drop: Black Reconstruction in America – WEB Dubois (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Black-Reconstruction-in-America-1860-1880/W-E-B-Du-Bois/9780684856575)  Reconstruction – Eric Foner (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/reconstruction-updated-edition-eric-foner?variant=32116709523490)  Leslie's Drop: Sons of Elsewhere Elamin Abdelmahmoud (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611405/son-of-elsewhere-by-elamin-abdelmahmoud/) Special Guest: Leslie Kern.

EPISODE 101: FEMINIST CITY WITH LESLIE KERN Cities have almost always been designed by men, prioritizing men's needs as defined by the traditional male-female binary. But as scholar and author Leslie Kern writes in her  book, Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World, a truly feminist city could be, “an ongoing experiment in living differently, living better, and living more justly in an urban world.” Sarah talks with Dr. Kern about  how gender influences the way we move through our streets, and how adopting a feminist perspective could make our cities more humane and livable for everyone, regardless of gender identity.  This episode is sponsored by Cleverhood. Receive 15% off anything in the Cleverhood store using the special coupon code in this episode. Good for a limited time only!  ***Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of all our episodes, special bonus content and free stickers!*** LINKS: Find out more about Dr. Leslie Kern's work. Buy Feminist City and other books by podcast guests at our official Bookshop.org page. Pick up official  The War on Cars merch in our store.  This episode was produced and edited by Sarah Goodyear. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. TheWarOnCars.org  

On today's Architectette podcast we welcome Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman. Katrina is an urban anthropologist that specializes in human behavior in public spaces. In 2019, she was selected as one of the BBC's 100 Influential Women Around the World and currently works as a data fellow for the City of Philadelphia within the Smart Cities Department doing research on data equity and privacy. She is dedicated to the improvement of public space, with extensive experience teaching and researching the topics we speak about. We talk about: - What is urban anthropology and how did it grow from the work of Jane Jacobs and Holly Whyte? - Surprising things you find in the city and what stories those items tell. - How cities identify and address problems to improve life for residents. - We discuss urban design improvements and lessons learned from the South Street Headhouse Square District, Barcelona, and Çatalhöyük. - Katrina shines a light on the bias of cities and how these biases impact layout, function, and policy. - We talk about strategies to invoke the spirit of urban anthropology in your professional and personal life. - I ask Katrina her opinion regarding the rising trend of suburban "Fake Downtowns", public space, and decentralization. Links: Katrina's Website (articles, talks, and more!): http://thinkurban.org/ Follow Katrina: https://www.instagram.com/think_katrina/ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs: https://bookshop.org/a/91133/9780679741954 More about William H. Whyte: https://www.pps.org/article/wwhyte More about Ada Colau's work in Barcelona: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/two-way-street-how-barcelona-is-democratising-public-space Çatalhöyük Urban Design: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1405/ Feminist City, Leslie Kern: https://bookshop.org/a/91133/9781788739825 "Fake Downtowns" Article: https://cheddar.com/media/why-fake-downtowns-are-the-new-malls Architectette Podcast Website: www.architectette.com Connect with the pod on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12735000/), Instagram (@architectette), and TikTok (@architectette) Music by AlexGrohl from Pixabay. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/architectette/support

We welcome environmental scholar Leslie Kern to talk about her new book "Gentrification is Inevitable - And other Lies." We also present you this week's (long) Question from Hell!, and have another Icelandic hangover cure. Producer Sebastian has this week's Past Inside the Present, in which he details some of the reasons for Germany's awkward relationship with Israel.

Emma hosts Leslie Kern, professor of geography, environment, women's and gender studies at Mount Allison University, to discuss her recent book Gentrification Is Inevitable And Other Lies. Then, she is joined by writer Jacob Silverman to discuss the recent developments surrounding the crypto exchange FTX and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. First, Emma runs through updates on the GOP making their House Majority official, Mitch McConnell beating out Rick Scott for Senate Minority leader, same-sex marriage legislation making it past the filibuster, violence in Iran, and a mass Starbucks worker strike in the US, also parsing through the ProPublica leak of a discussion between various anti-choice lobbyists. She's then joined by Professor Leslie Kern, as she dives right into the nature of the monster of gentrification, first looking at the unnatural forces of modern neoliberalism that make it seem so inevitable today, with local and federal governments removing regulations and smoothing the path for capital and multinational organizations to turn housing into an asset class and use it as such. After diving deeper into this financialization of something necessary for life, taking spaces fundamental to the existence of urban communities and turning them into spaces of speculation and tourism built for outsiders, Professor Kern and Emma explore why the combination of a capitalist land market and mass disinvestment from certain communities will almost always point towards gentrification. Wrapping up, Professor Kern walks through the coining of the term in 1960s London to recognize a process that had been ongoing for a while, looking to explore the cultural drive that pushed certain middle-class homeowners away from suburban sprawl (not to mention the obvious economic elements), before the rise of neoliberalism in the ‘80s began to make urban centers a generally desirable investment for the rest of the middle-class, setting the stage for the third, finance-backed wave of gentrification that we see today. Jacob Silverman and Emma then dive into the rapid rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of a massive crypto empire in the FTX exchange and Alameda Research firm, diving into how his Ponzi scheme turned him into a billionaire on paper, while myriad liberal institutions offered him legitimacy, allowing him to effectively run wild, investing billions in others' money completely unregulated. Wrapping up that story, Jacob and Emma discuss the echo of the 2008 financial crash that can be seen in the recent Crypto crashes, and the greater implications of SBF effectively disappearing billions of dollars from investors. And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder as they tackle Karen Bass' W in the LA Mayoral race, who could actually beat Trump in a GOP Presidential race, and the culpability of Kirsten Gillibrand as she CONTINUES to campaign for crypto. Herschel Walker soft launches his Letterboxd, Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh discuss whether marriage is just having a baby, Mitch in Dallas dives deeper into how the crypto crash echos 2008, and Meta continues its mediocre early 2010s VR grift. Nick Adams talks anti-woke NBA stars and Sean Hannity hates on that sweet skunky smell of freedom, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out Leslie's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/4047-gentrification-is-inevitable-and-other-lies Follow Jacob on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/SilvermanJacob Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here (OT STREAMING THERE TODAY!): https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today's sponsors: ZipRecruiter: Some things in life we like to pick out for ourselves - so we know we've got the one that's best for us - like cuts of steak or mattresses. What if you could do the same for hiring - choose your ideal candidate before they even apply? See for yourself! Just go to this exclusive web address, https://www.ziprecruiter.com/majority to try ZipRecruiter for free!    Shopify: Scaling your business is a journey of endless possibility. Shopify is here to help, with tools and resources that make it easy for any business to succeed from down the street to around the globe. Go to https://shopify.com/majority for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify's entire suite of features! Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Of all of the processes that are reshaping cities today, gentrification is probably one of the most misunderstood. In her new book, Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies, Leslie Kern addresses seven of the myths about gentrification and exposes the ideologies that make it seem like a natural and desirable process. Leslie Kern is associate professor of geography and environment and women's and gender studies at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick. She joins us to talk about how and why gentrification happens and how to resist it.

In her sweeping new book on gentrification, Leslie Kern expertly weaves theory, concepts, and up-to-date debates together, making it accessible to both urban scholars and general readers. In this conversation she joins host Andre Goulet to discuss 'Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies' available now from Verso and Between the Lines press. Plus: David DesBaillets' and law professor Daniel Crespo Villareal explore strategies for how to defend tenants from wrongful evictions and explain how suspicious evictions and renovictions are swamping the legal system on a new segment of Housing Party. Order Leslie Kern's book at https://btlbooks.com/book/gentrification-is-inevitable-and-other-lies Find more of Housing Party composer Paul Cargnello's music at https://paulcargnello.bandcamp.com/

In her sweeping new book on gentrification, Leslie Kern expertly weaves theory, concepts, and up-to-date debates together, making it accessible to both urban scholars and general readers. On a new episode of Harbinger Society Presents she joins host Andre Goulet to discuss 'Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies' available now from Verso and Between the Lines press. Plus: David DesBaillets' and law professor Daniel Crespo Villareal explore strategies for how to defend tenants from wrongful evictions and explain how suspicious evictions and renovictions are swamping the legal system on a new segment of Housing Party. Order Leslie Kern's book at https://btlbooks.com/book/gentrification-is-inevitable-and-other-lies Find more of Housing Party composer Paul Cargnello's music at https://paulcargnello.bandcamp.com/

In her sweeping new book on gentrification, Leslie Kern expertly weaves theory, concepts, and up-to-date debates together, making it accessible to both urban scholars and general readers. In this conversation she joins host Andre Goulet to discuss 'Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies' available now from Verso and Between the Lines press.Plus: David DesBaillets' and law professor Daniel Crespo Villareal explore strategies for how to defend tenants from wrongful evictions and explain how suspicious evictions and renovictions are swamping the legal system on a new segment of Housing Party. Order Leslie Kern's book at https://btlbooks.com/book/gentrification-is-inevitable-and-other-liesFind more of Housing Party composer Paul Cargnello's music at https://paulcargnello.bandcamp.com/

In her sweeping new book on gentrification, Leslie Kern expertly weaves theory, concepts, and up-to-date debates together, making it accessible to both urban scholars and general readers. On a new episode of Harbinger Society Presents she joins host Andre Goulet to discuss 'Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies' available now from Verso and Between the Lines press.Plus: David DesBaillets' and law professor Daniel Crespo Villareal explore strategies for how to defend tenants from wrongful evictions and explain how suspicious evictions and renovictions are swamping the legal system on a new segment of Housing Party. Order Leslie Kern's book at https://btlbooks.com/book/gentrification-is-inevitable-and-other-liesFind more of Housing Party composer Paul Cargnello's music at https://paulcargnello.bandcamp.com/

En #DemasiadoHumano 2022 hablamos de la hospitalidad. Hacen sus aportes al programa de hoy Ana Paula Penchaszadeh y Marcelo Percia. En la sección literaria comentamos “La gentrificación es inevitable y otras mentiras” de Leslie Kern.

Gentrification revisited: Laurie Taylor talks to Leslie Kern, Associate Professor of Geography and Environment at Mount Allison University, Canada and author of a new study unpacking the meaning and impact of gentrification six decades after the term was first coined. She travelled from Toronto to New York, London, Paris and San Francisco, scrutinising the myth and reality that surround this highly contested phenomenon. Beyond the yoga studio, farmer's market and retro cafe, she argues that this is not a 'natural' process, but one which impacts the most vulnerable. They're joined by Dr Charmaine Brown, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Education and Cultural Studies at the University of Greenwich, whose research in Peckham, South East London, finds contrasting perspectives amongst different residents. Beautiful shop fronts, fewer police sirens and new street furniture appeal to incomers but Dr Brown sees a loss of social capital, opportunity and support for the original mainly Black communities. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Gentrification revisited: Laurie Taylor talks to Leslie Kern, Associate Professor of Geography and Environment at Mount Allison University, Canada and author of a new study unpacking the meaning and impact of gentrification six decades after the term was first coined. She travelled from Toronto to New York, London, Paris and San Francisco, scrutinising the myth and reality that surround this highly contested phenomenon. Beyond the yoga studio, farmer's market and retro cafe, she argues that this is not a 'natural' process, but one which impacts the most vulnerable. They’re joined by Dr Charmaine Brown, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Education and Cultural Studies at the University of Greenwich, whose research in Peckham, South East London, finds contrasting perspectives amongst different residents. Beautiful shop fronts, fewer police sirens and new street furniture appeal to incomers but Dr Brown sees a loss of social capital, opportunity and support for the original mainly Black communities. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Gentrification revisited: Laurie Taylor talks to Leslie Kern, Associate Professor of Geography and Environment at Mount Allison University, Canada and author of a new study unpacking the meaning and impact of gentrification six decades after the term was first coined. She travelled from Toronto to New York, London, Paris and San Francisco, scrutinising the myth and reality that surround this highly contested phenomenon. Beyond the yoga studio, farmer's market and retro cafe, she argues that this is not a 'natural' process, but one which impacts the most vulnerable. They’re joined by Dr Charmaine Brown, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Education and Cultural Studies at the University of Greenwich, whose research in Peckham, South East London, finds contrasting perspectives amongst different residents. Beautiful shop fronts, fewer police sirens and new street furniture appeal to incomers but Dr Brown sees a loss of social capital, opportunity and support for the original mainly Black communities. Producer: Jayne Egerton

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/geography

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/politics-and-polemics

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law

What does gentrification look like? Can we even agree that it is a process that replaces one community with another? It is a question of class? Or of economic opportunity? Who does it affect the most? Is there any way to combat it? In Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies (Verso, 2022), Leslie Kern travels from Toronto, New York, London, Paris, and San Francisco and scrutinises the myth and lies that surround this most urgent urban crisis of our times. First observed in 1950s London, and theorised by leading thinkers such as Ruth Glass, Jane Jacobs and Sharon Zukin, this devastating process of displacement now can be found in every city and most neighbourhoods. Beyond the Yoga studio, farmer's market and tattoo parlour, gentrification is more than a metaphor, but impacts the most vulnerable communities. Kern proposes an intersectional way of looking at the crisis that seek to reveal the violence based on class, race, gender, and sexuality. She argues that gentrification is not natural. That it cannot be understood in economic terms, or by class. That it is not a question of taste. That it can only be measured only by the physical displacement of certain people. Rather, she argues, it is a continuation of the settler colonial project that removed natives from their land. And it can be seen today is rising rents and evictions, transformed retail areas, increased policing, and broken communities. But if gentrification is not inevitable, what can we do to stop the tide? In response, Kern proposes a genuinely decolonial, feminist, queer, anti-gentrification. One that demands the right to the city for everyone and the return of land and reparations for those who have been displaced. Louisa Hann recently attained a PhD in English and American studies from the University of Manchester, specialising in the political economy of HIV/AIDS theatres. She has published work on the memorialisation of HIV/AIDS on the contemporary stage and the use of documentary theatre as a neoliberal harm reduction tool. She is currently working on a monograph based on her doctoral thesis. You can get in touch with her at louisahann92@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I talk with Leslie Kern about her book, Feminist City. We tend to think about our built environment as fixed and nothing to do with sexism, discrimination or bias. But like everything else in our world, our cities are shaped by gender as they were designed for one type of man at the exclusion women. In our conversation, Leslie exposes what is hidden in plain sight: the social inequalities embedded into our cities, homes, and neighbourhoods. Some topics of discussion include: “The female fear” is real! And women are not being irrational... Navigating the city as a mom (or parent) Why women often need headphones in order to be left alone (”smile, sweetheart!”) How policing is not the answer to keeping women safe How the lack of public infrastructure for care work deepens inequality among women as we participate in multiple layers of exploitation just to keep ourselves afloat By reimagining our cities we can build more just and sustainable environments for all And more! Powered by The Trouble Club: use the code STORY25 to get 25% off all Trouble ticket sales and membership payments  The quotes you will hear read during the interview are taken directly from the book, Feminist City. Transcription is available here Buy the book: US | UK | Global Mentioned in the episode: Blue Monday by Nicci French Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson Feminism Interrupted by Lola Olufemi Sex and The Revitalized City by Leslie Kern Safetipin app Where to find Leslie Kern: Website | Instagram | Twitter -- Join the storytellers: ...and help elevate woman's story to our main narrative! Follow along Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Youtube | LinkedIn Goodreads | Bookclub Subscribe to the newsletter The usuals Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes, apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts Share with a friend, colleague or family member Become a Patreon for access to bonus content and to support the podcast, or buy me a (metaphorical) coffee Check out The Story of Woman bookstore filled with 100's of books like this one. Any books purchased through the website links support this podcast AND local bookstores! Contact Questions? Comments? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you! thestoryofwoman@gmail.com www.thestoryofwomanpodcast.com

'Wat Bezette Stad?' is een plunderend audio-essay van Pieter Blomme en Dennis Gaens, die zich afvragen: wie is tegenwoordig de baas in de stad? De verdachten die de revue passeren: verkeersborden, geparkeerde auto's, mannen, struisvogelpolitici, architecten en kleingeestige burgers. Een essay en poëtisch manifest ineen, geïnspireerd door Bezette Stad, de legendarische, 100-jarige dichtbundel van Paul van Ostaijen. De hypotheses komen van een internationale verzameling van creatieve makers, wetenschappers en publicisten: Fredo de Smet, Leslie Kern, Sonia Kazovsky, Simon Wilkinson, Kilian Flade, Barbara Callewaert, Myra Appannah, en Catherine Ongenae. Met fragmenten uit gedichten van Maud Vanhauwaert, Jonathan Griffioen, Lisette Ma Neza (voorgedragen door Misha Melita), Hind Eljadid (voorgedragen door Corinne Heyrman) en Joost Oomen. Wat Bezette Stad? is een productie van literair platform Watershed en Vlaams-Nederlands cultuurhuis deBuren, in samenwerking met Graphic Matters. Concept en interviews: Pieter Blomme en Dennis Gaens Montage en geluidsontwerp: Dennis Gaens Muziek: Liew Niyomkarn Artwork: Zef Oosterhof Meer podcasts luisteren van Watershed? www.stichtingwatershed.nl De podcast wordt mede mogelijk gemaak met financiering van Literatuur Vlaanderen, het Nederlands Letterenfonds, het Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds, het Pictoright Fonds, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie en Stichting Cultuur Eindhoven.

La planificación de los espacios públicos, diseñados desde una experiencia masculina, afecta a las mujeres y a otras identidades. Por eso, en este episodio nos detenemos en el urbanismo feminista como una nueva posibilidad para pensar, habitar y transitar. “Las ciudades están pensadas para individuos independientes que no se ocupan de las tareas de cuidado, en general para hombres jóvenes, heteros, saludables, etc. Y vemos que este modelo fracasó, es un modelo frágil” - afirma Silvia-, quién forma parte de La Ciudad que Resiste, un proyecto de extensión universitaria de la UNLP donde se entrelazan colectivas de arquitectas y artistas transdisciplinares. Además, en este episodio, contamos con la participación especial de Leslie Kern, autora del libro “Ciudad feminista: La lucha por el espacio en un mundo diseñado por hombres”. Y volvimos a conversar con Ana María Rigotti, arquitecta y profesora de la UNR, quien ofrece sus conocimientos sobre los comienzos del urbanismo feminista y con Caro Huffmann, de Urbanismo Vivo. Sumate a la conversación sobre: ¿cómo andamos?

O Livra-te veio até Braga para conversar com a Cátia Vieira, autora do Lola e dona de algumas capas mais lindas que já vimos, sobre livros de Não Ficção. Falámos de Joan Didion, feminismo, sexismo, Joan Didion, histórias de vida, e ainda tivemos um convidado surpresa (woof woof). Livros mencionados neste episódio: - Hook, Line, And Sinker, Tessa Bailey (2:22) - White Album, Joan Didion (2:52) - Writers & Lovers, Lily King (3:08) - Coração tão Branco, Javier Marías (3:32) - Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday (3:50) - Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham (12:45) - Born a Crime, Trevor Noah (14:05) - Becoming, Michelle Obama (14:32) - Know My Name, Chanel Miller (15:16) - Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino (16:00) - The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (17:16) - Quiet, Susan Cain (20:23) - Unnatural Causes: The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist, Richard Shepherd (21:43) - This is Going to Hurt, Adam Kay (21:57) - Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb (22:26) - Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy (23:26) - Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, Jonathan Van Ness (23:57) - Diários da Princesa, Carrie Fisher (24:25) - One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time, Craig Brown (24:51) - I Was Told There'd Be Cake: Essays, Sloane Crosley (25:50) - E Depois a Louca Sou Eu, Tati Bernardi (21:19) - I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, Nora Ephron (26:47) - Educated, Tara Westover (29:23) - I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Sylvie Simmons (30:33) - Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction, David Sheff (31:44) - Just Kids, Patti Smith (33:00) - Notes to Self, Emilie Pine (35:18) - Rita Lee: Uma Autobiografia, Rita Lee (36:27) - Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, Viv Albertine (38:53) - Room to Dream, David Lynch (41:09) - On Writing, Stephen King (43:20) - Leave Your Mark, Aliza Licht (44:58) - #Girlboss, Sophia Amoruso (45:20) - Feminist City: A Field Guide, Leslie Kern (46:19) - Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates (47:57) - Millennial Love, Olivia Petter (50:23) - Let Me Tell You What I Mean, Joan Didion (56:45) - Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay (57:19) - Miami, Joan Didion (01:07:30) - Where I Was From, Joan Didion (01:07:38) - Girl in a Band, Kim Gordon (01:07:46) - Face It, Debbie Harry (01:08:18) - Ten Myths About Israel, Ilan Pappé (01:08:35) - On Cats, Charles Bukowski (01:08:44) - Against Everything: Essays, Mark Greif (01:08:55) ________________ Enviem as vossas questões ou sugestões para livratepodcast@gmail.com. Encontrem-nos nas redes sociais: www.instagram.com/julesdsilva www.instagram.com/ritadanova/ twitter.com/julesxdasilva twitter.com/RitaDaNova [a imagem do podcast é da autoria da maravilhosa, incrível e talentosa Mariana Cardoso, que podem encontrar em marianarfpcardoso@hotmail.com]

In this episode we talk to urban scholar Leslie Kern (https://lesliekern.ca/) author of the Feminist City, about how to build cities with women in mind. We explore how cities can show up better for women in caregiving roles and how we build safety into our city for low-income and homeless women, who are most vulnerable to outdated patriarchal design practices. Using a dash of urban planning while drawing inspiration from other feminist centric projects we reimagine Waterloo, from transportation and infrastructure, to how to modernize the safety value of pay phones. This podcast is a continuation from a guest lecture done in February 2022 by Leslie Kern as part of our collaborative speaker series with the City of Kitchener 'Building Equitable Cities', where we invite thought leaders into our community to share knowledge that challenges our tired traditions and builds equity.

Cześć! W tym odcinku zapraszamy Was do rozmowy na temat adresów i przestrzeni. Adres często stanowi dla nas przezroczysty element rzeczywistości, ale Deirdre Mask, autorka jednej z książek, o których mówimy w podkaście, udowadnia nam, że nie zawsze tak było i nie wszędzie tak jest. Zastanawiamy się też nad tym, co to znaczy, że miasto jest „feministyczne” razem z geografką Leslie Kern. Zapraszamy do słuchania! Książki, o których rozmawiamy w podkaście, to: Deirdre Mask, „Adresy. Co mówią nam o tożsamości, statucie i władzy”, tłum. Agnieszka Wilga, wydawnictwo Znak; Leslie Kern, „Feminist City. Claiming Space In A Man-made World”, Verso Books. Za książkę „Adresy” dziękujemy wydawnictwu Znak. Mamy Patronite! Jeżeli chcesz dołączyć do naszego grona Matronek i Patronów będziemy zaszczycone! Dla tych, którzy zdecydują się nas wspierać, mamy spersonalizowane książkowe rekomendacje, newslettery głosowe, podziękowania na stronie i wiele więcej! Szczegóły tutaj: https://patronite.pl/juztlumacze Zachęcamy do odwiedzin na naszym profilu na Instagramie: https://www.instagram.com/juz_tlumacze i na Facebooku https://www.facebook.com/juz.tlumacze oraz na naszej stronie internetowej https://juztlumacze.pl/ Intro: http://bit.ly/jennush

Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee.Public spaces are often the best parts of a city. But during the pandemic, many of us started to realize how our public spaces, like parks, weren't quite working for us. In this episode, we hear from three experts: Adri Stark, project manager at Park People and one of the authors of the 2021 Canadian City Parks Report; Leslie Kern, the author of Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World and Anna Zivarts, the director of the Disability Mobility Initiative Program in Washington. In conversation with Adrian, they share how public spaces are failing people in ways we might not often consider, and how we can really make them work for all of us.

Public spaces are often the best parts of a city. But during the pandemic, many of us started to realize how our public spaces, like parks, weren't quite working for us. In this episode, we hear from three experts: Adri Stark, project manager at Park People and one of the authors of the 2021 Canadian City Parks Report; Leslie Kern, the author of Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World and Anna Zivarts, the director of the Disability Mobility Initiative Program in Washington. In conversation with Adrian, they share how public spaces are failing people in ways we might not often consider, and how we can really make them work for all of us.

An exciting special episode of On the Engender today as we are joined by author Leslie Kern and urbanism expert Daisy Narayanan, hot off the heels of an event held in September.  Alys Mumford and Amanda Aitken chat with Leslie, Daisy and Engender's Policy and Parliamentary Manager Eilidh Dickson about planning, transport, safety, care work, and how we can build feminist spaces.  Content note: this episode includes reference to Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa's murders.  Recommendations from this episode are: Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin Following Glasgow Women's Library, Talat Yaqoob, Louise MacDonald, Engender and Leslie Kern on Twitter Feminism, Interrupted by Lola Olufemi Schitt's Creek She Settles in the Shields: 10 years on  How we live now: reimagining spaces with Matrix Feminist Design Collective Feminist Housing Activism blog series Access a transcript of this episode here and watch the webinar here. On the Engender is produced for Engender by Amanda Aitken. Jingle by Bossy Love.

Na czym polega planowanie przestrzeni miejskiej tak, aby była przyjazna kobietom czyli idea „feministycznego miasta”? W kontekście znakomitej książki Leslie Kern pod tytułem „Feminist City [Feministyczne miasto]” zastanawiamy się nad tym, w jaki sposób w mieście funkcjonują kobiety, z czym muszą się mierzyć i jak „odzyskują miasta” - nie tylko nocą. Gościnią odcinka jest ponownie Marta Mazurek, dzięki której kobiety są obecne w przestrzeni publicznej Poznania. Polecamy: Leslie Kern „Feminist City. Claiming Space in a Man-Made World” Super rozmowy z Leslie Kern: https://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk/film/feminist-city https://www.publicbooks.org/what-would-a-feminist-city-look-like-talking-with-leslie-kern/ O inkluzywnych miastach i rozwiązaniach w mieście: https://miastojestnasze.org/miasta-maja-plec-i-jest-to-zazwyczaj-plec-meska/ https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/04/23/feminist-city/ https://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk/film/feminist-city O dobrych praktykach wyrównywania szans w miastach europejskich przeczytacie w raporcie „Gender Equal Cities”, czyli miasta równościowe ze względu na płeć. Przeczytacie tam też o Poznaniu: https://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/urbact-genderequalcities-edition-pages-web.pdf Wspominamy jak zwykle godne polecenia lektury, m.in. E. Kay Trimberger „Nowa Singielka” oraz Rebecca Traister “All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation”.

Luke Clancy and guests explore cities: how they are - and how we dream they'll be; who they serve and who they hinder. On the panel, artist, Sven Anderson, architect, Noreile Breen, curator, Lar Joyce and scholar, Leslie Kern. (First broadcast 281120)

Librarians love getting book recommendations too! As a citywide initiative, Providence Community Library invited Groundwork Rhode Island's Executive Director, Amelia Rose, to co-host PCL READS in April 2021 and to select the next book. Combining personal memoir, feminist theory and pop culture analysis, Feminist City by Leslie Kern is a revelatory work that “offers intersectional insights into the gendered nature of the modern city” (Kirkus). This episode features Leslie Kern's talk, but you can listen to the full community conversation that followed at Providence Community Library YouTube Channel- just start the video at 29:00 to pick up where the episode leaves off! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Leslie Kern is an Associate Professor of Geography and Environment and Director of Women's and Gender Studies at Mount Allison University. She is the author of Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-made World and Sex and the Revitalized City: Gender, Condominium Development, and Urban Citizenship. Her research focuses on gentrification in North American cities, exploring issues such as embodiment, gendered labor conditions, and environmental and human health using feminist urban theory. ABOUT GROUNDWORK RI Groundwork Rhode Island is a community-based non-profit dedicated to creating healthier and more resilient urban communities in Rhode Island. They achieve this through a variety of urban stewardship programs, which seek to support local residents in the development of economic resources that improve their individual lives and communities, as well as improve both the natural and built urban environment, especially in economically-distressed areas. Groundwork RI's core programs include Green Team youth employment, adult environmental job training, Harvest Cycle composting service, which employs both youth and adults involved in Groundwork RI's programs, and GroundCorp landscaping service, which hires graduates of the adult job training program. Groundwork RI also runs the Ring Street Community Garden in Providence's Federal Hill neighborhood, the Prairie Avenue Greenhouse in South Providence, and the soon-to-be West End Compost Hub --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rhodyradio/message

Leslie Kern is the author of The Feminist City — Claiming Space in a Man-Made World, a book which, since publication in 2019, has sparked conversations between those who design the city, and those who study it, and who live in it. In this episode, she speaks with Reuben J. Brown about the inequities and complexities of our dominant urban designs and ways of living, while looking towards more liveable, more just, alternatives.And the new urban world Leslie Kern imagines in the Feminist City isn't designed in a top-down, universalising way — like the utopian urban dreams of the mid 20th Century. Rather, she seeks existing and historical pockets of feminist cities and asks what it would mean to extrapolate those models more broadly. Leslie's academic background is in gender studies: she's currently an associate professor of geography and environment, and director of women's and gender studies, at Mount Allison University in Canada. And she brings this viewpoint to discussing the city: acknowledging the complex layers of physical infrastructure and human relationships; private homes, and public squares, that make up the places we live. Throughout this conversation, you'll hear us reference writers, and design collectives who have imagined feminist alternatives, and often put them into practice. And to learn from the success of these projects, is to acknowledge that if design is to have an impact on the culture of patriarchy, it first has to change its own culture; move away from the notion of the master architect, and do a lot more listening from the bottom-up.

How to make better and safer public spaces for women and girls around the world. With Imogen Clark, co-founder of Make Space for Girls, and Leslie Kern, author of ‘Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Author of 'Feminist City: A Field Guide' Dr. Leslie Kern explores how cities exclude women and other minority groups when being designed and constructed. #MyJasper Memories | Spirit Island - Ryan reminisces about the jagged mountain peaks surrounding the glacier-fed waters of magical Maligne Lake, where the world-famous Spirit Island can be discovered (only by boat). jasper.travel/realtalk Introducing the 'Local Democracy Pledge' to encourage Alberta election candidates to uphold positive, solution-oriented culture, free from undue partisan and financial influences. Alberta Urban Municipalities Association's President Barry Morishita, St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron and Edmonton City Councillor Andrew Knack outlines the need for the voluntary pledge now. #DropTheUCP Protester Albert Nobbs explains why he's occupying the Alberta Legislature grounds this week in downtown Edmonton. 16:12 - Dr. Leslie Kern 34:53 - Local Democracy Pledge panel 1:38:02 - Albert Nobbs

“Physical places like cities matter when we want to think about social change,” writes Leslie Kern. So in this third episode in a trilogy on 21st century feminisms, Matt & Jesse move from celebrating feminist manifestoes to exploring feminist geographies with a discussion of Kern's Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World. This richly observed mapping of man-made urban spaces expertly juxtaposes pop cultural reflections, academic scholarship and hauntingly personal accounts of a lifetime struggling to claim feminine space in cities, first as a child, then a teenager & college student and later as a mother & scholar. As the feminist geographer Jane Darke once said: “Our cities are patriarchy written in stone, brick, glass and concrete.” In all-too obvious displays of crude masculine power, the towering phallic monuments to capitalist expropriation that define city skylines cast long shadows reminding us all that this is a man's world. From 12th century churches, to 20th century office towers, and from Beverly Hills mansions to billionaire's row penthouses—cities are monuments to myth-making, extraction, and exploitation—making concrete structures out of the poisoned logics of religion, capitalism, and celebrity. The world is built by and for patriarchy, and it's the “cosmic background radiation” of white, male, cis-hetero, and able-bodied privileges that allows men to coast through life on cruise control, never burdened by the realities of other people's lives. Free from the constant nagging fear of sexual violence lurking around every public and private corner, men not only enjoy the privilege of designing our global cities, but they're also free to explore them with unrestrained liberty. The geography of the city demonstrates clearly that the maintenance of capitalism is contingent upon an ever-present threat of violence, and primarily on gender-based violence. The sustained anxieties perpetuated by patriarchy and white supremacy are manifest not only in the violence enacted through policing and policy making, but also in the shape of our urban environments. So to transform the city, we must look beyond simply “gender-mainstreaming” city planning and vacuous liberal pleas for symbolic reforms. As Kern writes, “once we begin to see how the city is set up to sustain a particular way of organizing society—across gender, race, sexuality, and more—we can start to look for new possibilities.” So we must start to look for those possibilities to decommodify life and democratize society. Because the reality is, without challenging the notion of private property, we aren't challenging the patriarchy. Private property and the enclosure of land is the conscription of patriarchy on the planet. To demolish this structural domination and transform our cities into environments that are open, safe, and free for everyone, we must once and for all—abolish the motherfucking cost of living.    Comprehensive Show Notes Can Be Found at thefutureisamixtape.com Feel Free to Contact Jesse & Matt on the Following Spaces & Places: thefutureisamixtape@gmail.com Facebook Twitter Instagram

I think about the space I take up in the world a lot as a woman. There is rarely a day that goes by that I’m not acutely aware of how my gender affects the outcome of a lot of the choices I make but like many, I’m so immersed in my experience that I rarely give thought to how the world I interact in actually determines the space I have physically. My next guest has done a deep dive on this matter thankfully. Leslie Kern, is a feminist geographer, and has laid out what a female centric city might look like through the lens of motherhood, friendship, protest, and safety in her new book Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World. Trust me, you’ll never look at the infrastructure surrounding you quite the same way again. Book: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3227-feminist-city Twitter: https://twitter.com/LellyK Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lellyk/

Leslie Kern When I first saw the title of Leslie Kern's book, Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World, I was intrigued. Then I started reading it and I was fascinated. In this book Kern talks about things that are so much a part of the norm that we often don't notice them, until we do. For instance, have you ever thought about the way that public transit is perfectly designed for the way most men work but not at all for the way a lot of women work?  What about the ways that women engage with the issue of safety, particularly in cities? The words we say to our female friends as we go our separate ways at night, "Text me when you get home", come to mind. Or how about the ways in which suburban living reinforces and perpetuates stereotypical gender roles? Honestly, this book and talking with Leslie made me look at so many things differently than I had before. Eye-opening doesn't begin to cover it. I loved talking with her so much. Have a listen, read her book, and spread the word. For a written transcript of this episode click here.

In our second episode we are joined by Dr. Leslie Kern, author of the book 'Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World' and Rosa Tully, a sociology student at the University of Sheffield, writing her dissertation on how to make Sheffield a more feminist city. Now more than ever a rethink about how we design our cities is required to make them a safer, more equal place for all. We discussed what makes a feminist city, what is needed to achieve one and if it is possible under capitalism and privatisation of housing and public space?

The Agenda

I'm very happy to start this new series of podcasts with an interview of Leslie Kern, whose book Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-made World (2020) I found so inspiring. Leslie is an associate professor of geography and environment and director of women's and gender studies at Mount Allison University, in Canada. With the pandemic and much political, economic and social chaos, 2020 generated lots of questions about cities, urban life, and activism. Many people wonder whether cities still have a future. I'm sure they do. But maybe more so if they are “feminist cities”. And that's why Leslie Kern's ideas are even more relevant than ever.She is “proud to call [herself] a feminist geographer”. Twenty years ago, people may have mocked the idea that geography could be sexist or feminist. Today more people understand that urban planning does indeed have consequences on gender equality, and that we need to take more diverse points of view into account to make housing and infrastructure better for all. As I wrote in a Laetitia@Work newsletter on the subject of feminist cities:This means we can't let urban planning be designed by default for the nuclear family. First, the nuclear family default is not great for feminism. Second, the traditional nuclear family is no longer the norm: there are so many single-parent families, single people, same-sex couples, and all sorts of alternative family arrangements that the traditional 1950s nuclear family is now in the minority. A “feminist city” is an inclusive city that makes life easier for more people.I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast as much as I enjoyed recording it. Please share it with someone else who you believe might like it too

What does a fully inclusive city look like? With issues like policing, housing, child care, surveillance, and education in the news, due to the uprising and the pandemic, Leslie Kern and I consider what a city that is built for the use of all people -- not just the professional class -- could look like. Support this podcast: http://patreon.com/publicintellectual http://jessacrispin.com