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Date and time: Wednesday 23rd February 2005,
2-6 pm
Venue: The Women’s Library, Old Castle
Street, London, E1
www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
Although suburbs are home to 86% of England's population
(In Suburbia Report, 2002), they are largely ignored
in the debate on the urban renaissance and in current
regeneration policies. In their form and design, suburbs
are also gendered spaces, shaped by assumptions about
home, work and family. The suburban lives of women and
men are often very different. Women are more likely
than men to work as well as live in suburbs and to use
suburban shops and public transport. This seminar will
investigate why suburbs need to be included in regeneration
policies and the ways in which suburban regeneration
can improve the everyday lives of women. The seminar
also considers media and other representations of women
living, and often working, in suburbia.
Suburban regeneration is now on the national agenda.
In 1998 the Civic Trust (www.civictrust.org.uk)
began a 5-year Sustainable Suburbs Project, funded by
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and devised a Sustainable
Suburbs Toolkit to assist local authorities in measuring
the nature of decline in suburban areas. In 2002, a
report entitled 'In Suburbia' was prepared by the Local
Government Association, the South East England Regional
Assembly, the Civic Trust, Bury Metropolitan Borough
Council, London Borough of Harrow, Hampshire County
Council and Rushmoor Borough Council to raise the national
profile of suburbs (www.hants.gov.uk/urbanliving/new_html/suburbia_html/sub_index.html).
Two speakers at the seminar - Claire Codling from the
London Borough of Harrow and Alex Rook from the Civic
Trust - will talk about their work as part of the In
Suburbia National Partnership, focusing on two case
studies: East Finchley High Street and Wealdstone District
Centre.
The seminar is jointly convened by the London Women
and Planning Forum and the Centre for Suburban Studies
at Kingston University. Established in 2003, the Centre
for Suburban Studies is the first research centre dedicated
to the study of the suburb in the UK, and is the world's
first research centre to study the suburb in cultural,
multi- and interdisciplinary terms. The Centre seeks
to define Suburban Studies as 'an important, timely
and original area of inquiry for both the academic and
the wider community' (http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/centres/css).
Vesna Goldsworthy, Director of the Centre for Suburban
Studies, is the third speaker at the seminar, and will
discuss gendered representations of suburbia.
Speakers
Claire Codling London Borough of
Harrow
Vesna Goldsworthy Centre for Suburban
Studies, University of Kingston
Alex Rook The Civic Trust
Discussant
Alison Blunt Queen Mary, University of
London
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