A talk from Prof. Inam, Professor and Chair in Urban Design at Cardiff University on Labor Unions and the Production of Urbanism

We are constantly told that cities are designed by urban designers, planners, architects, real estate developers, and public policy makers. However, the presentation illustrates surprising and valuable ways in which social and political movements like labor unions design the city. Labor unions simultaneously shape and are shaped by the spatial political-economy of the U.S. city in highly unusual and influential ways. The presentation examines this phenomenon through original research conducted by the author on two legendary unions, primarily the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas, and secondarily, the United Healthcare Workers East in New York City. The findings show how unions substantially alter the spatial political-economy, that they are among the few organizations countering urban precarity through direct action, and that their success is helped by the spatial features of the city as well as the nature of the local economy. The presentation concludes with insights into new and powerful ways of designing the 21st century city.

Our presenter Dr. Aseem Inam is an activist/scholar/practitioner who is Professor and Chair in Urban Design at Cardiff University, Founding Director of TRULAB: Laboratory for Designing Urban Transformation, and Honorary Professor at The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London. He was previously the John Bousfield Distinguished Scholar at the University of Toronto, and the Founding Director of the highly innovative Graduate Program in Urban Practice at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. He is the author of three books, Planning for the Unplanned, Designing Urban Transformation, and Co-Designing Publics. He currently working on a fourth book on the surprising ways in which Las Vegas provides valuable insights into the true nature of contemporary urbanism, partially funded by a UK Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and has worked on architecture and urbanism projects in Brazil, Canada, France, Greece, India, Morocco, UK, and USA.