Urban Political Podcast
Episodes
105 -Transforming Local Statehood II: Progressive Possibilities?
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
While the first episode on the transformations of the local state focussed on current authoritarian takeover in different European contexts, this epis...
104 - Transforming Local Statehood I: Towards Authoritarian Takeover?
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Across Europe, local states are in a dire predicament, experiencing the consequences of austerity cuts, shortage of staff as well as a lack of trust i...
103 – Beyond Neoliberal Urbanism?
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Are we seeing the emergence of a new conjuncture for urbanism? The final part of our mini series asks whether authoritarian neoliberalism has created ...
102 - Authoritarian Practices in Urban Government
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today it seems fairly obvious to say that urban government has become more authoritarian – there is vastly increased levels of surveillance, violent...
101 – Authoritarian Populism and the City
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across the world, a rightward populist turn is reshaping politics, everyday life, and the spaces we inhabit. This series examines the rise of authorit...
100 – Looking Back, Looking Forward
28 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is our 100th! We are delighted that we have reached this landmark and thank all our listeners and contributors since we started the Urban...
99 - The Impossible Possibility of 'Home'
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be at 'home', when 'home' is the expression of structural forms of violence, at the intersection of anthropocentrism, patriarchy,...
98 - (Re)Politicising Housing
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is our second episode in collaboration with the ‘Where is Urban Politics?’ hybrid seminar series hosted by the University of Groningen in the...
97 - In Loving Memory of Mark Saunders
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We dedicate this episode to the extraordinary urban filmmaker and tireless social-justice advocate, Mark Saunders, who passed away recently at the age...
96 - Digital Cities and Democracy
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Ross Beveridge, co-founder of our Podcast, and guests discuss the topic of digital cities and democracy. Digitalisation is transform...
95 - The Urban Crisis at Night: Engaging the Polycrisis after Dark
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To what extent does the current polycrisis intensify in urban settings during nighttime hours? Night lives are already characterized by precarity, urb...
94 - Urban Racial Politics in Cartagena, Colombia
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode will be conducted in Spanish, in line with the podcast's aim to de-center urban knowledge production by showcasing distinctive urban pers...
93 - Normative Insurgency: Responses to the Urban Polycrisis from the Global South
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This new Polycrisis series will explore the complex set of protracted, interconnected, and mutually reinforcing crises that disproportionately affect ...
92 - Radically Legal Politics and Housing Expropriation in Berlin
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is a talk by Joanna Kusiak at the Think&Drink Colloquium of Georg-Simmel-Centre for Urban Studies at Humboldt University Berlin. It gives...
91 - The Suburban Frontier
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
African cities are under construction. Beyond the urban redevelopment schemes and large-scale infrastructure projects reconfiguring central city skyli...
90 - Looking Back at Eight Years of Municipalist Government in Barcelona
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we reflect on the rise, evolution, and legacy of Barcelona en Comú, the emblematic movement-party that governed the city of Barcelon...
89 - Book Presentation: Turkish Muslim Women in Berlin
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kulkul presents her ethnographic work with Turkish Muslim women in Berlin as evidence that community is not an entity but is produced by instrumentali...
88 - In Conversation with Heather Dorries (The Urban Lives of Property Series V)
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The Urban Lives of Property, Markus Kip and Hanna Hilbrandt speak with Heather Dorries, about the intersections of settler colonial...
87 - Infrastructures of Urban Citizenship
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This talk focuses on the role of public services in delineating the boundaries of belonging and possibilities of participation in cities. Drawing on t...
86 - Book Review: Concrete City
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Concrete City: Material Flows and Urbanization in West Africa delivers a theoretically informed, ethnographic exploration of the African urban world t...
85 - Authoritarian Urbanism in Eurasia
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is part of our Think&Drink Series in collaboration with the Georg-Simmel-Centre for Urban Studies working with the Humboldt University Be...
84 - How Cities Can Transform Democracy
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is the first seminar in the series 'Where is Urban Politics?' a hybrid seminar series hosted by the University of Groningen, in the academic yea...
83 - Book Presentation: Dithering for the Common Good
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is a new episode from our Think&Drink series in collaboration with the Georg-Simmel-Centre for Urban Studies and the Humboldt University Berlin. ...
82 - Book Review Roundtable: Infrastructural Times
22 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whether waiting for the train or planning the future city, infrastructure orders—and depends on—multiple urban temporalities. This agenda-setting ...
81 - Urban Political x Think & Drink: Maroš Krivy.
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Valuing indeterminacy: Terrain vague, temporary use and the production of urban expertise in Barcelona and Berlin. This is the first episode of a new ...
80 - Spatial Planning in Israel/Palestine and the Gaza War
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we explore the role of land policies and spatial planning in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Our two guests, Oren Yiftachel and Orwa S...
79 - Not in my Gayborhood!
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we are discussing Theodore Greene’s latest book, Not in my Gayborhood! Gay neighborhoods and the rise of the vicarious citizen, pub...
78 - Book Review: Waste and the City
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Waste and the City is a call...
Episode 77 - Post-Socialist Infrastructure
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we talk about garages, trams and trolleybuses! Our guests for this episode, Tauri Tuvikene and Wladimir Sgibnev, help us think about p...
Episodio 76 - En conversación con Clara Salazar (The Urban Lives of Property Series IV)
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this inaugural Spanish-language episode of the Urban Political Podcast, Clara Salazar delves into the history and concept of the ejidos—collectiv...
Episode 75 – Book Review Roundtable: Lively Cities: Reconfiguring Urban Ecology
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lively Cities departs from conventions of urban studies to argue that cities are lived achievements forged by a multitude of entities—human and nonh...
In Conversation with Jean-David Gerber (The Urban Lives of Property Series III)
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of the Urban Lives of Property Series expands discussions geographically and conceptually: Our guest in this episode, Jean-David Gerber, ...
the Far Right and the City
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this discussion, members of the Terra-R (Territorialisations of the Radical Right) network examine the developments of the radical right in Germany...
Rent Strike Series Episode 3
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode three of the Rent Strike Series, focusing on the Veritas Tenants Association’s ongoing multibuilding rent strike in San Francisco to...
Cosmopolitan Solidarity
12 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To live in the age of precarity is a tolling, everyday struggle. It erodes one's strength to carry on, live another day, and keep the hope for a modic...
Property Rights Versus Tenants in Poland
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Unregulated restitution of property to prewar owners (or rather their legal successors) remains a major source of conflict over housing in Poland, mos...
Rent Strike Series Episode 2
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode two of the Rent Strike Series, focusing on the Veritas Tenants Association’s ongoing multibuilding rent strike in San Francisco to d...
Book Review Roundtable: Against the Commons: A Radical History of Urban Planning
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Against the Commons underscores how urbanization shapes the social fabric of places and territories, lending awareness to the impact of planning and d...
Rent Strike Series Episode 1
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The first in an ongoing series hosted by Mathilde Gustavussen
Book Review Roundtable: How Cities Can Transform Democracy
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We live in an urban age. It is well known that urbanization is changing landscapes, built environments, social infrastructures and everyday lives acro...
Book Review Roundtable: Migrants and Machine Politics
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the Global South rapidly urbanizes, millions of people have migrated from the countryside to urban slums, which now house one billion people worldw...
In Conversation with Vera Smirnova (The Urban Lives of Property Series II)
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this second part of the series Urban Lives of Property, Hanna and Markus talk to Vera Smirnova, a human and political geographer to discuss propert...
Russian Academia and Urban Activism in Times of War: Insights from St. Petersburg
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Meet urban scholar Oleg Pachenkov who left Russia few weeks after the invasion of Ukraine. Markus speaks with him about his personal and professional ...
In Conversation with Nick Blomley (The Urban Lives of Property Series I)
02 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast series explores the "life of property" in urban theory and practice. In conversations with scholars who have led the way in property deba...
Are Community Land Trusts Transformative?
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Community land trusts are proliferating across the globe, promoted as a potential solution to the ever-worsening affordable housing crisis. CLTs provi...
On Peripheralisation
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do “peripheries” form? And how does urbanization generate processes of peripheralization? Today, urban research is increasingly confronted wit...
Inside the Woman Life Freedom Movement in Iran
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this gripping account from the current „Woman Life Freedom“ movement in Iran and its impact on cities and its inhabitants. The movement ...
Forums of Discussion: sub\urban - journal for critical urban research
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Having just celebrated the 10th anniversary of the important German-language journal for critical urban research, Ross speaks with sub\urban editorial...
Book Review Roundtable: Art & Climate Change
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The book provides an overview of ecologically conscious contemporary art that responds to today’s environmental crisis, from species extinction to c...
Urbanization: A Contested Concept (Urban Concepts Series)
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Urbanization has become central in recent political discourses, as well as a contested concept in experts' spheres. This podcast of the Urban Politica...
Dispatch from RC21 Conference 2022 – Ordinary cities in exceptional times
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The RC21 Conference 2022, “Ordinary cities in exceptional times,” was held in Athens from August, 24 to 26. A large group of participants from all...
Dispatch from INURA Conference 2022 in Luxemburg
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 30th annual INURA Conference entitled "Small State Big Transitions” was held in Luxembourg from June 25 to 28. Over 60 participants gathered at ...
Landscapes of Care and Control
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode looks at urban landscapes of care and control that emerged during the pandemic in Santiago de Chile (Chile), Bogotá (Colombia) and Berli...
Book Review Roundtable: Fragments of the City: Making and Remaking Urban Worlds
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode moderated by Nitin Bathla, the author Colin McFarlane discusses his recent book Fragments of the City with the critics Theresa Enright...
Racism and Social Mix
08 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Social mix has become a central planning discourse worldwide to address urban inequalities and segregation as key urban problems of the 21st century. ...
Community and Commons (Urban Concepts)
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode of the Urban Concept series, Louis Volont (MIT, Boston) and Thijs Lijster (University of Groningen) discuss with Talja Blokland ...
Ukrainian Cities at War
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to urban researchers sharing their insights on the situation in Ukrainian cities at war, from Kyiv, Kharkiv to Mariupol. Our guests discuss Put...
Troubling Graffiti and Street Art
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do graffiti and street art do? This is the key question of the intriguing podcast conversation among Emma Arnold, Jeff Ross, and John Lennon. Whi...
Housing Expropriation Referendum in Berlin: How it was won and what comes next?
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On the 26th of September over million Berliners voted to expropriate and return to public ownership over 200,000 homes in the city. Deutsche Wohnen un...
Urban Political Special: RC21 Conference Antwerp
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we give you exclusive insights into the RC21 conference 2021 Antwerp. Our guests share their experiences from sessions, keynotes, and ...
Housing Commons & Collectives: European & US Perspectives
02 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After discussing expropriation efforts in Berlin recently, this episode will widen the discussion of housing commons to perspectives, differences, and...
Decolonize/Decenter: Planning in the South
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
‘How can academic research be of service to envisioning alternative planning agendas that reflect the realities of the so-called Global South?’ is...
Green Cities and Contemporary Climate Planning: Politics and Practices
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Green cities and green infrastructure have become common planning practices. But why is nature good and how does green matter? Do all people have equa...
Housing struggles in Berlin: Part II Grassroots Expropriation Activism
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After Andrej Holm delved into the history of 'Mietendeckel', the rent cap legislation in Berlin, in the previous episode on contemporary housing strug...
Housing Struggles in Berlin: Part I Rent Cap
24 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode, we discuss the social and political consequences of last week's rent cap ("Mietendeckel") ruling of the German Federal Constitutional Co...
The urban politics of density in and beyond the pandemic
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast explores how the pandemic is changing density around the world and generating forms of politics. With a diverse group of scholars and pra...
The Urban Hinterlands of Slavery
08 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The transatlantic slave trade had a lasting impact not only on the development of big ports like Liverpool, London, Nantes or Bordeaux, but also in ci...
Film-Making as Urban Research
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Emerging film-makers and urban researchers Nitin Bathla, Sandra Jasper, and Tino Buchholz speak about their avenues into film-production, why film amo...
Urban Climate Finance at the edge of viability?
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Amidst the rapidly unfolding ecological crisis, current research is witnessing ever new financial strategies that aim at making money from urban clima...
Mobilization and advocacy in contexts of massive urbanisation - Part 2
19 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mobilization and Advocacy in Massive Urbanization Contexts - Part I
04 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the global south, many urban regions have become massive. In the familiar renditions of this notion, urban regions, mushrooming in populati...
Radical Municipal Politics in Latin America since the 1990s
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gianpaolo Baiocchi offers us an historical overview of what he terms Radical Cities in Latin America and draws out some lessons from the past 30 years...
COVID-19 and its impact on public life and use of public space
14 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the behavior of people in public spaces in Dortmund (Germany), San Francisco (USA) and Isfahan (Iran)...
Murray Bookchin, Municipalism, Popular Democracy and Left Politics
05 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast we discuss the work of Murray Bookchin, relating it to the experiences and debates around municipalism and wider left political practi...
Multiple Crises and Radical Urban Research (AfterCorona #13)
28 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Starting off from her latest agenda-setting article "What does it mean to be a radical urban scholar-activist, or activist scholar today?" published e...
The Revolutionary Movements in Algeria and Lebanon (AfterCorona #12)
17 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This episode delves deep into the ongoing revolutionary movements in Algeria and Lebanon. Ratiba Hadj-Moussa and Rana Sukarieh provide us with a rich ...
Genealogies of Liveability (AfterCorona #11)
10 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nina Stener Jørgensen and Maroš Krivý offer us the broader picture of the contemporary urbanist discourse of liveability and Jan Gehl's rise to pro...
Urban Commonwealth (AfterCorona #10)
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On the basis of the book _The Death and Life of the Urban Commonwealth_, we discuss with Margaret Kohn her resuscitation of the early 20th century sol...
Teaching and Learning in Urban Research (AfterCorona #9)
29 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Robin Chang and Meg Holden discuss how the Covid-19 situation has disrupted teaching and learning practices in urban research, deepening existing and ...
Spatialities of Shock (AfterCorona #8)
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Reflecting on how shocks are applied as tools to further political agendas, Creighton Connolly, S. Harris Ali, and Roger Keil consider the implication...
Migration and Labour Struggles (AfterCorona #7)
16 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How is the pandemic affecting conditions of labour and migrant workers? How are Unions and other organisations reacting? In this wide-ranging and fore...
Dark Clouds over Informal Settlements II: Responses to the Pandemic (AfterCorona #6)
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dark Clouds over Informal Settlements I: Politics of Land and Infrastructure
03 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Post-growth, Post-Covid? (AfterCorona #5)
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Blaming Density (AfterCorona #4)
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Urban Logics of Action (AfterCorona #3)
18 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Inequalities of the Lockdown (AfterCorona #2)
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The New Municipalism (part 2)
05 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Digital Community Organizing (AfterCorona #1)
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Urbanization of COVID-19
14 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Urban Sustainability as New Financial Fix?
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chile Despertó! Social Uprisings in Santiago
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The New Municipalism (part 1)
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What is "New Municipalism"? In this first of a new series Ross seeks clarification from scholar-activists Bertie Russell and Matt Thompson who give us...
Editorial Talk
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Oh, What Do You Do To Me? the City says to Tinder
19 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On Metrolingualism
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Be Water! Urban Protests in Hong Kong
08 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Heritage vs. Gentrification
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Social Housing was Big
18 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Reviewing Suburban Planet
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Roger Keil's new book, 'Suburban Planet', is a major contribution to (re)thinking the urban age in terms its peripheries rather than its centres. He s...