Guest Speaker: Euan Leitch, Chief Executive SURF – Scotland’s Regeneration Forum

The Scottish Government is placing the 20 minute neighbourhood concept at the heart of a number of policy agendas, from health to climate crisis. It’s a concept championed in Paris, Portland and Melbourne but Scotland appears to be the first place to attempt to deliver it nationally. SURF is hosting a network for practitioners on the area, exploring what this really means in practice and asking how easy is it going to be to roll this deceptively simple idea out across Scotland? Euan will discuss the emerging definition of the concept and the challenges to delivery that the network is raising.  

SURF is Scotland’s regeneration forum for practitioners, policy makers and academics. By sharing and channelling the experience, views and ideas and of its extensive membership of over 300 cross-sector organisations, SURF helps to inform better policy and practice for more successful and sustainable community regeneration throughout Scotland. SURF is primarily concerned with shared efforts to tackle the causes and degenerative impacts of poverty and inequalities.  

About Euan Leitch

Euan joined SURF in May 2021 following 8 years with the Built Environment Forum Scotland. He is a longstanding supporter of SURF and its cross-sector collaborative approach to addressing inequalities. He studied Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh followed by Urban & Regional Planning at Heriot Watt. At BEFS Euan delivered a strong programme of strategic policy work that included promoting and fostering the productive links between the built environment and community regeneration, diversity, resilience and the maintenance agenda. A priority for Euan will be ensuring that communities experiencing the consequences of deprivation are actively involved in responding to the climate emergency. Euan is a Board Member of Under One Roof. 

We look forward to seeing you for what is sure to be an informative and engaging seminar. 

Please send an email to: Professor Ryan Woolrych, R.D.Woolrych@hw.ac.uk or Lisa Lavia, ll77@hw.ac.uk in order to join this seminar.

Guest Speaker: Prof Jenny Roe

We have a zeitgeist opportunity of opining right now on what aspects of city design matter most for our mental health during Covid-19. Jenny Roe will offer a broad perspective on what the current pandemic means for public life and public space and how we can leverage tools like tactical urbanism to explore solutions for more permanent – and healthier – city design. She will also present some of the ideas from her book with co-author, Layla McCay, Restorative Cities, urban design for mental health and wellbeing (August 2021).

About Jenny Roe

Jenny Roe is a Professor in Design and Health and Director of the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia, US. Jenny is a former Lecturer in the Built Environment at Heriot-Watt University and now an Honorary Professor of the Urban Institute. Jenny is an environmental psychologist who explores how our interactions with the world shape our health, wellbeing and behaviors. She specializes in understanding how access to restorative environments in our cities create and sustain our health and wellbeing. Jenny has led on world leading research initiatives including multi-disciplinary collaborations amongst experts in public health, medicine, urban design, environmental sciences, geography and psychology. Her research aims to advance social justice by tackling health and environmental inequities.

Guest Speaker: Prof Susan Fainstein, Author of ‘The Just City’

Within the global context of heightened urban competition, approaches to urban development have been justified by their contribution to economic growth rather than to greater justice. Increased inequality and diminished access to amenities and welfare for the already disadvantaged have resulted. The use of justice as a governing principle—defined by the criteria of equity, diversity, and democracy—would require that policies be evaluated in terms of their consequences for different social groups. Arguments for giving priority to justice in planning will be presented, and policy examples from New York, Amsterdam, and Singapore will be used to illustrate different planning approaches and their consequences for more just cities.

About Susan Fainstein

Susan S. Fainstein is a Senior Research Fellow in the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her book The Just City was published in 2010 by Cornell University Press. Among her other publications are The City Builders: Property, Politics, and Planning in London and New York; Restructuring the City; and Urban Political Movements, as well as edited volumes on urban tourism, planning theory, urban theory, and gender and 100 book chapters and articles. Her research interests include planning theory, urban theory, urban redevelopment, and comparative urban policy. She has received the Distinguished Educator Award and the Davidoff Book Award of the Association of American Schools of Planning (ACSP).

Dr. Fainstein has been a professor of planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, and the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. She has been a visiting professor at, among others, the University of Amsterdam and the National University of Singapore. She was an editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and of Ethnic and Racial Studies and been a consultant to various public organizations. She received her B.A. from Harvard University in government, her M.A. from Boston University in African Studies, and her Ph.D. in political science from MIT.