Cities and Multiple Nationalisms

Date and time
Thursday 24 April 2025, 5.30-7.30 pm UK time

Location
Room 121-123, Devon House, 58 St Katharine’s Way, Northeastern University London, London, E1W 1LP

Cities and Multiple Nationalisms 

This event is part of a long-term engagement delineating the conceptual and practical boundaries concerning the impact of different forms of nationalism on the political geographies of cities. Increasing populist and authoritarian currents worldwide signal a growing urgency given the rise of tensions between cities and multiple forms of neo-nationalism. The speakers will explore how and in what ways nationalism possess the potential to influence the nature of urbanisation in the Middle East, Ukraine and India, as they interact in the remaking of global urban studies.

Event Schedule*: Start 5.30pm

Urban Salon Welcome (Phil Hubbard, Kings College London)

Introduction & Chair (Jonathan Rock Rokem, Northeastern University London)

Speakers:

Bulldozer Hindutva: Ethnonationalist scapegoating and Cumulative Eviction Logics 

(Liza Weinstein, Northeastern University Boston)

Military Frontline Cities 

(Michael Gentile, University of Oslo)

Polarizations: when Neo-nationalism meets Global Urbanism 

(Oren Yiftachel, BGU & University College London)

Discussant: Jenny Robinson (University College London)

Q&A

Drinks 7.30pm

*Please register for the event via Eventbrite link below and bring proof of identity document or a photo of your ID on mobile. Pre-registration and ID is required by security at the entrance: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/urban-salon-cities-and-multiple-nationalisms-tickets-1302986249949?aff=oddtdtcreator

About the Participants

Liza Weinstein is Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University Boston. She is editor of International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR), and is currently completing a book titled, The Logics of Dispossession: Local Histories of India’s “World Class” Evictions, which analyses the shifting politics of housing insecurity and anti-eviction activism across urban India. She is also leading a National Science Foundation-funded study on the intersection of legal exclusion, embodiment, and territorial stigma in non-notified communities in Mumbai.

Michael Gentile is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo and associate editor of Eurasian Geography and Economics. He has worked with various themes related to Central and Eastern Europe, including housing, socio-spatial differentiation and, more recently, urban geopolitics. His current regional focus is on Ukraine and he is principal investigator of the Norwegian Research Council project Ukrainian Geopolitical Fault-line Cities: Urban Identities, Geopolitics and Urban Policy.

Oren Yiftachel is an (emeritus) Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Political and Legal Geography, at BGU, Beersheba, and a Prof. (hon) of Geography and Planning at University College London. In a wide range of publications his work has focused on critical understandings of the relations between space, power, inequality and conflict. He uses international comparative research, theoretical development and a focus on Israel/Palestine. Yiftachel is also a social and political activist who is member of several organizations working for social justice, equality and peace, mainly with indigenous and marginalized groups.