News and Blogs

Black Environmental Justice: From urban studies to radical rurals in England 23 January 2023 by glyn - Debbie Humphry (Oxford Brookes University) interviews Julian Agyeman, founder of the Black Environment Network (9th July 2022) Debbie Humphry: Could you just tell me briefly about your involvement in community led planning, situated in a broader context of the idea… Continue reading "Black Environmental Justice: From urban studies to radical rurals in England"
Insights from a London Community Planner 20 January 2023 by glyn - Michael Parkes has worked as a planner since 1967 in public, private and community sectors in GB, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Here he reflects on his work (1985 – 2010) in London as an independent Community Planner, both… Continue reading "Insights from a London Community Planner"
City Farms, not roads! 19 December 2022 by glyn - John Le Corney, a south Londoner who’s kept his accent, moved to the Heeley area of Sheffield in 1975. As he recalled, in an interview for the Spaces of Hope project on 23rd November, he “more or less put a… Continue reading "City Farms, not roads!"
Putting Women in the Centre: women’s community planning in Birmingham 8 December 2022 by glyn - Report by Debbie Humphry. Thanks to the participants who are quoted. It took painstaking detective work to unearth women’s histories of community-led planning in Birmingham from the 1960s.  After scouring archives, texts, exhibitions and films and sending out dozens of… Continue reading "Putting Women in the Centre: women’s community planning in Birmingham"
From Network to Movement: Community Enterprises in Gwynedd, Wales – Newyddion o Gymru: Rhwydwai 2 December 2022 by glyn - Report by Debbie Humphry. Quotations are all from the participants involved in the Community Enterprises (CEs) unless otherwise indicated. Link to the Map  Spaces of Hope - Map (peoplesplans.org) Back in July 2022, we visited one of our case study… Continue reading "From Network to Movement: Community Enterprises in Gwynedd, Wales – Newyddion o Gymru: Rhwydwai"
Planning for People in Brum 7 November 2022 by glyn - Spaces of Hope/PeoplesPlans is conducting research on the histories of community-led planning. We have spoken to people who worked with communities to create the spaces and places needed in Birmingham since the 1960s and we are bringing people into conversation together… Continue reading "Planning for People in Brum"
Blog: Claiming space, culture and community through music, ecstasy and dance 7 June 2022 by michael - Debbie Humphry, talking to Coventry-based artist, documentary filmmaker and producer, Adrian Dowling. Photographs by Jamie Shufflebotham Adi Dowling arrived in Coventry from Dublin in the late 1970s, into a culture of de-industrialising despair, “as in poverty, racism, serious violence”. But from… Continue reading "Blog: Claiming space, culture and community through music, ecstasy and dance"
Project Updates – May 2022 #2 31 May 2022 by michael - We have added a list view of examples of community-led planning to the website which lists the examples of historical community-led-planning (CLP) uncovered by the project so far. We want to add as many examples of community-led planning to the… Continue reading "Project Updates – May 2022 #2"
Project Updates – May 2022 10 May 2022 by michael - We have added an interactive map to the website which shows the locations of historical community-led-planning (CLP) examples uncovered by the project so far. We want to add as many examples of community-led planning to the map as we can… Continue reading "Project Updates – May 2022"
Arts in Regeneration: from creative community-led planning to institutional instrumentalism in East London 27 April 2022 by michael - How can images and aesthetics support community led campaigns? In this blog, Loraine Leeson draws on her experiences with the Docklands Community Poster Project, describing how certain images can become a powerful ‘currency’ for communicating issues and arguments to wider… Continue reading "Arts in Regeneration: from creative community-led planning to institutional instrumentalism in East London"

People’s Planning in Birmingham

Spaces of Hope/PeoplesPlans is conducting research on the histories of community-led planning. We have spoken to people who worked with communities to create the spaces and places needed in Birmingham since the 1960s and we are bringing people into conversation together through a free online workshop event on Friday 2nd December 2022 1-3pm. The aim is to share and compare histories over the decades and discuss how best to represent them in the current day. You can sign up here on Eventbrite

Here is the link if you are able to share this with people who might be interested  https://bit.ly/BhamPlanning

We  hope you can attend. Many thanks. Please contact Debbie for more information dhumphry@brookes.ac.uk