urban – C4D Network

Institutional trust and misinformation in the response to the 2018–19 Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DR Congo: a population-based survey (The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Published: March 27, 2019)

April 14, 2019

The current outbreak of Ebola in eastern DR Congo, beginning in 2018, emerged in a complex and violent political and security environment. Community-level prevention and outbreak control measures appear to be dependent on public trust in relevant authorities and information, but little scholarship has explored these issues. The authors aimed to investigate the role of trust and misinformation on individual preventive behaviours during an outbreak of Ebola virus disease.

961 adults were surveyed between Sept 1 and Sept 16, 2018. The findings underscore the practical implications of mistrust and misinformation for outbreak control.

Click here for full paper.

Falling Freetown + Urban Nomads – Cities, Tension and Urban Planning (London, UK)

May 22, 2018

During an evening of film screenings and discussion, this Frontline Club event will explore tensions and solutions that can be found to make cities places that leave no one behind and that are a joy to live in for everyone.

The evening will begin with the screening of two recent films made by PLACE, the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s website covering land and property rights stories around the world.

Film 1 – Falling Freetown

“Falling Freetown” looks at Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone in the wake of last year’s landslide that claimed the lives of about 1,000 people, a disaster many said was waiting to happen due to poor urban planning combined with rapid migration, deforestation, and freak weather events linked to climate change.

Watch the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/266505415/4f76fbd4df

Film 2 – Urban Nomads

“Urban Nomads” looks at the challenges facing Mongolia’s herding community and the mass migration from rural areas into the capital Ulaanbaatar as climate change and socio-economic changes force people into the city.

Watch the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/266537726

A panel discussion with urban experts will explore the themes raised in the films and discuss solutions that turn these challenges into opportunities for cities. The filmmakers will also be available to answer questions.

People, place, participation: Putting community at the heart of planning and place-making (London, UK)

May 15, 2018

A monthly lecture series that challenges conventional views of social justice, setting a provocative vision for a better, fairer world. Hosted at London’s c18th home of radical thinking: New Unity, Newington Green N16.

This month’s theme: People, place, participation: Putting community at the heart of planning and place-making

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only because and only when they are created by everybody.”
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American, 1961

Even if they don’t know it, communities have a collective intelligence which brings social, economic and environmental value to designing cities and neighbourhoods. Just as the act of voting is a right, it is inherently democratic to bring people genuinely to the heart of planning and placemaking.

Post-war planning and urban renewal has often been undertaken without the involvement and support of local communities and with unintended negative consequences. While the planning system seeks to secure sustainable development in the long-term public interest, all too often becomes adversarial and communities feel alienated from the planning process.

Charles Campion RIBA AoU, Partner at the award winning architectural practice JTP, will explain the background and theory of charrette processes, illustrated with some case studies from his new RIBA publication 20/20 visions.