SFU Urban Studies Lecture Series | What a City is for: Remaking the Politics of Displacement

Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, SFU Vancouver (Woodward’s), 149 W. Hastings St.

Speaker: Matt Hern (and respondents)

Displacement and dispossessions are convulsing cities across the globe, becoming the dominant urban narratives of our time. In What a City Is For, Hern uses the case of Albina— the one major Black neighbourhood in Portland – as well as similar instances in New Orleans and Vancouver, to investigate gentrification in the twenty-first century. Hern questions the notions of development, private property, and ownership, arguing that home ownership drives inequality. How can we reimagine the city as a post-ownership, post-sovereign space?

Reserve seats

Co-sponsors: MIT Press, SFU Woodwards Community Engagement Office, SFU Institute for Humanities, SFU Urban Studies, UBC SCARP