We are delighted to announce our new project on “Mapping Community Networks in Post-Pandemic Urban Spaces”. The project involves a team of researchers across the University of Nottingham and London Metropolitan University, working in partnership with a range of Third Sector organisations in London and Nottingham (including Nottingham Citizens, Transforming Notts Together, The Brixton Project, The Latin Elephant).
For further information and updates, please visit the project website: https://mappingcommunitynetworks.wordpress.com/
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a dramatic and unique social experience, with major effects on personal and community networks across the world. In the UK, lockdowns and other restrictions have impacted enormously on family and work routines, access to services, ties of mutual support and use of private and public spaces in urban settings. The pandemic has intensified pre-existing urban inequalities – particularly those affecting ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups – but also created conditions for new place-based relationships of care and solidarity.
The University of Nottingham and London Metropolitan University are aiming to work together and with civil society partners to develop and pilot innovative methods to map community networks in post-pandemic urban spaces. These methods aim to highlight existing and potential networks of stakeholders and their relations to local areas, in order to support the development of locally-grounded initiatives that can improve local lives and facilitate a socially just urban recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
With this first, small-scale project, we are undertaking a pilot of our methods in three highly diverse areas which have been going through significant processes of urban change and regeneration: Nottingham city, Brixton (London) and Elephant and Castle (London). The project revolves around the development and organisation of three local workshops (one in each location) in Spring/Summer 2022.
Alessio D'Angelo 