Race, Nation, Infrastructure
We are currently living through a global infrastructure revolution. From Joe Biden’s billion dollar infrastructure plan and China’s belt and road initiative to calls for a Green New Deal, economic investment in infrastructure has moved centre-stage.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Britain and Northern Ireland, where the current Conservative government has centred their post-Covid recovery plan on the much touted “levelling up” agenda.
Originally a nineteenth-century neologism used by Victorian engineers, today this phrase appears in the mouths of ministers, regional mayors, green activists, and even celebrities.
This workshop sets out to facilitate an open and cross-disciplinary discussion of the cultural narratives and political imaginaries that are invested into infrastructure in Britain today.
How is infrastructure bound up with Brexit and Britain’s post-imperial identity? What political work is the “levelling up” agenda doing in the wake of Covid-19? And what might a different imaginative, cultural, and political programme for infrastructure look like, and from where might this emerge?
Delegates and participants of all backgrounds, from across the disciplines and from non-academic sectors, were warmly invited to attend this event. The workshop was comprised not of lectures or formal talks, but short position pieces on key themes that will be followed by extensive opportunity for feedback and discussion. This format was designed to facilitate an open conversation.
Workshop Programme
10.00-10.20: Registration
10.20-10.30: Welcome
10.30-11.30: Session 1. Race and Nation in Britain
Dr Sivamohan Valluvan, Dr Hannah Jones
11.30-12.00: Tea/Coffee
12.00-13.00: Session 2. Infrastructure After Empire
Dr Peter Mitchell, Dr Benjamin Bland
13.00-14.00: Lunch
14.00-15.00: Session 3. Regionalism and Devolution
Professor Janice Morphet
15.00-15.30: Tea/Coffee
15.30-16.30: Session 4. Infrastructures of Care
Professor Jo Littler, Professor Tony Jefferson
16.30-17.00: Tea/Coffee
17.00-18.00: Writer’s reading
Professor Vron Ware, in conversation with Professor Les Back
18.00-19.00: Drink's Reception
