IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

This paper draws on creative and participatory research with migrant, refugee, and minoritised ethnic communities in South-West London that have been on the forefront of facing historical and institutional injustices and racisms and often find themselves living in more unhealthy and deprived urban environments. The research is part of a larger UKRI AHRC- funded ‘Abundance’ study developing community-led ways to facilitate more equitable beneficial engagement with green and cultural assets. Through creative writing and lived experience storytelling workshops and walks, we worked together with local Community Voice Champions to explore different lived experiences of navigating intersecting and place-based inequalities and their effects on one’s sense of wellbeing and urban livability. A particular focus was placed on green and cultural community assets, places, and spaces and how they are perceived, accessed, and used by different communities. The stories that emerged were, on the one hand, about local places embedded in the urban fabric that denote varying connotations of un/belonging to the city as well as places and spaces that provide respite from the struggles of navigating and making ones live in the city. On the other hand, the stories connected to places and opened up metaphorical spaces that detach from the city and invoke associations of rootedness, warmness, and sanctuary beyond the immediate urban environment. The situated, embodied, multi-sensory, and relational ways of knowing that were produced unearth personal, community, and place-based experiences and sensitivities, reveal the intricate relationships between the past, present, and future and allow to sense and imagine alternative ways of being, living, and thriving in the city. In this context, I will ask how storytelling can be leveraged for more empathetic decision-making processes and community-led urban planning – thus building healthier and more equitable, inclusive, and livable urban futures.