Radical Reading Room Book Event | Unlocking Sustainable Cities
We’re delighted to announce our next Radical Reading Room author event, ‘Unlocking Sustainable Cities’ with Paul Chatterton.
Join us for an evening of discussion with urban innovators and community members who are reimagining our city and unlocking the huge potential of real sustainability. The event will include an author talk, panel discussion and audience Q&A.
About the book...
This book is a manifesto for real urban change. Today, our urban areas are held back by corporate greed, loss of public space and rising inequality. This book highlights how cities are locked into unsustainable and damaging practices, and how exciting new routes can be unlocked for real change.
Paul Chatterton explores the power of these city experiments that harness the creative power of the collective, focusing on five themes: compassion, imagination, experimentation, co-production and transformation; and four city systems: mobility, energy, community and nature. Imagining radical alternatives, such as car-free, post-carbon, common and 'bio-cities', this is a toolkit for unlocking real urban change.
- https://unlockingsustainablecities.org/about.html
- https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745337012/unlocking-sustainable-cities/
About The Author: Paul Chatterton
Paul Chatterton is an academic, campaigner and writer. He is currently Professor of Urban Futures in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. He is the co-author of Do It Yourself (Pluto, 2007), author of Low Impact Living (Routledge, 2016), Unlocking Sustainable Cities (Pluto, 2018) and How to Save the City (Agenda, 2023)
- https://unlockingsustainablecities.org/about.html
- https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/geography/staff/1015/professor-paul-chatterton
- https://www.howtosavethecity.org/
- https://www.leedsloveitshareit.co.uk/the-team
- https://www.howtosavethecity.org/
PANEL GUESTS
GRACE HILLS (SHE/HER) Grace is a designer/maker, climate activist and guerilla gardener who’s known locally for turning her city street into a real-life ‘Garden of Eden’ by planting its verges with wildflowers and fruit trees.
ANZIR BOODOO (HE/HIM) Anzir leads Climate Action Leeds' City Plan. He has a keen interest in how cities are built and rebuilt, and is coordinator of the Urbanism Group of the Architects Climate Action Network, as well as running the mailing list of planning activism and research network Planners Network UK.
HOWARTH TOWLER (THEY/THEM) Haworth is a member of the committee for Pride of Place Living a housing project aiming to co-produce and build a multi-generational community created by and for LGBT+ people in Leeds. They have a background in equity and inclusion and an interest in community building and mutual aid, that spans understanding how the built environment might support and sustain belonging. They are involved in the design and facilitation of regular co-production workshops with the resident interest group to discuss the wants and needs of the community.
CLAUDE HENDRICKSON (HE/HIM) Claude is a community land trust ambassador and accredited community-led housing adviser. He is also an EDI trainer on the Confederation Cooperative Housing (CCH) Four Million Homes program and community engagement lead for the Climate Action Leeds Network.In the late eighties, Claude Hendrickson led an inspiring community-build project, which saw unemployed African Caribbean men gain construction skills and build homes for themselves and their families in Chapeltown, Leeds. Since then, he has received an MBE for his continued work holding the torch for community-led housing.
OTHER INFORMATION
16.04.2025-28.04.2025 Home Exhibition
Left Bank has invited artists of all backgrounds and disciplines to explore the theme of HOME. What it means, the memories it holds and the hopes it inspires. How does home feel as the environment around us is rapidly changing?
This exhibition welcomes personal reflections, broader social commentaries, and imaginative interpretations of what home is and can be. We’ll be discussing this theme during the event.
30.04.2025 Radical Reading Group
This event is part of our Radical Reading Room which meets on the last Wednesday of every month. Unlocking Sustainable Cities will be our April book selection. Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase signed copies of the book or borrow from the library at the event.
