Equality and Democracy in Local and City Government

In recent years, with the emergence of the Cleveland Model in the US and the Preston Model in the UK, there has been an enormous upsurge of interest in ways to make local economies more egalitarian and more democratic. Our one-day conference will bring together a range of academics, policy researchers and practitioners to discuss the theory and practice of building more equal and democratic economies at the local and city level, looking at issues including Community Wealth Building, remunicipalisation, and the role of local institutions in creating a more just society. Our keynote speaker is Professor Thad Williamson, who is both an academic political theorist at the University of Richmond, and was also from 2014-16 the founding director of the Office of Community Wealth Building in the City of Richmond, VA, the first institution of its kind in the United States.

Other speakers include:

Cllr Matthew Brown (Leader of Preston City Council)
Jonathan Davies (De Montfort University)
Joe Guinan (the Democracy Collaborative)
Dan Hind (the Next System Project)
Satoko Kishimoto (TNI – the Transnational Institute)
Mathew Lawrence (Common Wealth)
Neil McInroy (CLES – the Centre for Local Economic Strategies)
Sarah McKinley (the Democracy Collaborative)
James Meadway (former chief economist at NEF)
Keir Milburn (University of Leicester)
Frances Northrop (NEF – New Economics Foundation)
Hettie O’Brien (Demos)
Peter O’Brien (Yorkshire Universities)
Martin O’Neill (University of York)
Anthony Painter (RSA – Royal Society of Arts)
Simon Parker (University of York)
Luke Raikes (IPPR)
Carys Roberts (Shared Assets)
Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper)

For further details, including a schedule of talks, please have a look at: Equality and Democracy in Local and City Government (PDF , 1,922kb)

Admission: Free and open to all but please book ahead at: http://bit.ly/YorkEqualityandDemocracy7Jan

The event has been organised by the Department of Philosophy at the University of York, in association with the Centre for Urban Research (CURB), and with the support of the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) and the Research Centre for Social Sciences (RCSS).