Contributed by Laura Antona
On Wednesday 3rd February 2016, Professor Sylvia Chant and Professor Cathy McIlwaine (Queen Mary, University of London) hosted their book launch for ‘Cities, Slums and Gender in the Global South: Towards a Feminised Urban Future’, at the Gender Institute, LSE.
This brilliant publication is a result of the long-term engagement of the researchers in diverse locations across the global south. Eminent academics spoke during the evening, describing the book as ambitious, comprehensive and thought-provoking – with two of them, Professor Dennis Rodgers (University of Amsterdam) and Professor Katie Willis (Royal Holloway, University London), confessing to be using it as a core teaching text already!
The book, which is beautifully illustrated with photos, centres around the conceptualisation of the ‘gender-urban-slum interface’, a framework for understanding the unique experiences of women in slum environments. The breadth of the research topics, and sites, makes the book a must read for all that are interested in gender and the global south.
As Professor Caroline Moser (Emerita, Manchester) eloquently writes in the Foreword (and emphasised again at the launch itself): “The current conjuncture of both demographic and policy agendas … undoubtedly guarantee the importance of this book for academics and practitioners alike”.
The event also saw the presence of many students from the MSc Urbanisation and Development programme (see the picture below).
Laura Antona is a research student in the Department of Geography and Environment.
