The GW4 “At a Distance: The Urban Scholarship Elsewhere” Community

Amid a global urban transition that extends well beyond the developed North, UK Higher Education Institutions have recruited academics from diverse ‘elsewheres’, often in countries situated in what has been termed sites of the Global Majority, keen to ensure leadership at the forefront of urban knowledge creation and theory development. Despite these intentions, UK-based academics with expertise and experience in such ‘elsewheres’ often find their ability to contribute to theory-building, research projects and grant funding, limited. 

This project aims to establish a community of ‘elsewheres’ researchers across the GW4 alliance who are passionate about using their expertise to advance a globally relevant urban scholarship and develop ambitious new theorisations of the urban. The objectives of the community include uncovering the experiences of living in a country situated in the Global North while researching elsewhere and collectively addressing the difficulties of pursuing such work within UK academia. Through a set of online and in person events (details provided below) this project will strengthen and augment existing expertise to build a robust regional coalition of ‘elsewheres’ urban scholars in the UK’s Southwest. 

The project will produce:

• A two-day community-generating meeting in Bristol for urban scholars across the GW4 who are originally from, and/or conduct research about, ‘elsewheres’. This will be the first initiative to bring together a critical mass of such scholars across institutions, pooling dispersed voices to reflect on the challenges of working at a distance and explore opportunities for collective action. 
• A series of online sessions among project leads to develop grant proposals and business case.
• A central online hub to showcase member profiles and shared resources.