CfP: Engaging Communities in City-making book series

Posted on 31st October, 2024

To celebrate World Cities Day, UCL Press is delighted to announce a call for proposals for the open access Engaging Communities in City-making book series, edited by Barbara Lipietz, Sarah Bell, Tadhg Caffrey and Pablo Sendra. Titles published in the series to date include Engaged Urban Pedagogy and Co-designing Infrastructures.

About the series

There is a growing body of urban research that is grounded in partnerships with community-based organisations, but relatively little has been published in scholarly works that provide an intellectually coherent forum. Most academic publication to date leaves little room to consider and create true, equitable community-based partnerships, or even provide opportunities for community-based organisations to lead their own research. This series will fills these gaps by supporting authors and publications that demonstrate meaningful and thoughtful partnerships, and in particular partnerships led by community organisations and their needs. It aims to raise the scholarly profile of community-engaged research, support unorthodox publishing formats, and share innovation in this field. This will provide enhanced visibility and insight for the existing community in this space, and grow the community to include lesser heard voices.

Engaging Communities in City-making answers the urgent need for creativity and rigour in producing and sharing knowledge at the interface of urban communities and universities to support more sustainable, just and resilient cities. It aims to amplify community voices in scholarly publishing about the built environment, and encourages different models of authorship to reflect research and pedagogy that is co-produced with urban communities. It includes work that engages with the theory and practice of community engagement in processes and structures of city-making. The series reflects diverse urban communities in its authorship, topics and geographical range.

Topics of interest

Topics contributing to this series might include, but are not limited to:

• Participatory planning
• Community engagement with infrastructure
• Community-based pedagogy
• Ethics and politics of community-centred urban processes
• Community organisations & networks as agents in city-making
• Environmental and climate justice

The series aims to publish titles from all regions and countries, and invites expressions of interest for both monographs and edited volumes.

Find out more

For more information or to discuss a proposal, contact:

Pat Gordon-Smith,

Commissioning Editor, UCL Press

p.gordon-smith@ucl.ac.uk