Ethical Cities virtual book launch - April 2021
Moderator (Jago Dodson - top left) with panelists (Wendy Steele - top middle and Brad Hooker - bottom middle) and authors (Brendan Barrett - bottom right, Ralph Horne - bottom left and John Fien - top right)
According to Mike Berry (RMIT University emeritus professor) the final chapter of the book Ethical Cities is important because “it focuses on what social scientists call the transition problem. How to get from A to B? From inequality and insecurity to the opposite, to the ethical city, when there is a huge chasm between both. So what is really needed is a staged strategy. First, I would suggest working on the most egregious and/or strategic examples of urban failure. Then wait for the right time to aim higher, usually when a crisis hits.”
This commentary was delivered during the 29 March 2021 virtual launch event for the book on Ethical Cities. The event was facilitated by Professor Jago Dodds, Director of the RMIT Centre for Urban Research and included keynotes from Mike Berry and from Professor Mitsuho Ikeda of Osaka University.
In commenting on the book, Mitsuho Ikeda mentioned how he “appreciated that the goal [of the authors] is not pursuit of a perfect ethical city but that employing ethical perspectives is very important in influencing how we see the world and our place in it.“
A recording of the keynote session is shared below.
In the subsequent panel discussion, Associate Professor Wendy Steele of RMIT University, pointed our how the right to the ethical city is about “building bridges of hope, networks of care, and working in mutually respective ways with deep fearlessness and revolutionary pragmatism across the urban terrain.” She continued by highlighting how we need to “approach our cities and ourselves as an ethical enquiry with, as Leonie Sandercock once said, a frame of mind much more humble, much more open and much collaborative than that of the herioc modernist planner.” She contiuned by highlighting how “an ethic of care has really surfaced as a rallying point for action in the Anthropocene.”
Next, Andrew Hollows, RMIT Senior Industry Fellow and Executive Manager with Launch Housing (a community organisation passionately committed to ending homelessness) spoke on how the notion of the ethical city might be capable of advancing the affordable housing cause. He remarked on the way the “nuts and bolts of what an ethical city looked like really came home in July last year. He explained that “our agency at the height of the pandemic in July housed 2,000 people in hotels...it became abundantly clear… that you could solve rough sleeping pretty simply. Meaning you actually had the money and the will.”
The third panelist was Brad Hooker, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading and Co-Director of Ethical Reading (a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to making Reading a better place to live and work through helping organisations become more ethical). He was asked to address the question of how it may be possible to turn ethical cities from a concept into practice? He explained how the book’s main theme is that “ethical cities need to…reduce poverty and inequality…increase good governance, democracy and social inclusion…and address the climate crisis…” These are the main outcome aims and there are also process aims…“to have the city governed in a way that is transparent and accountable, and have an engaged population in the city…” He warned, however, of tensions between the specificity of the outcomes and the process aims, especially in cases where democracy can get hijacked, and outlined practical ways to avoid this.
The recording of the panelist contributions is available below.
The final segment of the book launch involved the authors - Brendan Barrett, Ralph Horne and John Fien - responding to questions from the audience. These were wide-ranging from the relationship between the ethical city and the Sustainable Development Goals, to the role of business in the ethical city and also whether there are implications for patterns of land ownership.
The responses of the authors are shared in the recording below.