This seminar will be in person at Niagara C0826 and hybrid on Zoom (link here).
Speaker: Emelie Lantz (PhD in Human Rights Studies, Lund University)
Title: Beyond Service Provision: Reclaiming Human Rights in Local Urban Development
Abstract: Grab your lunch and join me for a discussion on how global norms of social sustainability and human rights are translated into local practice. Focusing on cross-sector partnerships between the City of Malmö and civil society organisations in socio-economically vulnerable areas, this seminar explores the tensions between public duty-bearers and rights-holders in participatory projects.
To analyse these dynamics, the presentation draws on my recent research, which introduces vernacularisation as a framework for understanding how global norms translate into local practice. The framework is used to map local translation along a spectrum from superficial to transformative. The findings reveal that governance structures dominated by short-term funding and projectification constrain true participation. In this presentation, I will also introduce the idea of “imposed participation”, where rights are made conditional and civil society is pushed into service provision. The session concludes by advocating a progressive interpretation of human rights that centres collective self-organisation and residents’ power to shape urban spaces.
About the speaker: Emelie Lantz is a new Ph. Doctor in Human Rights Studies at Lund University. Her focus is on human rights in local implementation, especially how human rights relate to social sustainability, the role civil society plays in local implementation, and exploring local collaborative projects and methods.
This seminar is part of the IUR Brown Bag Seminar Series. Bring your lunch! If you have any questions, please contact Defne Kadioglu and Julie Goodrich.