Intercultural Cities Conference

01 - 03 May 2008

SPEAKERS

Ash Amin is a world renowned economic geographer. He is Professor in the Centre for the Study of Cities and Regions and Executive Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Durham with research interests in spaces of social, political and economic change. He was race and ethnicity adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and authored the influential report to the UK government on the 2001 civil unrest entitled Ethnicity And The Multicultural City: Living with Diversity. 

Franco Bianchini is a specialist in urban cultural policies in Europe and has advised several cities on cultural strategy. He is Professor of Cultural Planning at Leeds Metropolitan University and was before that a Reader in Cultural Planning and Policy and Director of the Cultural Planning Research Unit at De Montfort University. Franco's recent publications include Cultural citizenship and urban governance in Western Europe and Planning for the Intercultural City (with Jude Bloomfield) and he is currently researching a new book on port cities.

Jude Bloomfield is an independent researcher. She previously taught European politics and history at University College, London and was a researcher on The Intercultural City – Making the Most of Diversity project for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, from which her book Intercultural Innovators – Learning from Lifestories is forthcoming. Currently she is collaborating with the ERICArts Intercultural Dialogue project. Recent publications include Planning for the Intercultural City, Crossing the Rainbow, and Made in Berlin: Multicultural Conceptual Confusion and Intercultural Reality.

Pascale Bonniel Chalier is deputy mayor of Lyon for cultural events and activities, and is an officer of the Commission Nationale Culture des Verts. She has pursued a career in international affairs within the academic and government sectors. For several years, she worked for the Agence Rhône-Alpes de Services aux Entreprises Culturelles (ARSEC). She is a founding member of the European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres (ENCATC), created in December 1992 and sponsored by the Council of Europe.

Richard Brecknock is an authority on intercultural urban design. Based in Adelaide and Brisbane, Australia and is the author of More than Just a Bridge: Planning and designing culturally. Richard has a background as a professional film maker and visual artist prior to establishing Brecknock Consulting in 1988. He has been involved in a wide range of urban design projects around Australia, and has carried out work in the UK, Scandinavia and is currently advising on public art policy in Dubai. 

Claire Chidley has been a senior manager in local government for 20 years most recently as Corporate Director of Test Valley Borough Council. She specialises in how organisations can transform their structures, performance, systems and culture by utilising creative management techniques and models. She is especially interested in how emotional and spiritual intelligence, coaching, learning organisation theory can aid organisational development. She has an MA Performing Arts and an MBA and is trained in life-coaching (Founder Member of the Institute of Master Coaches) and Deliberation Techniques with the National Issues Forum USA. She is currently a partner with Comedia.

Greg Clark is a city and regional development advisor with 20 years experience, principally in leadership roles in city agencies in London, UK, and advisory roles with many cities/regions internationally, Governmental and inter-Governmental organisations. He currently holds a portfolio of core roles; including Advisor on City and Regional Development to the UK government, Global Practice Advisor at the London Development Agency, and Chairman of the OECD Forum of Cities and Regions. He is currently principal advisor to the British Council on its Open Cities programme.

Maurice Irfan Coles is and Chief Executive of the Schools Development Support Agency in Leicester, and prior to that was Senior Educational Adviser to the education authority in Birmingham. He is the author of Education and Islam: a new strategic approach and Every Muslim Child Matters: practical guidance for schools and children.

Carol Coletta is a passionate advocate for cities, and she has devoted her life to answering the question: What makes cities succeed? She is the head of CEOs for Cities, a network for urban leadership based in Chicago. She has previously run her own consulting company and been executive director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation. She hosts weekly conversations with urban leaders and thinkers on the Smart City radio station. 

Ilda Curti is Deputy Mayor of the city of Torino, with responsibility for urban development and integration. She has previously been director of the Porta Palazzo regeneration project in Torino and was also head of the city’s International Planning and Local Development Unit. She is a founder and Board Member of Fondazione Fitzcarraldo.

Anwar Fazal is one of the world’s most active grassroots campaigners. The former president of the International Organization of Consumers' Unions, he is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award ‘the alternative Nobel Prize’ and is currently engaged with peace-making and interfaith dialogue through the Malaysian Interfaith Network and the Taipei Peace Initiative. He started several global popular mobilisation initiatives including World Consumer Rights Day (March 15th), World Wetlands Day (February 1st), World Breastfeeding Week (August 1st to 7th) and World Migrants Day (December 18th). He lives on the island of Penang, Malaysia.

Irena Guidikova is a graduate of Political Science and Political Philosophy from the Universities of Sofia (BG) and York (UK), she has been working at the Council of Europe since 1994. Her carrier has taken her from the Directorate of Youth and Sport where she developed and carried out a large research programme, through a transversal 3-year project on the future of democracy in Europe, the Private Office of the Secretary General where she was a policy advisor, to her present job as Head of Division of Cultural Policy, Diversity and Dialogue.
Her professional interests in all of the above fields cover areas at the intersection of public institutions and society: public policies and social change, technological development and policy innovation, policy review and advice, strategy development and implementation.

Patrick Hanfling is a town planner from Auckland New Zealand. He is currently Community Engagement Officer with Manchester City Council and heads up the Sense of Place community planning initiative.

Mike Jempson is the co-founder and director of the journalism ethics charity MediaWise. A journalist, author and trainer with over 35 years experience in print, broadcasting and public relations, he has delivered training for journalists and NGOs in over 30 countries on the reporting of children, suicide, health, human rights and diversity issues. He also serves on the NUJ Ethics Council and its Professional Training Committee. He is the longest serving council member of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Treasurer of the Exiled Journalists Network, and on the editorial board of the international journal Ethical Space.

Susanne Justesen work centers on breaking, crossing and spanning the boundaries between disciplines, cultures and differences so as to benefit from diversity in corporate innovation. She advises clients including Procter & Gamble, Ibm, Kraft Food, Ecci (uk), lego, Arla Foods, Deloitte, Danish Design Center, Novozymes, Novo Nordisk, Leo Pharma, Danske Bank, Tdc, Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Jyske Bank and Pfizer. She is also the organizer of the international bi-annual conference “innovating with diversity”. Currently she is setting up an Innoversity Lab for ten Fortune500 companies in the US, which will launch later in 2008. She achieved her PhD degree from Copenhagen Business School (dk).

Keith Khan is Head of Culture for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. A member of Arts Council England's National Council, Keith began his career producing costumes for the Notting Hill Carnival and Trinidad Carnival. He was also part of the creative team that produced the Millennium Dome's opening ceremony before going on to be Director of Design Ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. He was also Artistic Director for the Queen's Golden Jubilee Commonwealth celebrations. Most recently he was Chief Executive of Rich Mix, East London's cultural and Heritage centre. 

Charles Landry is the founder of Comedia. He is a leading advisor on city revitalization and has worked throughout the world. His books include The Art of City Making; The Creative City: A toolkit for Urban Innovators, published to widespread acclaim; Riding the Rapids: Urban Life in an Age of Complexity (2004) and, with Marc Pachter, Culture at the Crossroads (2001).

Marjolijn Masselink is a traveller, an entrepreneur and a politician. She visited over 50 countries, 25 in the last three years alone, to study local cultures and get inspiration for City Safari. This company has organised encounters with the daily life of the diverse city of Rotterdam for over ten years. She is the alderman for welfare and culture in the central district of Rotterdam for the liberal VVD party which is tough on immigration and keen on individual freedom. 

Max Nathan is a Policy Advisor to the Department for Communities and Local Government, with a special interest in the openness of cities and how cultural and ethnic diversity relates to urban economic performance. He is also a research associate at the Centre for Cities and The Work Foundation and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Jan Niessen has written and researched widely on issues related to international migration and anti-racism. He is director of the Brussels-based Migration Policy Group, an independent policy institute on migration and diversity, and is also Director of the Journal of International Migration and Integration. He has led the development of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), a unique study which measures policies to integrate migrants in 28 European countries.

Robert Palmer is Director of Culture and Cultural and Natural Heritage of the Council of Europe. He is a specialist in the European Capitals of Culture, as the Director of both the Glasgow (1990) and Brussels (2000) years and as advisor to many others and author of the definitive evaluation study of Cultural Capitals programme for the European Commission. He holds the Order of Leopold for distinguished service to Belgium, given for his outstanding contribution to cultural life and the UK Award for Arts Regeneration in Cities. He is the author of Eventful Cities: Cultural Management and Urban Revitalisation.

Mr. Gari Pavkovic is the Commissioner for Integration Policy of the City of Stuttgart. For the last 7 years he has been working on the implementation and further development of the goals of the Stuttgart Pact for Integration, the concept of Integration Policy. In addition to this work he is the project manager and member of the steering committee of the European Cities Network CLIP (Cities for Local Integration Policy of Migrants) supported by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Gari Pavkovic holds a Master of Psychology from the Universities of Konstanz and Tübingen, Germany. He was born in Mostar/ Bosnia-Herzegowina. He is married and has two children.

Lord Bhikhu Parekh is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Westminster He has been very active in British political life, having been for five years the Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, and also chairing the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, whose report (called the Parekh Report) was published in 2000. He is author of the book Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. He received the BBC's Special Lifetime Achievement Award for Asians in November 1999, and was appointed to the House of Lords in March, 2000.

Milica Pesic is Executive Director of the Media Diversity Institute. Earlier she was a presenter and editor at TV Serbia for more than 10 years, and has reported for the BBC and Radio Free Europe. She was a founder of the AIM independent news agency (the only network of independent journalists from Southeastern Europe during the Yugoslav wars) and the Reporting Diversity Network. She has conducted media training for the UN, EC, Council of Europe, UNESCO, OSI, Freedom Forum and IFJ. She is a regular commentator on political and media issues in Southeastern Europe for the BBC and CNN.

Fernando Barbosa Rodrigues works for the City Council of Madrid in the Centre for Migration Studies and Intercultural Coexistence. He has managed a variety of projectson social and intercultural mediation, youth education and labour market and migration, but is particularly interested in migrant youth and the use of public space. He originally studied Social Anthropology at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and at the University of Central Lancashire (England). In 2002, he finished a Masters degree on “Heritage and Identity”, undertaking fieldwork in the Cap Verde Islands on the subject of linguistic diversity and post-colonial theories.

Leonie Sandercock is the world authority on cultural diversity and city planning. She is Director and Professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Canada and has authored ten books including Towards Cosmopolis: Planning for Multicultural Cities and Cosmopolis 2: Mongrel Cities of the 21st Century. She is also a film-maker and at the conference she will screen her film of life in Vancouver's Collingwood neighbourhood.

Jagtar Singh is founder and director of The Change Institute – a group of specialists in cross-cultural competence and organizational change. Following an MBA. at Warwick Business School he joined the Office for Public Management before moving on to a role as an Executive Director of a newly Merged Health Authority. He has directed work for clients as varied as the Arts Council, British Army, several government departments and local authorities, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Audit Commission, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Saskia Sassen coined the term ‘the global city’. She was born in the Netherlands and raised in Argentina and Italy. She is now professor of sociology at Columbia University and at the London School of Economics. She is the author of Deciphering the Global: Its Spaces, Scales and Subjects, Cities in a world economy, and Globalization and its discontents. Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money.

Paresh Solanki is a multi skilled freelance media producer, director, project manager and events organiser. He also specialises in people development and media projects relating to social and international development. He was until recently a senior executive with the BBC. This included spells as head of the BBC Asian Programmes Unit, project managing the international TV link-ups for the Live8 concerts and directing the relocation BBC’s Birmingham studios from Pebble Mill to their new offices at The Mailbox. He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society (RTS), member of BAFTA and British Psychological Society.

Ranjit Sondhi CBE has led a life devoted to public service. He has been deputy chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, chairman of the Refugee Employment, Training and Education Forum and a member of the Ethnic Minority Advisory Committee of the Judicial Studies Board. From 1998 to 2006 he was a governor of the BBC and in 2007 was appointed as a Civil Service Commissioner and is currently chairman of the Heart of Birmingham Patient Care Trust. Born in India, he has lived, studied and worked in Birmingham for over 40 years and is a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham.

Geoff Thompson is one of the country’s leading sports politicians. He served as a member of the GB and English Sports Council for 11 years, was a member of the New Opportunities Fund and President and Chairman of the Sports Aid Foundation NW Region. As Founder and Executive Chairman of the Youth Charter, a U.K. registered charity and United Nations Non Governmental Organisation, Geoff has for the past twelve years been at the forefront in developing policies and innovative approaches looking at the role of sport, arts and cultural activity and its role in addressing educational non attainment, health, physical activity, exclusion and anti social behaviour and the effects of guns and gangs on the lives and communities of Moss Side and beyond. Geoff is a former five times World Karate Champion and was honoured in 1995 in the Queens New Year’s Honours list with an M.B.E. for his services to sport. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

Phil Wood became a partner in Comedia after a career in cultural and economic development in local government in the UK. He is the director of Comedia’s Intercultural City project and is the co-author (with Charles Landry) of The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage. 

Gregg Pascal Zachary is a journalist, author and teacher. He spent 13 years as a senior writer for The Wall Street Journal and currently writes for the New York Times, specializing in African affairs. Zachary is the author of The Diversity Advantage: Multicultural Identity in the New World Economy. He is a fellow at the Institute for Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and a senior associate at the Nautilus Institute in San Francisco. Currently, he is writing a book on the political economy of sub-Saharan Africa and a memoir of his marriage to an African, the Igbo hair braider, Chizo Okon.