Rethinking Urban Inequalities
The IAS Research Summit for 2026-27, Rethinking Urban Inequalities is led by Professor Trivik Verma (SSH), Dr Monia Del Pinto (ABCE), Dr Jessica Noske-Turner (LUL), & Pegah Aftabi (SDCA)
Cities are where the contradictions of the contemporary world are so visible. They hold together endless possibilities and profound precarity, a promise to fulfil ambition and abandonment at every corner, obscene riches and tragic homelessness. Several decades of pledges and summits have achieved very little to reduce the impacts of the twin crises of climate change and inequalities. We have all the data and tools we need to deal with the crises we face today. At the same time, computational approaches increasingly shape how urban inequality is measured and addressed. Indices, models and data infrastructures now sit at the centre of policymaking, yet they often reduce complex, relational and political urban life into optimisable variables, while hiding the values and power relations that determine what becomes visible, measurable, and actionable.
Rethinking Urban Inequalities is an Extensive Research Summit that convenes an international task force to critically examine how computational systems construct inequality, and to explore how digital public infrastructures might be reimagined to restore public capacity and support socially just urban futures. The Summit is timely given the growing politicisation of indexification and AI-hype, the expansion of data-driven governance under fiscal pressure, and renewed international interest in open, interoperable and publicly accountable digital infrastructures.
Featuring confirmed IAS Visiting Fellows -
- Associate Professor Jessica Espey, University of Southampton
- Dr Juliana Gonçalves, TU Delft
- Rico Henri Herzog, HafenCity University Hamburg
- Carlos David Jacome Polit, Delft University of Technology & ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
- Namrata Narendra, Independent Researcher and Artist
- Dr Caitlin Robinson, University of Bristol
- Associate Professor Esra Suel, University of Zurich
- Dr Anastassia Vybornova, IT University of Copenhagen
The Summit will produce a Manifesto on Critical Computation for Reducing Urban Inequalities, a collaboration roadmap for sustained international networking, and publication and funding plans. The week-long engagement will establish Loughborough University as a leading international site for interdisciplinary academic and practice-oriented leadership on spatial justice, governance, and digital public infrastructure.
Events and Booking Links
The event programme is currently being finalised, once complete, we will add further details and booking links here.