Women in the centre: dialogue on past and present community-led planning in Birmingham (UK)

Abstract

This essay draws on dialogue generated during a workshop in Birmingham (UK) in which campaigners, historians, artists, academics, students and community organisers came together to discuss the histories and legacies of a city that underwent one of the most radical modernist planning regenerations in post-war Britain. The workshop used a case study of a campaign group, Birmingham for People’s Women’s Group, as a springboard for discussion about the impact and exclusions of planning in Birmingham. Birmingham for People’s Women’s Group emerged in 1989 and worked with voluntary and state actors across the city until the mid-1990s, influencing planning policy to include the needs of women. They addressed the problems arising from a city that had been built on the model of the motor city and for the international commuting businessman, which worked to exclude women and other social groups. Their work led to women’s needs being incorporated into City planning policies, urban design and educational resources. The workshop participants explored the interaction between past and present in a discussion that ranged both temporally and geographically, before and after the Women’s Group’s intervention. They discussed the continuities and repetitions and the breaks and shifts over time in urban planning, and community challenges to it. Through quoted dialogue, this essay also aims to capture the value of coming together in discussion as a way to generate ideas and build understanding. It also contributes to a radical planning history project.