This conference will celebrate the launch of the book 'Displaced Urbanism', edited by Gihan Karunaratne. This book critically interrogates dominant narratives surrounding displacement by examining how it unfolds across diverse urban and rural settings worldwide. It addresses the intricate realities of displacement and its impact on the built environment.Through a series of case studies spanning cities, refugee camps, and small towns, the book reveals how communities are uprooted and resettled not solely due to conflict or political unrest but also to economic shifts, environmental changes, and urban development. Challenging conventional dichotomies between voluntary and forced migration and formal and informal resettlement, this volume advocates for a nuanced understanding of displacement that captures the lived experiences of affected communities. Examining the politics of space-making in urban contexts, the book interrogates the roles of governments, private corporations, and individuals in shaping displacement dynamics. Thematic sections provide diverse perspectives on the creation, transformation, and contestation of urban spaces in the context of mobility and migration.This volume critically analyses the socio-spatial transformations prompted by displacement, bringing together scholars from anthropology, architecture, urban planning, and related fields. It examines the socio-spatial shifts triggered by displacement, emphasising the role of human agency in navigating and reshaping environments under displacement conditions. This collection is essential for scholars and students in architecture, urban studies, sociology, and migration studies, as well as practitioners and professionals engaged in urban development and policy making.

Moderator

Dr Tania López Winkler, Senior Tutor, Interior Design MA

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Panelists

Gihan Karunaratne

Gihan Karunaratne is an architect and academic whose work critically examines contemporary issues in architecture, urbanism, and spatial practice. Combining experience in professional practice and pedagogy, his research integrates design, urban theory, and socio-spatial analysis. His work explores how cities evolve through physical, economic, and social transformation, with a particular focus on the everyday realities of marginalised communities. Karunaratne’s research investigates the “underbelly” of the city, especially informal settlements and conditions of urban precarity, addressing themes of resilience, spatial justice, and adaptive urban strategies. Focusing primarily on cities in the Global South, he examines informal urbanism as a dynamic process of social and spatial negotiation rather than a condition of deficiency. His publications contribute to wider debates on urban transformation, informality, and spatial justice, covering topics such as informal settlements, displaced and resilient urbanism, and mapping as a critical spatial practice.

Abel Mavura

Abel Mavura (PhD) is a Clutton-Brock Cambridge Trust Scholar at the University of Cambridge, pursuing architecture and urban studies. His work explores migration, informal settlements, and urban resilience, with a particular interest in how communities negotiate precarity through collective spatial practices and everyday forms of organisation. Drawing on ethnographic research in European cities such as Paris, he develops the concept of “architectures of resilience” to analyse how informal settlements produce alternative forms of urban order. He is a recipient of the 2025 Margaret Mead Memorial Award, awarded by the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) and the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR). His interdisciplinary work bridges architecture, sociology, migration, and systems thinking.

Cynthia Goytia (Online)

Professor Cynthia Goytia is Head of the Master of Science in Urban Economics program at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2012, she has chaired the university's Urban Policy and Housing Research Centre (CIPUV), which she founded. She earned an M.Sc. and a PhD in Urban Economics from the London School of Economics, with a specialisation in Spatial Economics and Development. She currently serves as a senior urban consultant to the National Government of Argentina, the Buenos Aires City Government, other Latin American governments, the World Bank, the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the CAF (Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina). She is also a fellow of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Angeliki Sakellariou  

Angeliki Sakellariou is a London-based architectural researcher and Lecturer interested in the intersection of architecture, urban studies, performance, and the moving body in space. She holds an MPhil from the Royal College of Art and a PhD in design from the University of Westminster. Her PhD research critiques the temporary use of public space by members of socio-cultural initiatives in Athens, Greece, through the development of notational drawings and filmic experiments. Her interdisciplinary work, which combines video, drawing, and performance, has been presented at events, exhibitions, and conferences in the UK, Greece, Spain, and Italy. She is currently a Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Reading, where she teaches on themes of community, rituals, and performance.