Éilis Ryan is a development education practitioner and activist. She has worked in the international development sector for over ten years, focussing for the last four years on educational work with Financial Justice Ireland and Trócaire. She has a particular interest in the area of global finance and development education. Éilis has authored policy papers on housing finance and public solutions to the Irish housing crisis, and was a founding member of the Campaign for Public Housing and the National Housing and Homeless Coalition. She pursued these policies in her time as a Dublin City Councillor. She is currently training to become a primary school teacher.
Housing inequality, finance and the global south: making local-global links real in Development Education in Ireland
Date / Time: Thursday, September 30th, 12pm - 3.30pm GMT (including 30 minutes break for lunch)
This three hour workshop, facilitated by Éilis Ryan, will provide Development Education practitioners with the knowledge and tools to build global solidarity by exploring the shared struggle for the right to housing in the Global North and the Global South.
Housing, once considered a public good in many European countries, has become one of the most important assets in global financial markets. In the Global North, this shift has had enormous impacts on the right to housing. Meanwhile, finance has left countries in the Global South with minimal hope of ever developing such systems.
Housing has become a focal point for those attempting to drive a racist explanation for housing inequality in Ireland. By focussing on the shared causes of housing inequality in Ireland and the Global South, this workshop will enable DE practitioners to provide a compelling counter-narrative which promotes solidarity amongst those who face housing exclusion, in Ireland and in the Global South.
Speakers include:
- Professor Michelle Norris, Director, Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin
- Professor Raquel Rolnik, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo
- Rodrigo Fernandez,
Senior Researcher at the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
See below for biographies.
Cost to attend:
- IDEA members: €15.00
- Non-members: €30.00
- We also have a pay what you can option – please contact us for any questions.
Deadline for registration is Monday, 27 September.
For any questions about this event, please contact us.
Biographies
Michelle Norris is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Geary Institute for Public Policy at University College Dublin. Her teaching and research interests focus on housing policy and urban regeneration, particularly on the management and financing of social housing, and the regeneration of social housing estates and inner urban areas. She has led over 30 research projects on these issues and produced 200 publications on the results. Michelle also has strong links with policy makers in Ireland and internationally. In 2011 and again in 2016 she was appointed by an Taoiseach as an independent member of the National Economic and Social Council. In 2012 and again in 2017 she was appointed by the Minister for Housing as chair of the Housing Finance Agency (hfa.ie). The Agency raises finance on international markets which it lends on to local authorities and housing associations for the provision of housing to low income households. In 2018 she was appointed by the Minister for Housing to the interim board of the Land Development Agency. In 2020 she was appointed as an expert advisor to the United Nations Habitat's Housing 2030 project which aims to help policy makers improve affordable housing outcomes.
Raquel Rolnik is a professor, architect and urban planner, with over 35 years of scholarship, activism and practical experience in planning, urban land policy and housing issues. Based in São Paulo, she is a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo. In her career, she has held various government positions including Director of the Planning Department of the city of São Paulo (1989-1992) and National Secretary for Urban Programs of the Brazilian Ministry of Cities (2003-2007) as well as NGO activities, such as Urban Policy Coordinator of the Polis Institute (1997-2002). In May 2008, Raquel Rolnik was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing for a six years mandate, ending June 2014. She is author of several books, including “Urban warfare : housing and cities in the age of finance” by VERSO UK and “A cidade e a lei” among others.
Rodrigo Fernandez is a senior researcher at the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) next to being a research fellow at the GEOFIN project. Previously, he was a postdoc (2011–2013) at the University of Amsterdam and at KU Leuven/University of Leuven (2013-2019). Rodrigo has published on offshore financial centers, shadow banking, real estate and financialization. In his current research at SOMO he focuses on the financialization of non-financial corporations.
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