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.
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introduction
“our past and present interact, so how do these stories speak to today? what is that conversation then between past and present? (sue brownill)”
in august 2023 we collaborated with research participants involved in a case study on the histories of feminist community-led planning in birmingham, uk, to co-run a workshop called ‘women in the centre’. this was one case study from the spaces of hope research into the hidden histories of community-led planning across the uk from the 1960s to the current day (inch et al. 2024). the aim of the workshop was to open up the historical research to contemporary insights and connections, and we used the case study as a starting point to elicit dialogue amongst the 25 workshop participants—campaigners, historians, artists, academics, students and organisers—who explored the repetitions, breaks and shifts between past and present urban dysfunctions, political contexts and community responses in birmingham.
