Queer(y)ing the New Towns: A queer utopian approach to delivering planned communities
This study explores the British post-war New Towns through a queer utopian lens. New Towns are back on the political agenda, with the Starmer Government promising a new generation of planned communities. While much attention has been paid to the histories and practicalities of delivering New Towns, engagement with how LGBTQIA+ residents live in and move through these places has been more limited.
The aim of this project is to queer(y) our understanding of the post-war New Towns by centring queer residents’ embodied experiences and imagining what planned communities that resist and challenge systems of oppression, such as heteronormativity and patriarchy, could look like. The PhD takes a multi-method approach, using archival research and interviews with professionals to examine traditional narratives about the Garden Cities and New Towns, while also centring the voices of LGBTQIA+ residents of the New Towns and foregrounding their experiences and desires for the future through the use of walking interviews and participatory mapping.
This PhD is part of the Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness.
Supervisors
- Dr Ellie Munro (Sheffield Hallam University)
- Dr Kesia Reeve (Sheffield Hallam University)
- Professor Peter Matthews (University of Stirling)
