International Network for Urban Research and Action

www.inura.org

The International Network for Urban Research and Action

INURA is a network of people involved in action and research in localities and cities. The Network consists of activists and researchers from community and environmental groups, universities, and local administrations, who wish to share experiences and to participate in common research. Examples of the issues that Network members are involved in include: major urban renewal projects, the urban periphery, community-led environmental schemes, urban traffic and transport, inner city labour markets, do-it-yourself culture, and social housing provision. In each case, the research is closely tied to, and is a product of, local action and initiative.

INURA is a non-governmental and non-profit organization with a self-organizing, non-hierarchical, decentralized structure. Regional Offices take turns annually in organizing the conference and publishing the INURA Bulletin.

Aims

The basic purpose of the Network is to develop and promote the interaction of social and environmental urban movements with research and theoretical anlysis. INURA brings together theorists and practitioners sharing a common, critical attitude towards contemporary urban development. The Network wishes to maintain an informal and commmitted approach to its work.

INURA Principles

  1. INURA is a network of people involved in action and research in localities and cities. We are committed to sharing our experiences and information in order to further the understanding of the problems affecting our areas.
  2. We are committed to the empowerment of people in their neighbourhoods, communities, cities and region.
  3. In our work we recognize the importance of ethnic and cultural diversity, and the need to oppose racism, class and gender discrimination.
  4. Changes in forms of work and of community and domestic life must be understood and planned in relation to each other.
  5. We must resist and reverse the process of polarization of income and quality of environment, both in the social fragmentation of our cities and the divergence of core and periphery regions.
  6. Our network particularly wants to broaden its links with housing, employment and environmental campaigns.
  7. We aim to further the process of environmentally sustainable urban development.
  8. We seek to resist centralization and the damaging effects of globalization.
  9. We are working to create strong and diverse visions of the future urban life.
  10. INURA will work with a variety of methods of research, communication, interaction and dissemination of information, including scholarly work, media productions, activist documents, debates and stories of urban experience. INURA invites future contributions from academics, the arts, political activists and social movements.

Salecina/Switzerland 1991