The past 2024 RC 21 Conference took place in Santiago, Chile, on July 24-26th, 2024
“The politics and spaces of encounters: advancing dialogues between and within the Global North and the Global South”.
Dear friends and colleagues from Santiago,
We have now returned home safely, feeling tired and jet lagged but immensely happy and delighted about the extraordinary experience of the Doctoral School and conference.
We would like to thank you warmly once again for these months of very hard work, and for the collaboration between the LOT and RC board members, during which we managed to find excellent synergy and create a truly outstanding programme. None of these two events would have happened without the dedication of your team in so many ways. You mobilised an extraordinary team of colleagues and students, who worked hard both before and during the conference, so please convey our thanks to them on behalf of the RC21 Board and all attendees!
It will remain in our memory as one of the most memorable RC21 conferences ever, not just in our opinion, but also according to many participants! The keynote speakers were exceptionally engaging; the sessions were interesting and well-attended; and the dialogues across and within ‘North’ and ‘South’ that you encouraged worked really well! The venues where you hosted us were welcoming and perfect for such an event. You managed to reorganise the lunch arrangements at very short notice, which was greatly appreciated. The final party was the icing on the cake—absolutely wonderful, with everyone dancing and enjoying the music, the food, and chatting with others. It will certainly be remembered as the happiest and most welcoming closing party in the history of RC21 conferences!
Thank you for bringing not only your brilliant ideas and exceptional skills but also your heart to this event. We couldn’t have asked for anything better and felt incredibly welcome!
And most importantly, we feel we now have new colleagues and friends from Chile, the richness of whose research and intellectual contributions we have got to know better. We hope that we will meet you again soon at future RC21 events and elsewhere! And we also hope that Chilean and South American urban studies’ embeddedness into the dialogues of the RC, and of global urban studies, is a lot stronger thanks to you!
Now it’s time for you to rest as well!
