Mangoes, meat and motors

What’s on offer?

The event has two components:

1. Photo exhibition (judged with prizes donated by businesses on the Curry Mile) – 1 hour

Photos taken by local people that capture the tensions felt on the Curry Mile (objects, places, etc.) Each image will have a short paragraph giving an explanation of the photographer's perspective. The aim is to allow participants to be actively involved before the event, have a vested interest in attending and to create creative focal points for networking. After the event the photo gallery could possibly become a resource for AUIRRRC.

2. World Café (main event) -  2 hours

3 rounds of 20 min conversations, guided by specific questions:

How does the Curry Mile enrich the local area?

What are some examples of sustainable practices on the Curry Mile?

What changes could make the Curry Mile more sustainable?

What’s it about?

The Curry Mile is an important local area for many different groups in Manchester (e.g. business owners, workers, consumers, tourists) and holds special social and cultural value for people who have recently arrived to Manchester from countries of the global south (e.g., South Asia, Africa and the Middle East). At the same time, the Curry Mile also faces considerable challenges when considered in the context of a ‘green agenda’ that seeks to confront the climate emergency by reducing carbon emissions from (among other things) food miles, waste, meat consumption and car use.

Local residents who have come to Manchester from areas of the world that are currently facing even more severe impacts of climate breakdown than the UK hold valuable environmental knowledge that tends to be marginalised from environmental policy debates in the city. It is also true that diverse interests, prejudices and controversies often get in the way of constructive debate about how to make the Curry Mile a socially welcoming and environmentally sustainable local place for all to enjoy.

‘Mangoes, Meat and Motors’ aims to inspire knowledgeable discussion, in a creative and playful way, of the tensions surrounding, on the one hand, the desire to celebrate the positives of multiculturalism and migration in Manchester, and the need to confront negative aspects of carbon emissions and anti-immigrant/racist stereotypes on the other.

Through an exhibition of photos by local people to prompt story-telling and a World Café to generate collective discussion, the event will provide an opportunity to reflect on important local-global challenges and feed into the ongoing TIES Project based in the UoM’s Sustainable Consumption Institute and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Who’s leading the event?

Zarina Ahmad, University of Manchester

Prof. Sherilyn MacGregor, University of Manchester

Open to

Everyone

Of particular interest to

Members of the public who live locally to and/or who regularly visit the Curry Mile for work or consumption; business owners with a stake in the Curry Mile; local councillors and officers with an interest in the Curry Mile.