Territory, economy, society, and institutions in transition: new challenges for planning
Alessandro Balducci, Polytechnic University of Milan.
March 16, 2023 at 15-16.30
Temcas, Tema Building, Campus Valla
Abstract:
This lecture will focus on how planning has been marginalized by the passive adaptation of space to the need of an economic development driven by globalisation, financialization and digitalization. I will analyze the most relevant processes of change, visible and sometimes invisible, that are affecting the economy, society and institutions as well as their impact on the physical space to propose a vision that starting from the last ring in the chain, the physical space, could be able to deal with some of the most negative effects of the current development model.
Bio:
Architect and PhD in Planning. Professor of Planning and Urban Policies at Politecnico di Milano. He has been Vice-Rector of Politecnico di Milano, Deputy- mayor for Urban Planning of the City of Milan, President of AESOP, the Association of the European Schools of Planning, Chair of the Italian Society of Urbanists (SIU), founding member of the European Urban Research Association (EURA), first president of Urban@it - National Centre for Urban Policies Studies.
He has been responsible of European and National research projects; and as a planner he has been responsible for many projects in Italy and abroad (Shanghai, Xi'an, Dubai).
He has been teaching at the Faculty of Architecture of Pescara (1992-1995), has been visiting scholar at U.C. Berlekey, USA, and visiting professor at the University of Reims, France, Tongij University, China, Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, MIT Cambridge, USA, at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland, and at the Zhejiang University of Huangzhou, Cina.
He is author/editor of 24 books and of articles and essays in Italian and English.
Website : www.sandrobalducci.com
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ZERLXEkRY
Territory, economy, society, and institutions in transition: new challenges for planning
Teis Hansen, Professor at the Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, and Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Technology Management, SINTEF, Trondheim
February 23, 2023 at 15-16.30
Temcas, Tema Building, Campus Valla
Abstract:
Regional development policy has for long been centred on promoting a specific part of the economy: exporting industries, in particular those characterized by high R&D intensity. A central assumption is that growth in these industries will trickle down to other sectors and create value that can finance a well-functioning society. However, this approach has not managed to convincingly address a number persistent problems, in particular social polarization, interregional inequality and environmental sustainability. Consequently, this has provoked multiple attempts to rethink our approach to development including Doughnut Economics, the Everyday Economy, and the Foundational Economy. This talk focuses on the latter of these approaches, which suggests that the centre of development policy should be the part of the economy that directly supports everyday life, i.e. health and welfare services, education, transportation, utilities, and food processing and retailing. Drawing on empirical work and insights from other literatures, the talk provides a sympathetic critique of this approach to regional development.
Bio:
Teis Hansen is Professor at the Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, and Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Technology Management, SINTEF, Trondheim.
Teis has an interest in the relations between geography, innovation and sustainability. His research focuses on the importance of spatial aspects of innovation processes for sustainability transitions; transformative innovation policy; green urban and regional development; foundational economy; and technology transfer from developed to emerging economies. Empirically, his research is focused on the energy system, energy-intensive industries, maritime transport, and the bioeconomy. He is also a member of the Danish Government’s expert group on the role of research in the green transition.
Webpage: https://ifro.ku.dk/english/staff/?pure=en/persons/263492
Video:
https://youtu.be/G-RGVjulM6Y
Reparative urbanism and the construction of urban futures in the Anthropocene
Professor Vanesa Castán Broto, University of Sheffield
January 12, 2023 at 15-16.30
Abstract
In the shadow of global environmental challenges, international policy discourses tie the future of humanity to the future of cities. The planning of cities, but also how they are lived and experienced, shapes the use of energy and resources, the production of carbon emissions, and the vulnerabilities to climate change and other environmental impacts. A recent intervention in this debate, UN-Habitat’s 2022 World Cities Report, links urban futures to the recognition of diverse modes of settlement that require detailed attention to addressing differential vulnerabilities linked to processes of marginalization and inequality. In the context of climate change, however, this acknowledgment entails understanding the complex linkages between imperial projects of economic exploitation that have driven environmental impacts on a global scale. Reparative urbanism refers to people’s active processes of socio-material engagement, from repairing infrastructure networks to cleaning public spaces, that enable the city to host those people’s lives. In a precarious urban environment, citizens engage routinely in reparative urbanism, sometimes linking their actions to wider future aspirations, such as reducing carbon emissions and improving wellbeing through built environment innovations suited to local needs and capacities. The question here is the extent to which the work of maintaining the city is indeed reparative.
- In which ways do such reparations address the inherent injustices embedded in the built environment?
- How do these forms of reparative urbanism tackle the roots of urban vulnerability, and challenge its constitution in imperial histories?
- How does reparative urbanism reconfigure environmental responsibilities in the urban environment?
- What role does reparative urbanism play in the constitution of urban futures?
Planning urban infrastructures across Berlin’s turbulent modern history
Hon.-Prof. Dr. Timothy Moss, Senior Researcher, IRI THESys
https://www.iri-thesys.org/people-pages/timothy-moss-prof-dr/
February 2, 2023 at 15-16.30
Temcas, Tema Building, Campus Valla
Abstract:
In my talk I unpack what urban infrastructure planning can mean – as a concept and as a practice – using the experience of Berlin’s infrastructure history as a generative case. I take a rich variety of future-oriented interventions from the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, socialist East Berlin, the insular West Berlin and the reunited city to illustrate diverse modes of infrastructure planning that reach far beyond standardized, formal planning procedures. This historicized ‘technopolitics’ of infrastructure planning I use to consider how past planning of infrastructure can be rendered relevant to today’s challenges.
Tim is a Senior Researcher at the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys) at the Humboldt University of Berlin and Honorary Professor at the Leibniz University Hannover. His research is distinctive for connecting historical studies of infrastructure with contemporary debates on sociotechnical and urban transitions.
