THEMATIC GROUPS

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 04 October 2020

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 22 September 2020

AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures and City Street 4 Conference Roundtables

Roundtable1: Public Spaces - Knowledge Transition Between Research, Policy and Practice

Date: 23 September 2020 Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM CEST (Central European Summer Time)

Moderators: Matej Nikšič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana and Ceren Sezer, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 

Participants: 

-       Patricia Aelbrecht, Geography and Planning School, Cardiff University

-       Cecilia Andersson, UN Habitat, Global Public Space Programme 

-       Enzhe Dusaeva, Tamga Institute of urban studies, Kazan 

-       Zeynep Gunay,  ISOCARP Board, Director of Young Planning Professionals Programme

-       Alenka Korenjak, prostoRož, Ljubljana, Slovenia  

-       Tadej Žaucer, Ministry of infrastructure of the Republic of Slovenia, Sustainable Mobility and Transport Policy Division

Public space has received an increasing attention in urban research, policy, and practice. This is evident in the growing academic literature on the themes related to public space, including accessibility, healthy living, inclusiveness, democracy, urban justice, self-organization, social movements among others. The 2016 UN Habitat Conference, Habitat III, adopted The New Urban Agenda, which focused on public space as a promoter of ‘inclusive, connected, safe and accessible’ cities (UN Habitat, 2016). NGOs worldwide have developed a placemaking approach to improve public spaces, which has been adopted in many cities. Neighbourhood organizations, local interest groups, cultural minorities, or politically oriented pressure groups manifested their needs and interests and reclaimed public spaces specifically in the context of profit-oriented urban developments. This complexity requires transdisciplinary methods to analyse and conceptualise public spaces to be able to engage knowledge, approaches and theories of public spaces from various perspectives to inform and influence policy-making and practice in different contexts. 

This roundtable aims to promote a vivid discussion between the speakers and participants from academia, international institutions, practitioners and governments on the challenges and opportunities of knowledge transition between public space research, policy and practice.  

Participation: free of charge, without registration, click on this link: https://cs4.uirs.si/On-line-Conference

Roundtable 2: Moving Around our Cities in the Times of Epidemics – the Changed Demand for Public Spaces

Date: 24 September 2020 Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM CEST (Central European Summer Time)

Moderators: Alenka Fikfak, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana and Christine Mady, Notre Dame University-Louaize, Beirut 

Participants: 

-       Jose Chong, UN Habitat, United Nations Human Settlements Programme

-       Marko Peterlin, Institute for Spatial Policies, Ljubljana, Slovenia

-       Janez Černe, Deputy Mayor of The City Municipality of Kranj, Slovenia 

-       Stefano Ragazzo, AMAT - Agency of the Mobility, Envrionment and Territory of Milan Municipality, Italy 

The recent Covid-19 pandemic crisis have affected mobility, social practices and other forms of life that are part of public spaces in our cities. While the public transport usage is decreasing, some other forms of mobility such as walking and cycling are gaining popularity. At the same time new social distancing measurements are challenging the design and management of the open public spaces. On one hand public spaces must stay the places of the social exchanges and democratic practices, on the other hand the epidemiologic measures demand the changed behavioural patterns and practices in open public spaces. Can this be an opportunity for re-conceptualising public spaces as we know them and turn them into more democratic and sustainable places?

This roundtable focuses on the following questions: Which technical solutions can contribute to a responsible usage of open public spaces during the epidemics so that the transportation, socialisation and other normative functions of streets can be kept while the public health standards not endangered? Which interdisciplinary approaches are needed to address the issue in a holistic way at the crossroad of health, IT, urban planning, social and other sciences and disciplines to allow streets and other public spaces stay alive during the epidemics? How can individuals, communities and local authorities equally engage in circumscribing epidemics and mitigating their impact on the everyday lives of commuters, cyclists, pedestrians and other users of city streets? How can data be shared in epidemics situations and the transmittal of viruses controlled in streets and public transport?

Participation: free of charge, without registration, click on this link: https://cs4.uirs.si/On-line-Conference

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 20 August 2020

Invitation Webinar 'Power to co-produce: Careful power distribution in collaborative city-making
Practices/Pedagogies/Policies

14 September 2020

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning warmly invites participation in the Webinar "Power to co-produce. Careful Power Distribution in Collaborative City Making - Practices - Pedagogies - Policies“ which will be hosted online at TU Wien on the 14th September 2020. This event is realized in the course of the KTH + TU Wien Visiting Professorship Program in Urban Studies 2019-2021 and will be featured by the Thematic Group for Public Spaces and Urban Cultures of the Association of European School’s of Planning.

Power to co-produce is a collective attempt to widen up the debate on collaborative city-making. The basic premise of the webinar is that power is immanent in urban development processes, also in those procedures that rely on participatory and inclusive, so-called 'co-productive' forms of collaboratively shaping the city (city-making). Therefore, a fairer distribution of power requires first a deep analytical understanding of how power works in co-production processes. The webinar-type symposium follows a multidimensional approach, distinguishing between (1) practices, (2) pedagogies and (3) policies, while articulating their interrelations. The webinar brings these often separated dimensions of city-making together. Participatory collaboration in city-making encompasses co-production of place and knowledge developed by local groups, means of legitimacy created to get their voice heard and the process of achieving the co-governance of local urban commons. Co-production may also be considered as a collaborative research method, challenging the existing distribution of power in science and scientific institutions, and presenting other possibilities to subvert the processes through which ideas get generated, and knowledge is associated. Recognising the process of co-production of urban space as a process in which power relations are negotiated requires a multidimensional approach that goes beyond considering co-production simply as a form of practice.  

This open webinar is an attempt to establish a dialogical relationship between different perspectives on the interplay of power relations and collaborative city-making processes focusing on local processes of co-production and civic engagement, particularly of the marginalised communities. By recognising (1) practices, (2) pedagogies and (3) policies, and interrelations among the involved actors and institutions, it is expected to broaden debates on participatory collaboration in city-making processes. Specifically, it is expected to reveal the democratic aspects of city-making by revisiting existing power discrepancies that shape urban development processes. To achieve this, the organisers of the webinar aim at distinguishing possibilities, limitations and also pitfalls of urban co-production.

The webinar in particular aims at exploring and discussing urban co-production processes to amplify the voices of the unheard, see how they themselves manoeuvre within the dynamics of power relations enmeshed in participatory planning and inclusive urbanism, thereby seeking to decolonise the processes of the social production of space, by revisiting the role of the most marginalised participants within the existing set of power relations. If power is ubiquitous in city-making processes, then urban scholars have to understand how and to what extent power distribution in urban development can be rearranged in a context-specific setting, and in a careful and socially just way. The webinar will therefore critically explore urban co-production processes considering spatial justice, alongside southern and feminist approaches in city-making.

By inviting scholars and practitioners from corresponding fields, this POWER TO CO-PRODUCE webinar addresses

• how local communities struggle for power (power over, power to, power from…) in reaching their goals;
• in what way urban professionals can provide space, methods and tools for marginalised voices to be heard and for vulnerable populations to empower themselves;
• to what extent policy-makers can enable processes of co-production in city-making to ensure the constant democratisation of city-making processes. 

The webinar seeks to bring together planning and urbanism researchers, activists, critical spatial practitioners alongside with urban scholars, and others to reflect and discuss potentials, possibilities as well as limitations and pitfalls of urban co-production processes. Structured in three sessions, the webinar will focus on learning from urban co-production processes between policy-makers, professionals and local communities, and ask: How can urban co-production of space and knowledge go beyond contemporary pitfalls in the collaborative city making? How can communities on the one hand and urban professionals on the other enable the accompanied experience and knowledge to circulate among and between these actors in more context-specific, careful and socially just ways?

As an exchange platform that emerged among scholars from different geographical registers hosted by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, TU Wien, Austria, this webinar is the first event marking the starting point of a wider collaborative research process.  Interested colleagues can register until 10th September for a limited number of e-places via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Accepted participants will receive a link to participate in the online event shortly before. The webinar will also be published as a podcast via Urban Trialogue Project.

All the best, 

Sabine Knierbein, on behalf of the Scientific Organizing Committee

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 12 August 2020

Solidarity Statement with our colleagues in Beirut, August 2020

On August 4, 2020 more than 100 people were dead and dozens were injured after the explosion in the port area of Beirut. We stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Beirut, who have experienced this devastating blast, lost their family members, friends and colleagues. 

AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures