Urban Research Symposium

ETH Urban Research Symposium

We are very hap­py to announ­ce the start of the ETH Urban Rese­arch Sym­po­si­um. The Chair of Socio­lo­gy and ETH Wohn­fo­rum – ETH Case are laun­ching a series of lec­tures aiming at dis­cus­sing ques­ti­ons of urban deve­lo­p­ment and urba­ni­sa­ti­on pro­ces­ses in an inter­na­tio­nal con­text. The Urban Rese­arch Sym­po­si­um is a plat­form to exch­an­ge con­tem­po­ra­ry urban rese­arch expe­ri­en­ces across disci­pli­na­ry boun­da­ries, dra­wing from dif­fe­rent geo­gra­phies of know­ledge production.

***** 2017 *****

Urban Rese­arch Sym­po­si­um
Thurs­day, April 27, 2017 / 6:00 p.m. / HIL E 3 / ETH Höng­ger­berg, Zurich

Saving Our Cities: A Progressive Plan to Transform Urban America

Wil­liam W. Golds­mith (Pro­fes­sor Eme­ri­tus of City and Regio­nal Plan­ning at Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty, USA)

Wil­liam W. Golds­mith will dis­cuss his new book, Saving Our Cities: A Pro­gres­si­ve Plan to Trans­form Urban Ame­ri­ca. He argues that the time is right for U.S. cities (and city plan­ners) to push for more enligh­ten­ed sta­te and fede­ral action. Now, after the Trump elec­tion, pro­gres­si­ve city move­ments are even more important, and the­re most pro­ba­b­ly are many Euro­pean par­al­lels. In Saving Our Cities, Golds­mith argues that the most important U.S. ‘urban’ poli­ci­es are tho­se that are not actual­ly regard­ed as ‘urban’ at all. We need ‘upstream’ poli­ci­es to address social pro­blems that dis­pro­por­tio­na­te­ly harm urban are­as. In his talk Pro­fes­sor Golds­mith will dis­cuss decis­i­ons by fede­ral, sta­te, and sub­ur­ban govern­ments, often in sup­port of cor­po­ra­te goals, that harm city resi­dents by pro­mo­ting austeri­ty, une­qual schools, bad food, and the drug war.

***** 2016 *****

URBAN RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM // STADTFORSCHUNG IM GESPRÄCH
Frühling / Spring 2016

Don­ners­tag, 14.4., 18.00, NEU: HIL E 3, ETH Höng­ger­bergJor­ge Peña Díaz: Lear­ning from Hava­na – The City and the Harbor

The Har­bor plays a cru­cial role in the ever­y­day life of Hava­na. It is posi­tio­ned in the very cen­ter of the city, and will see a major chan­ge when crui­se boats and luxu­ry yachts will arri­ve and bring even more tou­rists to the alre­a­dy den­se­ly popu­la­ted cen­tral are­as of Hava­na. In his talk, Jor­ge Peña Díaz will pre­sent an over­view on the recent urban deve­lo­p­ments in Hava­na and dis­cuss the cur­rent urban design pro­jects for the har­bor area. He will rai­se pres­sing ques­ti­ons about Hava­na’s urban future at this par­ti­cu­lar­ly cru­cial his­to­ri­cal moment. The talk will be held in Eng­lish.
This event will also give an intro­duc­tion for the coming Sum­mer School for stu­dents of archi­tec­tu­re that will be held in August 2016 in Hava­na, joint­ly orga­ni­zed by CUJAE La Haba­na and ETH Zurich.

Don­ners­tag, 21.4., 18.00, HIL E 67, ETH Höng­ger­bergKath­rin Wild­ner: Faith is the Place – Neue Metho­den der trans­dis­zi­pli­nä­ren Stadtforschung

Das For­schungs- und Aus­stel­lungs­pro­jekt “Glo­bal Pray­ers — Erlö­sung und Befrei­ung in der Stadt” nimmt Fra­gen nach gegen­wär­ti­gen Erschei­nun­gen des Reli­giö­sen im Stadt­raum zum Anlass in trans­dis­zi­pli­nä­ren Fall­stu­di­en neue Ver­fah­ren der Wis­sens­pro­duk­ti­on für die Stadt­for­schung zu erpro­ben. Im Anschluss an Glo­bal Pray­ers stellt die Stadt­eth­no­lo­gin Kath­rin Wild­ner eth­no­gra­phi­sche und künst­le­ri­sche Ver­fah­ren vor, wie Mul­ti-sited Eth­no­gra­phy, Sound Recor­dings und Inter­ven­tio­nen. Mit die­sem ver­glei­chen­den und trans­dis­zi­pli­nä­ren Zugang zur Unter­su­chung und Inter­pre­ta­ti­on kom­ple­xer urba­ner Kon­fi­gu­ra­tio­nen von Istan­bul, Mexi­ko-Stadt, Lagos, Bei­rut oder Ber­lin stellt sie die Her­aus­for­de­run­gen sol­cher inno­va­ti­ver Ver­fah­ren für die aktu­el­le Stadt­for­schung zur Dis­kus­si­on. Vor­trag und Dis­kus­si­on auf Deutsch.

Don­ners­tag, 12.5., 17.30, HIL E 67, ETH Höng­ger­bergFran­cis­co Klau­ser: Zur poli­ti­schen Geo­gra­phie der Überwachung

Der Vor­trag unter­sucht die räum­li­chen Aspek­te und Aus­wir­kun­gen zeit­ge­nös­si­scher For­men von Über­wa­chung. Dabei geht es dar­um, einen spe­zi­fisch geo­gra­phi­schen Blick­win­kel auf die Über­wa­chungs­pro­ble­ma­tik zu ent­wi­ckeln. Behan­del­te Fall­bei­spie­le rei­chen von der Video­über­wa­chung über Droh­nen bis zur Intel­li­gen­ten Stadt. Vor­trag und Dis­kus­si­on auf Deutsch.

Don­ners­tag, 19.5., 18.00, HIL E 67, ETH Höng­ger­bergKazu­shi Tama­no: Glo­ba­li­sa­ti­on and Regio­na­li­sa­ti­on in Japan

Capi­ta­list Eco­no­my is built upon cer­tain phy­si­cal con­di­ti­ons and spa­ti­al con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons. After the cri­sis in 1973, the tran­si­ti­on from a For­dist to a Post-for­dist model of deve­lo­p­ment chan­ged rela­ti­ons bet­ween local govern­ments and the cen­tral govern­ment throug­hout the world. In Euro­pe and the United Sta­tes, and recent­ly in Sou­the­ast Asia, local eco­no­mic deve­lo­p­ment poli­ci­es based on glo­bal net­works have led to an incre­asing regio­na­liza­ti­on. The talk will pre­sent recent poli­cy chan­ges imple­men­ted by the Tokyo Metro­po­li­tan Govern­ment and the Japa­ne­se cen­tral govern­ment, which show dif­fe­rent ways of adap­ting to the requi­re­ments of a capi­ta­list world eco­no­my. Ana­ly­sing the­se chan­ges allows to dis­cuss how capi­ta­lism and govern­ments shape places within a par­ti­cu­lar urban con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on of social space. The talk will be held in English.

***** 2015 *****

Round­ta­ble:Thurs­day, Novem­ber 19, 2015 / 5.15 p.m. / HIL E 6 / ETH Höng­ger­berg, Zürich

Assembling Cities: Plan­ning In A Mate­ri­al World

Round­ta­ble with:Jona­than Metz­ger -KTH Roy­al Insti­tu­te of Technology

Yvonne Rydin -Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege London

Jor­is van Weze­ma­el -Pen­si­mo Manage­ment AG, ETH Zurich

Mar­tin Mül­ler — Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich (Mode­ra­ti­on)

Vor­trag:Mitt­woch, 7. Okto­ber 2015 / 18:30 / HIL E 7 / ETH Höng­ger­berg, Zürich

The City And The Right To Memory

Prem Chand­avar­kar(Mana­ging Part­ner, CnT Archi­tects, Banga­lo­re, India)

Vor­trag: Don­ners­tag, 25. Juni 2015 / 18:30–20.00 / HIL E 67 / ETH Höng­ger­berg, Zürich
Anschlies­send Apéro

Hava­na: Urba­niza­ti­on at the Cross­roads Jor­ge Peña Díaz (Pro­fes­sor at the Facul­ty of Archi­tec­tu­re, CUJAE, Havana)

Book launch: Don­ners­tag, 5. März 2015 / 18:00–19.30 / HIL E 67 / ETH Höng­ger­berg, Zürich

Urban Revo­lu­ti­on Now: Hen­ri Lefeb­v­re in Social Rese­arch and Architecture

Ákos Morá­van­sz­ky, Chris­ti­an Schmid und Łuka­sz Stanek

Vor­trag: Don­ners­tag, 26. Febru­ar 2015 / 18:30–20.00 / HIL E 3 / ETH Höng­ger­berg, Zürich

Taksim/Gezi: Das umkämpf­te Zen­trum und die urba­ne Trans­for­ma­ti­on Istan­buls

Orhan Esen(frei­er Stadt­for­scher, Istanbul)

***** 2014 *****

13 Novem­ber 2014, 18:00 — 19:30 Uhr / HIL E 4, ETH Hönggerberg

Pla­ne­ta­ry Urba­ni­sa­ti­on and the Right to the City
Andy Mer­ri­fieldFel­low, Mur­ray Edwards Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cambridge

23 Sep­tem­ber 2014, 18:00 — 19:30 Uhr / HIL E 67, ETH Hönggerberg

Con­tem­po­ra­ry Urban Deve­lo­p­ment in India and Con­tra­dic­tions in Urban Space
Swapna Baner­jee-GuhaSeni­or Fel­low, Indi­an Coun­cil of Social Sci­ence Rese­arch, Mumbai