MATTERS OF
URBAN
EXPERTISE

Who develops
the city of the future?

International Symposium
6-8 November 2024






































International Symposium at ETH Future Cities Lab    -     6-8 November    -    The ETH Zurich Zentrum, Rämistrasse 101    -   Organized by Julio Paulos, Jenny Lindblad, Jonathan Metzger     -   Matters of Urban Expertise: Who develops the city of the future?

 

International Symposium

6-8 November 2024


Organized by 
  • Julio Paulos, Future Cities Lab, ETH Zürich 
  • Jenny Lindblad, Urban & Regional Studies, KTH Stockholm
  • Jonathan Metzger, Urban & Regional Studies, KTH Stockholm

ETH Zurich
Zentrum, Rämistrasse 101

Symposium Rationale
In a rapidly urbanizing world increased attention is being paid to the development of urban environments. At the same time the array of experts who are expected to design and develop the cities of tomorrow is currently in a state of flux. Contemporary urban challenges are perceived to require new skills and competencies that go beyond the traditional urban professions. 

Digital technology, AI, and big data, financial or investment acumen, and climate change are just a few of the issues city administrations are currently struggling to address. Meanwhile, these issues pressure infrastructures in place, and demand city administrations’ attention to questions of infrastructure maintenance and expansion. 

As a consequence of these shifts, in a field that has traditionally been dominated primarily by the professions of planners, architects and engineers we now see diverse formations of expertise vying for influence, but without necessarily aspiring to the status or norms of the traditional professions. 

Following from the above, the symposium explores contemporary formations of expertise in the field of urban development. More precisely, the symposium will explore the intertwining of the 'politics of what' with the 'politics of how' and the 'politics of who' in relation to contemporary urban development - thus critically addressing the fundamental question of who is shaping the city of the future, on what grounds, and to which effects.


Register here!



Participants
Albert Arias-Sans, Universitat de Barcelona
Andrew Harris, University College London
Andrew Karvonen, Lund University
Armin Kific, University of Pretoria
Benedict Lang, Europa-University Viadrina
Devika Prakash, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Edward Shepherd, Cardiff University
Ignacio K. Pérez, University of Glasgow
Ihnji Jon, Cardiff University
Indrawan Prabaharyaka, Humboldt University at Berlin
Jenny Lindblad, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Jonathan Metzger, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Julio Paulos, ETH Zurich
Kathrin Eitel, University of Zurich
Kiera Chapman University of Oxford
Linda Soneryd, Örebro University
Lisa Björkman, University of Louisville
Madlen Kobi, University of Fribourg
Malcolm Tait, University of Sheffield
Maria Håkansson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Matthew Cook, The Open University
Mike Raco, University College London
Nathan Marom, Sciences Po Paris
Paolo Scrivano, Politecnico di Milano 
Pouya Sepehr, Humboldt University at Berlin
Tayeba Batool, University of Pennsylvania
Tomás Criado, Open University of Catalonia
Tuna Tasan-Kok, University of Amsterdam
Uri Ansenberg, Haifa University
Zachary M. Jones, Politecnico di Milano 

Schedule



Day 1: November 6th
ETH, Campus Hönggerberg (Room HIL H 35.1)

13.30   Coffee & introductions

Expert Politics in Urban Governance, Property and Land Use
14.00    The Power of Property Market Intelligence Channels in Urban Governance Networks (Tuna Tasan-Kok)

14.30    Land markets, land value capture expertise and the political economy of complexity (Edward Shepherd)

15.00   Understanding Urban Expertise from the ‘Field’ (Nathan Marom)

15.30    Coffee         

16.00   Uneven Application of Real Estate Valuation Standards: A Comparative Study in occupied Palestine and Israel (Uri Ansenberg – online)

16.30    Who is Governing London? The London Model and the Future of Global Cities (Mike Raco)

17.00     General discussion

17.30     End





Day 2: November 7th
ETH, Campus Hönggerberg (Room HIL H 35.1)

Expert Matters in Urban-Nature Relations  

09.00    Accounting for biodiversity: actors, governance, and ethics of “from above and below” (Ihnji Jon)

09.30    Who’s afraid of agonism? Making planning governable with the logic of natural capital (Kiera Chapman & Malcom Tait)

10.00     Vice Versa: Expertise and Para-Expertise in Climate Urbanism (Indrawan Prabaharyaka)

10.30    Coffee

11.00     The Ecologist as an Elusive Figure: Experimenting and Cultivating with Urban Nature (Tayeba Batool)

11.30     Rising Waters, Shifting Knowledge: Controversies and Material Realities Along Vietnam’s Urban Flooding Problem (Kathrin Eitel)

12.00    General discussion

12.30    Lunch

Scaled Expertise and Urban Materiality  
13.00    Reconfiguring urban governance through new forms of expertise and experts (Benedict  Lang)

14.00    Towards Circular Cities? Reuse Expertise in Human-Material Relations (Madlen Kobi)

14.30    Coffee

15.00    Enclave Expertise: Material co-productions of expertise across boomed suburbs in Pretoria East (Armin Kific)

15.30    The tall building expertly considered (Andrew Harris)

16.00    General discussion

16.30    End



Day 3: November 8th
ETH Zentrum, Hauptgebäude (Room HG E 42)

Reimagining Urban Expertise in the Rise of High-Tech Solutions  

09:00
   Technically Green: Matters of urban ecology in Barcelona (Albert Arias-Sans & Tomás Criado)

09:30    Urban Frictions and the Politics of Urban Expertise in the Digital Age (Pouya Sepehr)
10:00     The knowledge politics of urban digitalization: How ICT specialists expand their epistemic authority into urban governance (Devika Prakash)
10:30    Coffee

11:00     Reconfiguring Transport Engineering through Big Data Circulation and Boundary Work in Transantiago (Ignacio K. Pérez)

11:30     Epistemic struggles in the emergence of autonomous urban technologies (Matthew Cook & Andrew Karvonen)

12:00    Deconstructing Transnational Urban Plans and Projects: Actors, Expertise, and the Local Context (Zachary M. Jones &  Paulo Scrivano)

12:30    General discussion 

13:00    Lunch

14:00    Conclusion and coffee- moving forward to publication? 

15:30    End