Projects
Research axes
Post-growth and city transformations
As more than 50% of the planet's population now lives in cities and the model of growth at all costs runs out of steam, it is important to envision new paradigms to face the most pressing contemporary demographic, ecological and infrastructural challenges. Research on economics and social innovations applied to infrastructures, smart cities and diversity will be instrumental in bringing important insights into and help redefine the social and ethical stakes of our lifestyles, including degrowth and work transformations.
Anthropocene and the urbanization of the world
The Anthropocene constitutes a framework to understand the link between the accelerated urbanization of the planet and the climate crisis. It designates a set of phenomena that affect extraction, the extinction of species, the human-non-human relationship, the depletion of resources, food, and global warming and that question the habitability of the earth. These challenges are an injunction to rethink ways of knowing, research relationships and knowledge mobilization, by engaging civil society actors, researchers, activists, and artists in the development of knowledge and solutions for urban futures.
Living in the city and urban trajectories
The idea underlying this theme is to envision the city in terms of trajectories, everyday life, and space. Cities shape our experience of the world. They articulate relationships to time and space, and inform our relationships to the political, to community groups, to the condition of minority groups, to First Nations and migrants, but also to well-being and health, to aging, and to art.
Projects
Towards urban planning for biodiversity
URBIODIV is an international research project focusing on the implications of post-1950 urbanization on ecosystems, with an emphasis on suburban areas. The aim is to integrate the need to revitalize ecosystems into the practices and theories of urban planning, highlighting suburban spaces as areas at stake.
The Smartification of Everything
The Smartification of Everything brings together academic research and the arts to create a space for exchange on the "smartification" of the urban, rural and beyond. The project explored social, political, cultural and environmental impacts through a series of panels and an exhibition.
Photo credit: Mascha Gugganig
Research Seminars on Urban Anthropocene
Researchers from all disciplines present their work during this seminar to contribute to the understanding of the contemporary anthropocene situation.