STADSSALONSURBAINS
A meeting
point for urbanites
The city is
the future? Most definitely! Throughout the last decade many new ideas and
insights have been presented in the field of Urban Studies. At the
STADSSALONSURBAINS we invite renowned international professors to present their
ideas to the Brussels audience.
The
STADSSALONSURBAINS are a brand new series of lectures and documentary
screenings for urban professionals, students and all city lovers. A meeting
point for urbanites on Fridays in the Beursschouwburg, just before the weekend
starts.
10 October,
24 October, 7 November, 28 November and 12 December 2014
from 17:30
until 19:30
at
Beursschouwburg (rue Auguste Orts 20-28, 1000 BXL)
Lectures in
English
Autumn
programme
We kick off
on Friday 10 October with a lecture by Patrick Le Galès, professor Sciences Po
in Paris and expert on the detransformation of cities, European regions and
large cities worldwide. Friday 7 November, we welcome Susanne Heeg,
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, who is analysing the effects of the
liberalization of financial and property markets on cities. We will screen the
documentary “The Human Scale”, a critical view on the way we build and use our
cities by Andreas M. Dalsgaard and Jan Gehl Architects. And the 1980
documentary “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” by William H. Whyte, that
has gained a cult status in the field of urban studies.
Friday 10
October 2014
STADSSALONSURBAINS
#1
PATRICK LE
GALÈS (SCIENCES PO, PARIS)
GLOBAL
MINDS, ROOTS IN THE CITY. EUROPEAN MIDDLE CLASSES IN EUROPEAN CITIES
Political
scientist and sociologist Patrick Le Galès recently finished a research project
on transnationalism and urban practices with two colleagues in Milan and
Madrid, containing 500 interviews about the way professionals and managers
combine a slow increasing transnationalism with solid roots in cities. The book
will be published in december. At our very first STADSSALONSURBAINS, Patrick Le
Galès will give you a preview of the research findings.
By
comparing four European cities (Paris, Lyon, Milan and Madrid) Le Galès
explores the role of urban upper middle classes in the transformations
experienced by contemporary European societies. He reveals how segments of
Europe’s urban population are adopting exit or partial exit strategies in
respect to the nation state.
Friday 24
October 2014
STADSSALONSURBAINS
#2
THE SOCIAL
LIFE OF
SMALL URBAN
SPACES
A
DOCUMENTARY BY WILLIAM H. WHYTE
With an
introduction by Pol Ghekiere
This 1980
documentary became a highly influential film in architecture and planning
circles. In the film urban planner William H. Whyte analyses the success and
failures of urban spaces in New York. Observing the natural order of spaces and
the way people move through them, Whyte provides an intuitive critique of urban
spaces and ways these spaces can be improved.
Friday 7
November 2014
STADSSALONSURBAINS
#3
SUSANNE
HEEG (GOETHE-UNIVERSITÄT, FRANKFURT)
THE POWER
OF FIGURES: CALCULATIVE PRACTICES IN THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY
Urban
geographer Susanne Heeg examines the role and importance of calculative
practices in the process of establishing a global property market. These
practices have contributed to the transformation of the property market into a
calculable relation, which makes it possible to perceive and assess the real
estate market and its objects internationally. Comparability – which includes
the transformation of social, political and economic conditions into numbers –
has created the context in which investment decisions take place because they
suggest transparency and calculability. These practices are created and shared
in a network of global real estate professionals and go along with strategies
of territorializing and delineating markets.
Friday 28
November 2014
STADSSALONSURBAINS
#4
BRIAN
DOUCET (UTRECHT UNIVERSITY)
CAN’T
FORGET THE MOTOR CITY: DETROIT IN TEN BUILDINGS
Detroit is
the most intensely scrutinised city in America today: bankruptcy, abandonment,
arson and the small-scale creative revival of Downtown. But there is so much
more to understanding what has happened to Detroit and what it means for the
rest of the urban world. The aim of this talk is to go beyond the normal
discourses on the city to challenge what we think we know about Detroit. We will experience the Motor City by way of a
virtual driving tour, stopping at ten buildings in the city and its suburbs to
further explore the lessons from Detroit, visions coming out of the city and
why what happens in Detroit matters for other places as well.
Friday 12
December 2014
STADSSALONSURBAINS
#5
THE HUMAN
SCALE. BRINGING CITIES TO LIFE
A
DOCUMENTARY ON JAN GEHL BY ANDREAS M. DALSGAARD
With an
introduction by Jens Aerts (Cosmopolis VUB, BUUR)
The Danish
architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through
40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and
argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion
and intimacy into account. “The Human Scale” meets thinkers, architects and
urban planners across the globe. It questions our assumptions about modernity,
exploring what happens when we put people into the center of our planning.
Practical
The
STADSSALONSURBAINS take place on Fridays at 17.30 at the Beursschouwburg, rue
Auguste Ortsstraat 20-28 in the city center of Brussels (premetro La Bourse,
metro Sainte-Cathérine, metro De Brouckère). Access is free and you don’t need
to make a reservation. You just have to listen to the invited speaker when he
or she lectures. That’s all. Be welcome!
An
initiative of the Brussels Academy and the Brussels Studies Institute.
Cosmopolis
Centre for Urban Research
Cosmopolis
is a research centre within the Department of Geography of the Vrije Universiteit
Brussel and is dedicated to research and teaching in geography, spatial
planning and urban design. Committed to pursuing both academic and practice
relevant research, Cosmopolis actively engages policy makers, governments,
citizen networks and other urban partners to transform knowledge into action.
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