About the Research Platform

The pivotal characteristic of the Research Platform “The Challenge of Urban Futures” is its epistemological breadth, in that it aims at scrutinising ecologies of relations that connect multiple thematic areas. The Platform aims at unravelling the social, cultural, economic and politico-institutional mechanisms underlying the convergences and divergences across European cities to track the transformation of urban structures over the last four decades.

Given the wide gamut of issues cities are facing, we focus our research endeavours on five thematic areas: Society and Culture, Economy and Redistribution, Environment and Sustainability, Technology and Surveillance, and Urban Government and Governance. More in detail, our research activities will sit at the intersection of these multiple thematic areas. To achieve this ambitious task, our Research Platform will bring together researchers both within and outside the University of Vienna sharing complementary expertise on the multifarious facets of urban studies.

 News

Publication
 

Urban Futures member Dr Yvonne Franz, together with colleagues from the University of Graz, published an article on Urban Cultures of Care and Joan Tronto's feminist ethics of care, focusing on her relational principle of caring-with.

Publication
 

Urban Futures Research Affiliate Ruggero Cefalo and Principal Investigator Yuri Kazepov published an article in the International Journal of Comparative Sociology investigating school-to-work transitions in Italy and Austria.


Five Areas of Research