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

Event
 

Register now! On October 17 Incoming Scholar Ishita Dey will present her ethnographic work on railway migration. At 12:15PM in the NIG, room C0628a.

Event
 

The programme for our online Hot Off The Press Book Presentation Series for Spring 2023: 4 events with Jennifer Robinson, Matthias Bernt, Federico Savini and Loïc Wacquant.

News
 

The GEtCoheSive European project at the platform - Governance Enhancement for Cohesive Societies - received funding by the Interreg Central Europe programme, starting from April 2023.


Five Areas of Research