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 Research Affiliate Byeongsun Ahn published an article in the journal "European Planning Studies" that takes a closer look at planning history and institutional change from a policy perspective.

News
 

Paolo Anzalone is a student from Italy who did research in Austria as part of his Master's thesis. As his stay is now coming to an end, he tells us something about his work and his time in Vienna

Publication
 

Urban Futures PI Alexa Färber and her colleagues from the ILIT JPI-urban-europe research project published their first collaboration paper on the infrastructuring of public libraries and practices of care in the urban context. Parts of this paper...


Five Areas of Research