[Talk] Rising Waters, Shifting Knowledge @Matters of Urban Expertise

I had the pleasure to be able to attend an interdisziplinary symposium on Matters on Urban Expertise @ETH, organised by Julio Paulos (Future Cities Lab, ETH Zürich), Jenny Lindblad (Urban & Regional Studies, KTH Stockholm) and Jonathan Metzger (Urban & Regional Studies, KTH Stockholm).

With my talk on "Rising Waters, Shifting Knowledge: Controversies and Material Realities Along Vietnam’s Urban Flooding Problem"I aimed to contribute to the ongoing discussions on traveling (expert) knowledge.

Further information: https://urbanexpertise.ethz.ch/

International Symposium

Matters of Urban Expertise

Symposium Rationale

In a rapidly urbanizing world increased attention is being paid to the development of urban environments. At the same time the array of experts who are expected to design and develop the cities of tomorrow is currently in a state of flux. Contemporary urban challenges are perceived to require new skills and competencies that go beyond the traditional urban professions. 

Digital technology, AI, and big data, financial or investment acumen, and climate change are just a few of the issues city administrations are currently struggling to address. Meanwhile, these issues pressure infrastructures in place, and demand city administrations’ attention to questions of infrastructure maintenance and expansion. As a consequence of these shifts, in a field that has traditionally been dominated primarily by the professions of planners, architects and engineers we now see diverse formations of expertise vying for influence, but without necessarily aspiring to the status or norms of the traditional professions. 

Following from the above, the symposium explores contemporary formations of expertise in the field of urban development. More precisely, the symposium will explore the intertwining of the 'politics of what' with the 'politics of how' and the 'politics of who' in relation to contemporary urban development - thus critically addressing the fundamental question of who is shaping the city of the future, on what grounds, and to which effects.