Call for Papers

LABEX Urban Futures is a federation 13 research institutes focused on planning, architecture, the environment and transport. Its creation was driven by the fact that many of the major challenges facing the cities of tomorrow span several disciplines.

The Urban Futures inaugural international conference will focus on four core cross-disciplinary areas of research that the federation is committed to developing.

Assessing innovative approaches which accompany the intertwined processes of globalisation and metropolisation is crucial (Call for Papers #1). The rationale behind territorial development and the circulation of knowledge brings into play complex interactions between economic trends and social transformations. More generally, it involves changes in the means of projecting, planning and producing the physical aspects of cities (buildings, infrastructure, neighbourhoods, public spaces, etc.). Approaches and practices are changing scale and becoming more transversal.

Similar concerns exist in the field of modelling (Call for Papers #2). Sector models – on air and water quality, transport, land use, resistance to extreme events and climate change – have progressed significantly. The challenge today is to acquire the means to design more integrated approaches and the fit between modelling practices and the expertise that can be harnessed through political decision-making reflects this.

Cities of tomorrow will also face two major challenges: how to deal with new forms of vulnerability and inequality on the one hand, and the challenge of becoming more resource-efficient.

With regard to new types of vulnerability and inequality (Call for Papers #3), we should first note that in Europe access to urban amenities is easier in city centres, where environmental policies are also most prevalent. Future mobility conditions could accentuate the divide between reclassified city centres and peripheral spaces where energy poverty could converge with economic insecurity. On a larger scale, exposure to natural risks often accentuates social vulnerability. All of this offers up new challenges both in terms of governance and technical innovation.

In terms of resource-efficiency (Call for Papers #4), it is obvious that even if multiple technical solutions are found, their implementation will require new socio-technical paradigms. “Short circuit” approaches tend to challenge traditional uses as well as the ways in which urban services are managed. Approaches to economic leveraging and public sector involvement also change over time, as does the fit with day-to-day urban temporalities.

Each of these four areas is the focus of a specific Call for Papers which we invite you to consult.
We will favour proposals that tackle emerging or groundbreaking issues, i.e., by taking for example new thematic, (cross)disciplinary or epistemological approaches to urban questions.