[Kaupunkitutkimus] INVITATION: International PhD School 2024: Urban Planning for Discontinuity and Radical Transformation (in Tampere, 16-20 June)

[Riina Lundman]

INVITATION TO APPLY - WELCOME TO JOIN!
 
Urban Planning for Discontinuity and Radical Transformation
 
International PhD School organised by TURNS (Tampere University, FI) in collaboration with researchers from Radboud University (NL) and Demos Helsinki (FI).
 
16-20 June 2024 in Tampere, Finland.
Application deadline 7 April 2024 (Sorry for short notice).
 
THEME

Urban planning shapes the future. Very often, though, planners fail to recognise varied types and uses of futures they deal with: futures as material continuities; futures as expectations and visions; futures as predictions reflecting data on the past; or futures as unexpected discontinuities and radical transformations. 
 
There have been various attempts to integrate future studies’ methods in planning practices. Through futuring, planners have gained tools to deal with uncertainties and conflicts, eventually approaching the future as a plurality of possible outcomes. However, the fusion of future studies and urban planning lacks both a clear theory and an agreed set of paradigmatic examples. Furthermore, the epistemic status of the future in planning theory remains undefined and contested.
 
This deficit becomes urgent in the current context where cities and metropolitan regions are increasingly guided by transformative future targets, such as climate neutrality and biodiversity regeneration. Therefore, planning has to refocus on futures (Neuvonen, 2022). 
 
WHO CAN APPLY

The PhD School is open to registered PhD students in Urban Planning, Futures Studies, Regional Studies, Transition Studies, Urban Sociology, Architecture, and related fields worldwide. 
 
There will be slots for c. 20 students in the PhD School. The PhD School entitles to get study credits equal to 3 ECTS.
 
WHY TO APPLY

The PhD School Urban Planning for Discontinuity and Radical Transformation offers an intellectual climate characterised by open debate and shared exploration, not least intended to help you develop your own PhD research further. The four-day programme consists of high-quality lectures by renowned academics from Europe and the U.S., seminars, thematic workshops and urban excursions in Tampere, one of the most interesting and dynamic medium-sized cities in Nordic countries.
 
The credo of the PhD School builds on the idea that urban planning should be the domain of collective imagination of futures beyond simple transition. Students will work on a new future-regarding epistemic setting to initiate rich and meaningful futures that enable both learning and unlearning. In particular, we propose to operationalise an unlocking, staging and opening of the future by creating tangible Archives of the Futures (Driessche et al. 2023), which help to build practical and lived anticipatory assemblages of discontinuity. Importantly, creating such Archives of the Future will require a process in which (co)production of knowledge moves from a minimalist consensual solution of antagonistic positions towards a co-creative attitude of adversaries (Ache, 2017), in ways that are “constructive, imaginative, and diverse”.
 
Let us jointly explore how to make using the future in the present explicit in urban planning for transformation! 
 
HOW TO APPLY

Please send the following documents via email to Riina Lundman (riina.lundman at tuni.fi) by 7 April 2024.
 
Motivation letter in relation to the topic (max. 4 pages), including:
• Your personal information (in the first page; name, e-mail address, field of study, university, country)
• A short introduction of yourself
• The working title of your PhD project
• A focused description of your PhD project
• How your PhD project is related to the topic of the PhD School
• CV (1 page, including possible publications)
 
Application deadline: Sunday 7 April 2024 (at 23:59 GMT)
Decisions will be made and successful applicants informed by 17 April 2024. 
 
FEES AND OTHER COSTS

The PhD school is free of charge. The students are expected to pay their own travel and accommodation costs and have their own insurance.
 
RESPONSIBLE ACADEMICS

• Panu Lehtovuori, Peter Ache and Aleksi Neuvonen
• Co-tutors and guests (to be confirmed): Robert Goodspeed, Kristi Grišakov, Purushottam Kesar, Thomas Machiels
• Coordination: Riina Lundman, Tampere University/TURNS

For any questions, contact Riina Lundman (riina.lundman at tuni.fi).

See further information here: https://research.tuni.fi/turns/news/international-phd-school-2024/

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Riina Lundman
PhD, Project Manager
Tampere Urban Research Network for Sustainability (TURNS)
Tampere University, Finland
riina.lundman at tuni.fi; +358504353702
https://research.tuni.fi/turns