Continually facing new demands from epistemological or technical society, and now facing an economic and social crisis especially in Europe , urban planning is forced to question its methods. The Seminar is intended for PhD Students who wish to present their ongoing research questioning aspects of the field of urban planning in a historical perspective, from a theoretical point of view or with a potential for practical implementation.
It is a rare opportunity offered to young researchers to meet with prominent scientists and build a critical argument. Three major issues, interrelated or interdependent, build the approach this year. The first is the "condition of product" that characterizes the current urban projects, determined as they are by the generic outcomes of urban marketing "how to increase the attractiveness of the city".
The second questions consumer products and their impact on the transformation of lifestyles and their influence in behavioral change. The third question interrogates the future of urban planning when the city becomes a symbolic entity in the market economy.
The first question rises from the fact that territories are emerging as goods or products to be sold, promoted and consumed and on the end similar to other human productions. How to define the future of urbanism after this surrender to marketing? How to query the new situation of urban planning, with what approaches and methodology, what reflection will develop to target an emancipatory planning that has the capacity to trigger or transform lifestyles?
If the geographic space is substituted for the dual space of a new "augmented reality", operated by networks and objects using IT, then what concepts and planning tools must be invented, or are in the process of being invented?
