Transforming Cities debates: Rewilding the city

There is a broad push for more nature in the city but what does this mean for people living in the city? What is wild nature in the era of the Anthropocene and are urban citizens ready to co-habitate with nature? Do we really embrace nature and renaturing cities or we instrumentalise nature as another ‘fix’ or even ‘tool’ to urban neoliberal agendas?
Many interesting things are happening in the field of sustainable urban development but at the same time current ways of thinking are not at all sufficient as a basis for the radical transformations that are needed. We need to reframe current debates about sustainable cities to make them more societally resonant while leveraging the unique status and resonance of science.
Transforming Cities Utrecht organizes a series of academic debates to develop new ways of thinking as a basis for radical innovation. We want these debates to go beyond the status quo, to identify blind spots and frontier issues at the science forefront and policy interest, focus on challenging, deep and sometimes painful questions, and develop new ways of thinking and new ways of unpacking and understanding them.
We invite Utrecht University scholars and other people interested in sustainable urban development to join our academic debates. Please note that this is an in-person event only and it is not possible to join online.
Other debates are:
- Wednesday 21 September 2022: Politicizing science
- Thursday 20 October 2022: Beyond techtopia
- Monday 31 October 2022: Taking populists seriously (World Cities Day)
- Thursday 24 November 2022: Not accepting a trade-off between equality and sustainability
- Start date and time
- End date and time
- Location
- De Vereeniging, Mariaplaats 14, Utrecht
- Registration
We appreciate your registration. You can let us know you would like to join the debate(s) by filling out this registration form.