Publications

Together with Martijn van den Hurk, Edwin Buitelaar and Peter Pelzer, Maarten Hajer wrote: "Aardgasvrij avant-la-lettre. Leren van Malmö" [Gas free avant-la-lettre Learning from Malmö] that appeared on aardgasvrijewijken.nl. In this essay, the researchers describe what the Netherlands can learn from the Swedish residential area Bo01 in the transformation to natural gas-free neighbourhoods. This essay is in Dutch.

Following the Post-Fossil City Contest in 2018, Wytske Versteeg and Peter Pelzer made an analysis of this international design contest that called on artists and designers to visualize a post-fossil era. This paper is titled "Imagination for change: The Post-Fossil City Contest" and was published in the scientific journal Futures.

This article by Maarten Hajer and Peter Pelzer called 2050—An Energetic Odyssey: Understanding ‘Techniques of Futuring’ in the transition towards renewable energy is based on the Energetic Odyssey. A process centred around an elaborate multimedia installation, introducing large scale exploitation of the North Sea for harvesting off shore wind energy taking place in 2015 and 2016.It examines the Odyssey as example of a Technique of Futuring and concludes with a reflection what the Odyssey teaches us about effective Techniques of Futuring to further the sustainability transition.

This paper by Suzanne Potjer and Maarten Hajer discusses the potential for cities to experiment within and between cities. 

'Learning to Experiment - Realising the potential of the Urban Agenda for the EU'

The phenomenon of climate change requires a rethinking of existing socio-geographical arrangements. Maarten Hajer and Wytske Versteeg wrote "Imagining the post-fossil city: why is it so difficultto think of new possible worlds?"  and this paper argues that the transition to ‘post-fossil urbanization’ is hampered by the lack of positive imaginations of alternative possible urban futures and post-fossil city life.

This paper by Joost Vervoort and Astrid Mangnus outlines a new conceptual approach for increasing understanding of how new foresight processes impact efforts toward urban sustainability transformations.

"The roles of new foresight methods in urban sustainability transformations"

News headlines often argue that science has become just another opinion, that truth has died or that we have given up on facts. Wytske Versteeg employed Conversation Analysis in order to investigate this claim in "How do you know?": Everyday negotiations of expert authority".

"Learning with Cities, Learning for Cities" by Suzanne Potjer and Maarten Hajer analyses the experimental potential of the Urban Agenda for the EU. The essay presents the central principles of this innovative working method (local, horizontal, and vertical) and calls for these principles to be synthesised into a comprehensive system of experimental learning.

"Learning with Cities, Learning for Cities"

The longread "De ambitieuze wijk van morgen" by Chris ten Dam, Gerjan Streng, Maarten Hajer, Peter Pelzer and Thijs van Spaandonk was published on NL Magazine. What does the neighborhood of the future look like? Ambitious, exemplary neighborhoods from elsewhere not only provide inspiration, but also practical lessons to use in the Netherlands. (Dutch)
 

On March 17 2017, Maarten Hajer delivered his inaugural lecture as Professor of Urban Futures at the Faculty of Geosciences. The full-text of the lecture is available in both Dutch and English through the links below. 

"De Macht van de Verbeelding"  /  "The Power of the Imagination" 

On March 27 2017, Maarten Hajer delivered the Dies Natalis lecture. The theme of the Dies celebration was "Town and Gown". The full-text of Maarten's lecture is available through the link below. 

"Seeing Eye to Eye: On Castles and Cities"

How can we use artistic imagination to stimulate our thinking about post-fossil futures? This is the central question in our new publication De Post-Fossiele Stad; Een zoektocht door verbeelding. We show the journey of the Post-Fossil City Contest. The booklet includes double interviews with BreukersGodrie (winners), and Ivo Schot (finalist) and his father Johan Schot (Professor in Sustainability Transitions). In two essays, we explore the promises and pitfalls of using artistic imagination to shape post-fossil futures.