POIESIS: Interdisciplinary Interventions on Urban Transformation

Urban Democracy by Design?

Introduction: Poiesis and Cross-Sectoral Work

Markus Hipp (Executive Director, BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt)

Panelists:

Michael Arad (Partner, Handel Architects)

Ricky Burdett (Professor of Urban Studies and Director of the Cities and the Urban Age Programme, London School of Economics)

Saskia Sasen (Robert S Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University)

Richard Sennett (University Professor, New York University and Centennial Visiting Professor, London School of Economics)

Chair: Ash Amin (1931 Chair in Geography, University of Cambridge)

The Poiesis symposium is the culmination of a three year research project on the making and remaking of cities led by Richard Sennett and Craig Calhoun in partnership with the Herbert Quandt and Gerda Henkel Foundations. Over three days, the international, interdisciplinary, group of scholars and practitioners involved in the project – from architects and filmmakers to physicists, sociologists and lawyers – will be convened by Cambridge geographer Ash Amin to discuss the future city. Combining plenaries, workshops and roundtable discussions, the symposium will debate the salience of reading the city from its physical and cultural infrastructures, the potential of urban democracy 'by design', and the implications of comprehensive urbanism for social thought and political practice.