K6ET 2065 - Urban Futures: STS and the Technologies of the Transition

Governing urban ecological transitions involves choosing between multiple technical possibilities to guide the future development of urban environments or to modify existing environments. Decision-makers need to assess the effects and performances of different technologies while grasping their political significance and their social and organizational consequences. In domain as diverse as energy supply, infrastructure or biodiversity management, the recent history of urban ecological transitions is riddled with failed - yet technologically relevant, initiatives. By adopting a socio-technical approach (STS), attentive to the materiality of urban environments, and to the social and political configurations underpinning technological choices, the objective of this course is to offer an understanding of the failures and successes of urban ecological transitions projects. To understand their technological trajectories and their deployment, the mapping of socio-technical controversies, an approach developed over the past thirty years in different academic institutions, offers an effective method. The ambition of this course is therefore threefold: (a) to provide students with an understanding of the recent history of urban development in Europe through an STS lens, (b) to expand or reinforce their urban technical culture and (c) to equip them with concepts and methods to study socio-technical controversies, allowing them to critically evaluate the technological choices that support urban ecological transition projects. The lectures will reflect on different European experiences taken in various urban contexts, while the workshop sessions will allow students to focus on an urban ecological transition project of their choice and critically deconstruct the technological choices and their social and political implications. The course is organized over a period of 6 weeks (6 sessions of 2 hours) and will combine group work, written statements, and presentations.

The course does not require any prior knowledge and welcome all disciplinary backgrounds, from architecture and civil engineering to social sciences and environmental studies.

The course will combine lectures and reading seminars to introduce and discuss the main concepts and methods. It also includes project-oriented sessions.

The course will be validated by (a) a written report to be submitted at the end of the six weeks workshop and (b) a final presentation.

The workload involves intensive work during the six sessions. Students will also be asked to dedicate some time to desk research between each session and do some group work to progress in the exploration of their own controversy.