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Abstract

Lecture by from the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Twente.

Cities are exposed to increasing complexities, dynamics and uncertainties. This qualitative observation particularly applies to fast-growing cities facing major planning and management challenges to provide, improve access to, and build back infrastructures and services in the context of socio-spatial inequalities and climate change. In this lecture, I will introduce the Science and Technology Studies’ concept of infrastructuring into planning studies, and analyse the potentials and limitations of geo-spatial data and tools (e.g. GIS) in urban infrastructuring processes. Infrastructuring is seen as a socio-technical process of ‘building’ infrastructure, in which the relations between infrastructure components and users adjust over time, and as a participatory process in which stakeholders having different knowledge interact on infrastructural questions. I will use examples from different parts of the world to illustrate the role of geo-spatial data and tools in urban infrastructuring and reflect on sustainability concerns in urban infrastructuring.

Bio

Karin Pfeffer is a geographer and holds a chair in Infrastructuring Urban Futures at the Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management department at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Twente. Prior to her appointment at ITC in 2017 she worked at the Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies of the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam (the NL) in various positions, ranging from postdoctoral researcher to Associate Professor. She obtained her PhD in Physical Geography from Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, the Netherlands.

She investigates how research can engage with, and participate in, the development of new urban planning practices. Central to her work is the use and analysis of geographic information science technologies for critically analysing issues of urban sustainability such as unplanned settlements, infrastructure access or environmental vulnerabilities. She is an advocate of inter- and transdisciplinary research and underscores the need of combining different kinds of perspectives and knowledges in analysing and addressing societal problems. She has participated in NWO and EU-funded research programmes on spatial information infrastructures and spatial knowledge management. Currently she (co)leads projects on urban infrastructures, planning tools and urbanisation dynamics.

Transforming infrastructures

In this lecture series the research hub Transforming cities invites international lecturers to share their view on urban sustainability transformations and the role of infrastructures.

One of the key mediators of urban transitions are technical infrastructures, like energy, water, mobility, waste, and communication services. However, those systems are interlaced with the built environments of cities. Since infrastructure choices shape urban futures for many decades, they impose exceptionally high requirements in terms of transformative knowledge on how to introduce change and address vested interests, how to anticipate future risks and opportunities, and how to envision pragmatic pathways to more desirable urban futures.

Other lectures in this series are:

• Thursday 1 April, 15h30: Matti Siemiatycki (School of Cities, Univ. of Toronto), City Building Through Partnership: In Search of a Collaborative Advantage
• Thursday 27 May, 15h30: Rob Kitchin (Maynooth ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ), Fast and Slow Urbanism
• Thursday 15 July, 16h30: Stephanie Pincetl (UCLA), Distributed Energy Resources as new Infrastructure, versus Incumbent Utilities