DFG-Research training group "Urban future-making: Professional agency across time and scale"

The research training group (RTG) “Urban future-making: Professional agency across time and scale” is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and jointly organized by HafenCity Universität Hamburg (HCU) in cooperation with Technische Universität Hamburg (TUHH) and Universität Hamburg (UHH). It investigates the agency of built environment professionals in the face of pressing challenges for transformative change. The project will join scholars and doctoral researchers from the social sciences and from academic disciplines related to the built environment.

Team

Supervisors

Prof. Dr. Monika Grubbauer (Speaker) (HCU, Geschichte und Theorie der Stadt)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5223
E-Mail: monika.grubbauer(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Bögle (HCU, Entwurf und Analyse von Tragwerken)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5691
E-Mail: annette.boegle(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Prof. Dott. Arch. Paolo Fusi (HCU, Architektur/Städtebau)
Tel.: +49 40 42827‐4345
E-Mail: paolo.fusi(at)hcu‐hamburg.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Carsten Gertz (TUHH, Verkehrsplanung/Mobilität)
Tel.: +49 40 42878‐3518
E-Mail: gertz(at)tuhh.de

Prof. Dr. Gernot Grabher (HCU, Stadt- und Regionalökonomie)
Tel.: +49 40 42827‐4561
E-Mail: gernot.grabher(at)hcu‐hamburg.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gesa Kapteina (HCU, Materialwissenschaften)
Tel.: +49 40 42827‐4074
E-Mail: gesa.kapteina(at)hcu‐hamburg.de

Prof. Dr. Katharina Manderscheid (Co-Speaker) (UHH, Soziologie)
Tel.: +49 40 42838-8661
E-Mail: katharina.manderscheid(at)uni-hamburg.de

Jun. Prof. Dr. Franziska Müller (UHH, Politikwissenschaft)
Tel.: +49 1578 3020719
E-Mail: franziska.mueller(at)uni‐hamburg.de

Dr. Joachim Thiel (Co-Speaker) (HCU, Stadt- und Regionalökonomie/Stadtplanung)
Tel.: +49 40 42827‐4556
E-Mail: joachim.thiel(at)hcu‐hamburg.de

Post-Doctoral Researchers

Dr. Alessandra Manganelli (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5205
E-Mail: alessandra.manganelli(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Dr. Lucas Pohl (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5409
E-Mail: lucas.pohl(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Dr. Louis-Henri Volont (01.07.22)
Tel.: t.b.a.
E-Mail: t.b.a
Research Profile

Doctoral Researchers

Alessandro Arlati (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5109
E-Mail: alessandro.arlati(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Lena Enne (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5482
E-Mail: lena.enne(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Anna-Lena Grigo (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-4392
E-Mail: anna-lena.grigo(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Melis Günay (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5208
E-Mail: melis.guenay(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Thilo van der Haegen (UHH)
Tel.: -
E-Mail: thilo.van.der.haegen(at)uni-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Tom Hawxwell (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5122
E-Mail: tom.hawxwell(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Dipl.-Ing.Hannes Langguth (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5409
E-Mail: hannes.langguth(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Aboli Mangire (ca. 01.07.22)
Tel.: t.b.a
E-Mail: t.b.a
Research Profile

Claudia Massioni (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-4394
E-Mail: claudia.massioni(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Irina Redkina (UHH)
Tel.: +49 40 42838-7918
E-Mail: irina.redkina(at)uni-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Michelle Renz (HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42827-4332
E-Mail: michelle.renz(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Julia Sievert (TUHH)
Tel.: +49 40 42878-3956
E-Mail: julia.sievert(at)tuhh.de
Research Profile

Associated Doctoral Researchers

Vera Buttmann (HCU)
Tel.: t.b.a.
E-Mail: t.b.a.
Research Profile

Clara Da Ros (UHH)
Tel.: t.b.a.
E-Mail: t.b.a.
Research Profile

Anna Hentschel (HTW Berlin)
Tel.: t.b.a.
E-Mail: t.b.a.
Research Profile

Kathrin Meyer (HCU)
Tel.: t.b.a.
E-Mail: kathrin.meyer(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

Laura Schöngart
Tel.: t.b.a.
E-Mail: laura.schoengart(at)hs-gm.de
Research Profile

Maren Zywietz
Tel.: +49 40 42827-5692
E-Mail: maren.zywietz(at)hcu-hamburg.de
Research Profile

RTG 2725 Office

Anna-Lena Krüger (Coordinator, HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42872-5242
E-Mail: anna-lena.krueger(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Andrea Busch (Office, HCU)
Tel.: +49 40 42872-5246
E-Mail: andrea.busch(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Student Assistants

Caroline Heimel (HCU)
E-Mail: caroline.heimel(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Tarek Megahed (HCU)
E-Mail: tarek.megahed(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Felix ten Thoren (HCU)
E-Mail: felix.thoren(at)hcu-hamburg.de

Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University, UK)
Prof. Dr. Tim Bunnell (NUS, SGP)
Prof. Dr. Roberto Cavallo (TU Delft, NL)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Agnes Förster (RWTH Aachen, D)
Prof. Dr. Malene Freudendal-Pedersen (AAU, DK)
Prof. Dr. Matthew Gandy (Cambridge University, UK)
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Kloft (TU Braunschweig, D)

Introducing RTG 2725 "Urban future-making"

Post-Doctoral Researchers

Dr. Alessandra Manganelli (HCU)
Research Profile

Dr. Lucas Pohl (HCU)
Research Profile

Dr. Louis-Henri Volont (01.07.22, HCU)
Research Profile

Doctoral Researchers

Alessandro Arlati (HCU)
Research Profile

Lena Enne (HCU)
Research Profile

Anna-Lena Grigo (HCU)
Research Profile

Melis Günay (HCU)
Research Profile

Thilo van der Haegen (UHH)
Research Profile

Tom Hawxwell (HCU)
Research Profile

Dipl.-Ing.Hannes Langguth (HCU)
Research Profile

Aboli Mangire (ca. 01.07.22, HCU)
Research Profile

Claudia Massioni (HCU)
Research Profile

Irina Redkina (UHH)
Research Profile

Michelle Renz (HCU)
Research Profile

Julia Sievert (TUHH)
Research Profile

Associated Doctoral Researchers

Vera Buttmann (01.07.22, HCU)
Research Profile

Clara Da Ros (UHH)
Research Profile

Anna Hentschel (HTW Berlin)
Research Profile

Kathrin Meyer (HCU)
Research Profile

Laura Schöngart
Research Profile

Maren Zywietz
Research Profile

Intro

Urban areas have become crucial sites where aspired pathways towards desirable futures are imagined, forecasted and variably negotiated. Through the lens of “urban future-making”, the proposed research training group investigates the activities of experts and administrators who seek to respond to the expected threats and risks to urban societies with measures related to the urban built environment. The central question is how, or whether, reflexive and responsible professional agency with regard to urban future-making can be possible under present conditions of heightened uncertainty and multiple crises.

Profile

The research training group will investigate strategies and interventions through which experts and administrators seek to respond to the expected threats to urban societies with measures related to the urban built environment. We specifically focus on the group of built environment professionals. We recognise these professionals as a highly diverse group of urban future-makers, operating in public administration, the private sector, the non-profit sector and in civil society initiatives. We maintain that their actions are shaped by fundamental temporal and scalar tensions.

Research Programme

One the one hand, we see a temporal tension, as demands for transformative change clash with maintenance requirements of the existing urban fabric. On the other hand, we see a scalar tension, as the urgency to act requires taking into account a global context of multiple interdependencies whereas the urban built environment is place-bound and local. Against the conceptual backdrop of these temporal and scalar tensions, the research training group will investigate the agency of professionals in the interdisciplinary dialogue between reflection- and solution-oriented fields of research. By doing so, the training group will foster conceptual and methodological crossfertilisation across social sciences and built environment disciplines.

Focus and Research Areas

The research training group is organized into three tracks. Track 1 “framings” focuses on the perspectives of the social sciences and asks which narratives serve to legitimate urgency and how problems are framed. Track 2 “strategies” builds on systematic exchange between reflection-oriented and solution-oriented approaches and investigates how professionals act in the face of heightened uncertainty to engender transformative change. Track 3 “interventions” focuses on the perspective of built environment disciplines. It examines the methodologies which allow professionals to take decisions and navigate evident urgencies in reflexive and responsible ways. Empirically, three forms of phenomena, i.e. labs, architectures and infrastructures, will be studied. These are currently mobilised and addressed in urban future-making as key sites, objects and vehicles of transformative change, each marked by distinct spatio-temporal modes of action.