CITY AXIOMS is a series of open lectures and discussions on contemporary ideologies and practices of urban design. A city axiom is a concept with an assumed value, what we take for granted as desirable or improper when debating or engaging in solving the problems of urban life. We are interested in the common sense quality of that which precedes and implicitly informs the different stakes in the battles for the rights to shaping and inhabiting the city. Key to understanding such battles, we believe, is the corporate appropriation of the urban commons, but also the emergence of arenas for sharing and exchange where domination is rationalised or contested in new ways or forms. While setting a scene for a general conversation between practice and theory, the series pays special attention to the role of architecture in steering or questioning the direction of urban change. In doing so, it taps into on-going debates on architecture as docile or inimical to market logics and on the relation of aesthetics to the politics of city space.
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28/1 AUSTERITY URBANISM - video available

Aula Magna, Stockholm University, 2-5 pm
JAMIE PECK, Geographer, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Catharina Gabrielsson, Architect, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Johan Lindquist, Anthropologist, Stockholm University
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25/2 COMMUNITY AND SUSTAINABILITY - video available

Katsan, White’s Stockholm office, 2-5 pm
MARK GRAHAM and LISSA NORDIN, Anthropologists, Stockholm University
Lars Mikael Raattamaa, Architect and Poet
Moa Tunström, Cultural Geographer, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
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31/3 INSURGENCY AND PUBLIC SPACE - video available

KTH, Lindstedtsv. 5, Room D3, 2-5 pm
JEFFREY HOU, Landscape Architect, University of Washington, Seattle
ALEXANDER VASUDEVAN, Geographer, University of Nottingham
Karin Bradley, Urban Planner, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Maple Razsa, Anthropologist, Colby College, Waterville
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28/4 URBAN INSECURITY

Aula Magna, Stockholm University, 2-5 pm
JOSHUA COMAROFF, Architect, Lekker Design, Singapore
FELICITY D. SCOTT, Architect, Columbia University, New York
Francis Cody, Anthropologist, University of Toronto
Katja Grillner, Architect, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
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9/6 SPACES OF ENCLOSURE - video available

Katsan, White’s Stockholm office, 2-5 pm
AMITA BAVISKAR, Anthropologist, Delhi University
FRAN TONKISS, Sociologist, London School of Economics
Beppe Karlsson, Anthropologist, Stockholm University
Lars Mikael Raattamaa, Architect and Poet