Universities, Cities and Transformation Workshop

At the beginning of September Professor Tim May and Dr Beth Perry from SURF hosted and presented at the Universities, Cities and Transformation Workshop. Jointly funded by Mistra Urban Futures and the AHRC Cultural Intermediation project, with the support of the Institute of Cultural Capital, the event took place at the Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester. The workshop attracted speakers and participants from across Europe, including Belgium, South Africa, France,  Netherlands, Switzerland and New Zealand. The aim of the workshop was to bring together academics from different disciplines to engage in critical reflection based on their own practices around a set of core questions on cities and knowledge, with a focus on expectations, generation, benefits and alternative modes of organisation.
 
Presentations on the first day centred around the role of universities within the Brussels-Capital Region; the modern university and urban transformation; the University Living Lab; co-producing urban knowledge and experimenting with alternatives to ‘best practice’; learning from grassroots civic experimentation -the Lilac project; and the experience and insights from the Mistra Urban Futures' platforms in Greater Manchester and Cape Town. Presentations on the second day focussed on shaping policy through urban studies; knowledge intensive regeneration for knowledge society and economies; the Manchester cycling lab; defining academic knowledge production and application; the third mission and beyond - university activities in the new market terrain; fine art education, creativity and the open agora; universities and festivals; and the benefits of knowledge production through ethnography.
 
Lively round table discussions followed each set of presentations, with an active twitter discussion at #univer-city. Discussions are ongoing about next steps and slides will be posted to the site when available.

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Universities, Cities and Transformation Workshop

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