Unsettled Urban Space : Routines, Temporalities and Contestations

While urban life can be characterized by endeavors to settle stable and safe environments, for many people, urban space is rarely stable or safe; it is uncertain, troubled, imbued with challenges and perpetually under pressure. As the concept of unsettled appears to define the contemporary urban experience, this multidisciplinary book investigates the conflicts and possibilities of settling and unsettling through open and speculative analysis.

The analytical prism of unsettled renders urban space an indeterminate ground unfolding through routines, temporalities and contestations in constant tension between settling and unsettling. Such contrasting experiences are contingent on how urban societies confront, undergo and overcome turbulence and difficulties in time and space. Contributions drawing on theoretical reflections and empirical accounts―from Argentina, Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the UAE, the UK, the USA and Vietnam―give insights into plural occurrences of the unsettled, which might tie down or unleash transformative, liberatory and emancipatory potentials.

This book is for students, professionals and researchers interested in the uncertainties, foundations, disturbances, inconsistencies, residuals and blind fields, which constitute the urban both as lived space and as social, cultural and political ideal.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Tihomir Viderman is a Research Associate at the Chair of Urban Management of BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and a doctoral candidate at TU Wien.

Sabine Knierbein is a Professor at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, TU Wien. She was Visiting Professor for Urban Political Geography at the University of Florence.

Elina Kränzle is a Senior Scientist at the Social Design Studio, University of Applied Arts Vienna and a doctoral candidate at the TU Wien.

Sybille Frank is a Professor for Urban Sociology and Sociology of Space at TU Darmstadt. She was Visiting Professor for Urban Solidarity and European Crisis at TU Wien.

Nikolai Roskamm is a Professor of Planning Theory, History of Urbanism and Urban Design at the FH Erfurt. He was Visiting Professor for Urban Peace and National Welfare at TU Wien.

Ed Wall is the Academic Lead of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Greenwich. He was Visiting Professor for Urban Equity and the Global Agenda at TU Wien.