Wits Faces of the City Seminar

Presented by Ruth Oldenziel, Eindhoven University of Technology and Cycling Cities: the Global Experience
Date: 25 February 2020
Time: 16:00-17:30
Venue: First Floor Seminar Room, John Moffat Building, Wits
RSVP: thammy.Jezile@wits.ac.za

Abstract: IMobility—from local bike-sharing initiatives to overhauls of transport infrastructure—is one of the most important areas in which modern cities are trying to realize a more sustainable future. Yet even as politicians and planners look ahead and focus on the future, there remain critical insights to be gleaned from the history of urban mobility and the unsustainable practices that still impact our everyday lives. In exploring the notion of a “usable past,” the presentation “A U-turn to the Future: Sustainable Urban Mobility since 1850” examines the the ecological, social, and economic aspects of urban mobility in its relation to urban planning. It shows how historical inquiry can make both conceptual and practical contributions to the projects of sustainability and urban renewal.

Based on the just published book and the collective investigation, this presentation shows how our cities came to be as unsustainable in the recent past and uncovers hidden histories containing important clues for how to make cities more sustainable in the future.

Biography: Ruth Oldenziel (PhD Yale ’92) is professor of history and innovation at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. She is editor in chief of Technology and Culture and directs a Research-Book-Web-Teaching project Cycling Cities: The Global Experience. Her publications include books and articles in the area of American, gender, mobility, and technology studies: Cycling Cities (2016-present), Cycling and Recycling with Helmuth Trischler (2015); Hacking Europe ed. with Gerard Alberts (2014) Consumers, Users, Rebels (2013) with Mikael Hard; Cold War Kitchen ed. with Karin Zachmann (2009); Gender and Technology ed. with Nina Lerman and Arwen Mohun (2003); Crossing Boundaries, Building Bridges (Routledge 2000); Making Technology Masculine (1999). Her most recent book project she directed and edited with Martin Emanuel and Frank Schipper is entitled: U-Turn to the Future: Sustainable Urban Mobility since 1850 (Berghahn February 2020).

The Faces of the City seminar series is a partnership between the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) and the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) and and the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP) in the School of Architecture and Planning.

The seminar series is an interdisciplinary forum focusing on all areas of urban interest. We welcome presentations from fields such as urban planning, architecture, sociology, geography, anthropology, environmental studies, and cultural studies. If you would like to motivate for a particular speaker or topic, email thammy.Jezile@wits.ac.za for consideration by the committee.