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VARIETIES OF RESPONSES Over 100 attendants, a diverse international audience, sharp debates, lively social events – this is the final balance of MRI’s conference. The event unfolded along two main topics: the evolution of the urban context, and housing and welfare developments, within the post-crisis landscape. How are European cities affected by the changing conditions, and how do they respond? How do newly emerging challenges and responses transform European housing and welfare regimes? In addition to these, a separate session involved the adaptive and inclusive re-use of urban heritage. Contrary to usual research conferences based primarily on paper presentations, we aimed for a more interactive event, based on short keynotes, panel discussions and lively debates around the central defined topics. Alongside the conference dinner, we organized the worlds first Advisors’ Fuck-up Night – a friendly competition of good intentions gone wrong. On the second evening, after the official conference closure, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Metropolitan Research Institute. In the course of the field trip on Sunday, 29 September unusual examples of post-socialist transformations and hot spots of emerging conflicts of post-transitional development were visited. In the „Programme and proceedings” section of this website you will find the links to all of the presentations and papers of the conference. Moreover, you will also find the links to the videos: all sessions have been recorded and you can enjoy the presentations and the panel discussions. Under the „Photo Gallery” section you will find pictures of the sessions and social programmes. Thank you all once more for participating, we hope you had an excellent time – we most certainly did! ——— MRI’s conference “Urban and Housing Systems under Pressure: Varieties of Responses” aimed to explore the increasing global and local pressures, both financially and politically, that cities and housing systems have been facing in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. By this point in time, the economic crisis appears to be over and Europe is at a cross-roads: whether to return to the previous growth model or to try out new approaches, partly based on the experiences gained during the crisis period. The conference therefore set out to identify the most important recent responses to this dilemma in European urban and housing systems. ——— The urban sessions dealt with a variety of important current aspects of European urban development. The Friday Plenary took a look at the potential negative social consequences of urban regeneration: ‘renoviction’ and ’enerviction’. The Saturday morning sessions examined post-socialist cities, attempting an overview of urban development trends and planning responses in the major capitals of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, and discussing what comes after post-socialism. In the afternoon sessions good practices were discussed, especially innovative and promising attempts towards more sustainable and more equitable development in European cities. We looked at examples of participatory and deliberative democracy, arenas of discussion and debate. On the other hand, the potential and challenges of social movements and the municipalist movement were addressed discussed. ——— The housing sessions were loosely linked to the comparative research of housing systems, with special attention to post-socialist housing systems and housing finance markets. The Friday Plenary built on comparative analyses of the European housing systems, with special emphasis on housing regimes in the new (post-transition) EU member states. The first session on Saturday took a look at the role of market regulation, housing provision forms, banking, private rental and land use regulation (touching also on building and zoning regulation). The second session addressed the possibility to implement examples of housing provision forms which already exist in some EU member states, to strengthen the social aspect of housing systems in the CEE region. The third topic gave an overview of the new developments in new EU member states; and the last session assessed the challenge of affordability, affecting a growing share of the population since the financial crisis and market recovery. ——— Finally, one session addressed a topic that is relatively new in MRI’s portfolio, but has been gaining room within our activities, and attracted a diverse audience: the adaptive and inclusive re-use of urban heritage. Under-used heritage sites in need of new functions, and areas in need of new development in urban areas make adaptive re-use an attractive and often employed development tool. On Saturday morning, a session was dedicated to the diverse uses of this tool, such as fostering community, strengthening local identity, or supporting bottom-up movements and initiatives. ——— During the field trip, participants visited some unusual – or unexpected – examples of post-socialist transformations and hot spots of emerging conflicts of post-transitional development. |
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