{"id":17638,"date":"2026-07-01T10:43:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T10:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanlab.univie.ac.at\/?p=17638"},"modified":"2026-07-13T07:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:00:14","slug":"rc21-conference-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanlab.univie.ac.at\/en\/rc21-conference-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"RC21 Conference – Inequalities and the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_empty_space][vc_custom_heading text=”RC21 Conference – Inequalities and the City” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe” el_id=”RC212026Header”][vc_custom_heading text=”Contributions by the Urban Studies Working Group” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe”][vc_single_image image=”17663″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http:\/\/https:\/\/rc21-vienna2026.org\/”][vc_column_text]From 20-22 July 2026, the international conference of the Research Committee of Urban and Regional Development (RC21) will take place in Vienna. Bringing together approximately 1200 researchers, the conference will discuss the topic \u201cInequalities and the City\u201d from a wide variety of perspectives and in different formats.<\/p>\n

The Urban Studies Working Group<\/strong> will contribute to the conference through paper presentations, session moderation, roundtable panel organisation, discussions, an Urban Studies Journal lunch meeting, and an urban fringe event.<\/p>\n

Below you can find our timetable. Please note that the programme might be subject to change. The latest information is available here<\/a>.<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_tta_accordion section_title_tag=”h3″ active_section=”1″ title=”Timetable”][vc_tta_section title=”Monday 20 July \u2013 17:00 Fringe Event” tab_id=”1782200584725-e473ee38-7c22″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”Pluriversal Perspectives on Inhabiting Vienna: a City Journal Fringe” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe” el_id=”FringeEvent2026″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Organised<\/strong> by:<\/strong> City journal<\/a>, Urban Sustainability Living Lab<\/a>, Research Platform \u201cThe Challenge of Urban Futures<\/a>\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”17642″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][vc_column_text]This Fringe Event engages with grassroots spatial appropriations in Vienna, thereby pluralizing dominant narratives of urban inhabitation and expressions of the Right to the City beyond its well-known social housing programmes. This event embraces the pluriversal<\/a> ethos of City, recognising that knowledge production should move beyond the confines of academic conferences and emerge from diverse, situated practices and voices.<\/p>\n

The programme consists of two parts. First, a guided walk around the historical and cultural center \u201cKulturzentrum Spittelberg im Amerlinghaus\u201d, 51 years after the space was first occupied in 1975. Second, a collaborative workshop to bring together people and urban collectives from and beyond the RC 21 conference participants. By focusing on both historic and recent initiatives, the session examines the ongoing tensions between invited and claimed spaces of participation, asking what it means to inhabit the city.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Time: <\/strong>17:00<\/p>\n

Meeting<\/strong> point: <\/strong>Entry Main Building University of Vienna, on the steps.<\/p>\n

End:<\/strong> Amerlinghaus<\/a>, Stiftgasse 8, 1070 Wien<\/p>\n

Guide: Urban Sustainability Living Lab<\/a><\/strong>, University of Vienna<\/p>\n

Costs: <\/strong>The Fringe Event will be sponsored by the City journal. Donations to Amerlinghaus and to the collectives involved can be made at the end of the event on a voluntary basis.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1782203876155{background-color: #f4ed9b !important;border-radius: 10px !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]The Fringe event is fully booked.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Tuesday 21 July \u2013 09:00 & 11:00 Paper Sessions” tab_id=”1782200584742-225863f8-6981″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The End of Post? Rethinking Urban Practices and Structures and Their Impact on Inequalities in Post-Socialist and Post-Industrial Cities” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe”][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Organised by: Yvonne Franz<\/a><\/strong> (Urban Sustainability Living Lab<\/a>, University of Vienna, Austria) and Harutyun Vermishyan<\/a><\/strong> (Yerevan State University, Armenia)[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text](How) can the concept of the post-socialist city continue to provide an innovative analytical lens through which to understand new and old socio-spatial inequalities? More than three decades after the collapse of socialist regimes across Central and Eastern Europe, the concept of the post-socialist city remains a central yet contested framework for urban studies. While it has enabled scholars to trace the enduring legacies of state socialism in urban governance, spatial organization, and socio economic structures, it also risks simplifying a transitional narrative that overlooks the evolving complexities of everyday urban life and local economy as well as the differences of perception amongst various societal generations in these regions.<\/p>\n

Several authors have challenged the temporal and ideological assumptions embedded in the ‘post-‘prefix, calling for either abandoning (M\u00fcller and Trubina 2020) or reinventing it (Ringel 2022). Slaev and Hirt (2022) have argued for a nuanced understanding of planning cultures in post-socialist contexts. Similarly, Hirt (2013) has highlighted the hybrid nature shaped by both neoliberal reforms and residual socialist structures, which merit continued academic engagement with the ‘post’prefix. Also, Chelcea (2025) sees a strength in pluralistic, open-ended understandings of post-socialism. Key concerns are questions of autonomy and dependency as well as an underdeveloped dialogue between the g\/Global E\/east and g\/Global W\/west. Investigations into transnational capital flows and how they shape urban futures in post socialist regions (see Aruri 2024) are still very much needed.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”09:00″ font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe”][vc_custom_heading text=”Panellists” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe”][vc_column_text]Crowded out and crowded in: development, displacement and <\/strong>property disuse in Tirana<\/strong>
\nDr. Liam O’Farrell<\/p>\n

The Housing Space Divide: Path Dependence in the Provision of <\/strong>Living Space in Former State-socialist Countries in International <\/strong>Comparison<\/strong>
\nDr. Bence Kov\u00e1ts & Prof. Sebastian Kohl<\/p>\n

Remaking J\u00f3zsefv\u00e1ros: identity, politics and the long shadow of <\/strong>Socialism in the in the gentrifying Budapest<\/strong>
\nDr. Hanna Szemz\u00f6 & Dr. Sandra Guinand<\/p>\n

Beyond the \u201cPost-\u201d: Sevastopol as a Critical Case of Militarized <\/strong>Urbanism in a Post-Socialist City<\/strong>
\nMr. Oleg Zubchenok[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Oral:<\/strong> #19-1\/2<\/p>\n

Time: <\/strong>09:00<\/p>\n

Venue: <\/strong>HS 16[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_empty_space][vc_custom_heading text=”11:00″ font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe”][vc_custom_heading text=”Panellists” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe”][vc_column_text]Post-Communist Temporalities, Hybrid Planning, and Housing Inequality in Yerevan<\/strong>
\nMs. Heghine Pilosyan<\/p>\n

Studying Urban Change through Multiple Conditions of ‘Post’: Class, Race and Moral Economies in East Berlin and Warsaw<\/strong>
\nDr. Urszula Wozniak<\/p>\n

Beyond the \u201cPost\u2024\u2024\u2024\u201d: Ontologies of Urban Orders in Armenian Small Cities<\/strong>
\nDr. Aram Vartikyan, Prof. Kerstin Krellenberg<\/strong><\/a>, Dr. Julia Wesely<\/strong><\/a> & Ms. Milena Sarmakyan<\/p>\n

Reconfiguring Responsibility after Mass Privatisation: Housing Governance across Post-Socialist Cities<\/strong>
\nDr. Elena Batunova & Ms. Albina Davletshina[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Oral:<\/strong> #19-2\/2<\/p>\n

Time:<\/strong> 11:00<\/p>\n

Venue: <\/strong>HS 16[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Tuesday 21 July \u2013 14:00 Round Table” tab_id=”1782217966925-d656a5b7-6c0d”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”Translocal learning to address inequalities through Urban Labs” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” el_class=”no_stripe”][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Chair\/Moderator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julia Wesely<\/a><\/strong> (Urban Sustainability Living Lab<\/a><\/strong>, University of Vienna, Austria)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Urban Labs are increasingly popular modes for co-producing transdisciplinary knowledge on key urban issues. Particularly in the field of urban sustainability transformations, actors from research and practice have argued that social innovation and experimentation are required to address complex sustainability challenges and the structural inequalities at their core.<\/p>\n

Here, the messy context of “the urban” serves to re-frame the pristine image of the laboratory, while the complex realities of urban dwellers transgress epistemic and heuristic boundaries of a controlled experiment. Acknowledging that the starting points, goals, foci, institutional set-up and spatial-temporal configurations of Urban Labs over the world are highly heterogeneous, the roundtable discussion focuses particularly on university-based Urban Labs. This is due to their underlying promise of establishing a new social contract between universities and cities; where hierarchies of knowledge and practice are questioned and re-worked to become fruitful for transformative change. Yet, their impacts, in terms of the change they produce, including their ability to address structural inequalities, remain limited and uncertain. What, then, can be learnt across Urban Labs to strengthen knowledges about their enabling conditions as well as their (transformative) impacts?<\/p>\n

In the context of evolving research on enabling conditions for university based Urban Labs, this roundtable also recognises how academic discourses on Urban Labs are currently strongly biased towards Western understandings. This is particularly concerning as numerous Urban Labs from the East and South hold profound experiences across teaching, research and extension, and provide ample conceptual, methodological and practical entry points to exchange, learn from, and learn across. Moreover, although being firmly contextualised in their localities, many Urban Labs are deeply entangled in global-local networks: be it through international research projects and funding streams, participation in multilateral city alliances, and engagement with the localisation of global sustainable development agendas, among many other dimensions.<\/p>\n

The roundtable discussion therefore brings into conversation experiences from emerging and established Urban Labs associated with universities across diverse geographies such as Armenia, Brazil, the UK and Austria. It seeks to curate cross-learning in multiple directions, making explicit their local, and in particular their translocal dimensions and connections.<\/p>\n

The roundtable discussion will address the following topics:<\/p>\n