Monday 25 May · 2020 15:00-16:00 CEST

At the open data session at the AScUS unconference we will look at challenges and opportunities around open data from an urban industrial ecology perspective. During the pre-conference event, Paul Hoekman from Metabolism of Cities will unveil the new data platform and explain how researchers and individuals can work together and embed the city of their interest in this platform. We will then hear from Peters Jens and Anne Ventura who will share a set of questions with the attendees that will frame the discussion that follows during the actual unconference. We will close this session with an informal meet-and-greet to get to know your fellow participants.

We highly recommend that everybody who plans to attend the open data session tries to join us for this hour-long pre-conference event.

Organised by Jens Peters, Anne Ventura, Paul Hoekman, Kimenthrie Finlay and Carolin Bellstedt

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Wednesday 27 May · 2020 14:00-15:00 CEST

What is the best way to unlock the potential of transformative ideas in areas like urban metabolism, circular economy, and sustainability science for the community at large? If we could design a public outreach program, campaign or course, what would that look like?

Behaviour change and education are vital levers in progressing towards the future sustainable cities we want to see. We should all reach beyond our knowledge areas to involve other experts, community members and youth. This session will highlight useful examples, share experiences and brainstorm opportunities and goals for your own outreach and a collective Path to Action.

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Wednesday 27 May · 2020 15:00-16:00 CEST

Preconference activity for the session on “Smart Cities, Urban Infrastructure Transitions, and Sustainability”

Session moderators: Jessica Clement, Kangkang Tong

We propose a coffee chat to let participants get to know each other before our formal discussion session. We will use this one hour to discuss how we cope with the COVID-19 crisis and how our urban life has been changed.

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Thursday 28 May · 2020 14:00-15:00 CEST

Looping resources locally and creating urban resource centres could accelerate a transition to a more sustainable economy. This session aims to synthesise knowledge and experiences from the AScUS community on local circular economy initiatives and how investments and policy regarding urban waste systems can drive them. We will gather evidence, discuss novel technologies, approaches and opportunities, and generate a set of context-specific recommendations for urban decision-makers

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Thursday 28 May · 2020 15:00-16:00 CEST

When researchers grapple with the question how cities can be strengthened in their efforts towards urban sustainability they are confronted with highly varying local governance systems. In our collaborative session we want to present, discuss and cluster local governance systems in different regulatory settings. For example, the legal scope of action of cities varies greatly in unitary and federal states. Cities also have highly different local budgets, among others dependent on their power to raise and spend taxes. Another crucial difference is the degree of legal pluralism present in a specific place. Furthermore, postcolonial power structures often significantly influence the local governance system.

In our pre-conference session we want to start exploring these different regulatory settings and their influence on urban sustainability governance via storytelling and mapping of urban governance systems. We invite our participants to share their experiences with urban sustainability governance from everyday-life, activist or researcher perspectives. The results will feed into the main session and create a basis for fruitful discussions and deeper understanding.

Organizers:

• Jun.-Prof. Dr. Cathrin Zengerling (Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg)
• PhD. cand. Nikita John (Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg)
• PhD. cand. Lisa Harseim (Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg)
• PhD. cand. Malaz Seif Al-Isalm (Khartoum University, Sudan)

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Monday 01 Jun · 2020 15:00-16:00 CEST

In this second pre-conference session, the Metabolism of Cities team will hold a workshop to assist participants with processing and uploading urban metabolism data and information into the new data platform. Participants should come prepared with datasets, shapefiles, and other information prepared according to the instructions that are shared during the first pre-conference meeting on May 25th. There will be a demonstration to guide participants in the uploading process, and there will be a Q&A as well as individual support sessions to assist people to activate their city within the platform.

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Tuesday 02 Jun · 2020 14:00-15:00 CEST

This pre-session aims to generate excitement and intrigue for our forthcoming opportunity to discuss collective, insightful interpretations of transdisciplinarity and its research applications. During this pre-session, we will focus on identifying and priming the conceptual frameworks most closely associated to our understandings of justice, our personal passions and professional priorities surrounding sustainability challenges, and the interdependent and interconnected nature of socio-ecological systems. We hope this pre-session dialogue serves to create an interwoven blend of experiences and perspectives that we will be able to build upon in our upcoming discussion, which will emphasize myriad strategies for paradigmatic change.

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