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Performing Urbanity: An Inquiry into the Modes of Knowing the City

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the elaboration and negotiation of a rezoning procedure that took place in Vienna, Austria. The study not only focuses on the static constellation of specific roles attributed to experts and stakeholders but also pays particular attention to the performativity of ‘urban knowledge and expertise’. An analytical framework is set up around the concepts of actor-network theory (ANT) through a brief diagnosis of the symmetries between ‘matters of concern’ and ‘modes of knowing’. Throughout the examined consortium, the sequence of a choreographed understanding of urbanity—allocating responsibilities and aligning concerns—is portrayed by suggesting an issue-oriented methodological approach aiming to understand how urbanity negotiates, performs and stabilizes expert claims.

“For the semiotic approach tells us that entities achieve their form as a consequence of the relations in which they are located. But this means that it also tells us that they are performed in, by, and through those relations. A consequence is that everything is uncertain and reversible, at least in principle. It is never given in the order of things.” (Law 1999: 4)

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  1. ETH Wohnforum – CASE, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Julio Paulos

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  1. Julio Paulos
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  1. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Monika Kurath

  2. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Marko Marskamp

  3. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Julio Paulos

  4. University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jean Ruegg

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Paulos, J. (2018). Performing Urbanity: An Inquiry into the Modes of Knowing the City. In: Kurath, M., Marskamp, M., Paulos, J., Ruegg, J. (eds) Relational Planning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60462-6_10

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