Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education

2 PhD positions in QUANTITATIVE GEOGRAPHY available at the University of Luxembourg. 1 PhD in URBAN QUANTITATIVE GEOGRAPHY The candidate will develop a doctoral thesis related to the spatial analysis/modelling of urban patterns and transport/environmental impacts, planning and suburban forms, green space and/or agriculture in cities and suburbs. See detailed topical and methodological foci, and how to apply at http://emea3.mrted.ly/14uhg Deadline for application: 20/09/2016 1 PhD in DIGITAL HUMANITIES - GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH AREA The candidate will develop a doctoral thesis in the field of geovisualisation, spatial data mining, GIS, or urban analysis/modelling with a particular focus on past or long-run processes. This PhD is be part of the newly created interdisciplinary Doctoral Training Unit in Digital History and Hermeneutics at the University of Luxembourg See how to apply at http://emea3.mrted.ly/14aut. Please make clear mention of the geography research area while applying. Deadline for application: 01/09/2016 Contact for further details: geoffrey.caruso@uni.lu

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The next lecture in Geography and Spatial Planning will be about bicycle sharing systems! SHARING IS CARING? A SYMPATHETIC CRITIQUE OF BICYCLE SHARING SYSTEMS IN AN ALTERNATIVE/DIVERSE ECONOMY, given by Hans-Martin Zademach (Eichstätt). Tuesday, 26 April 2016 - 12:30 Black box (MSH, Belval) Hans-Martin Zademach will offer an overview of the evolution of bicycle sharing systems (BSSs), a rather recent, environmentally friendly form of urban mobility that has spread worldwide over the recent decade, and discusses potentials and limitations of these systems for sustainable regional development. To begin with, he will introduce various modes of organisation and reflects on a range of technical or organisational barriers for implementation and their solutions. Following, BSSs are discussed in light of broader societal changes. Lastly, he will explore to what extent BSSs are a suitable option for rural areas and smaller municipalities.

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Do not miss the next lecture in Geography and Spatial Planning: PETER NORTH(Liverpool) - DIGNITY AND PROSPERITY FOR THE ANTHROPOCENE: TOWARDS SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMIES 9th March, 12h30-14h, Black Box (Belval, MSH) - For some, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was ‘the end of history’ in that humanity had decisively rejected the 20th century challenges of market economies and democracy in the form of Fascism and Soviet Communism. For a time, lightly regulated markets supported by the institutions to make them work well was the sine qua non for successful economies. We might as well dispute that the world was round than challenge that common sense: until 2008 that is. Yet it is still the case that we do not know how to build democratically-controlled market economies that meet the needs of the many to live the life they wish to with dignity, in ways that are within the limits of the ecosystem to provide resources and absorb its wastes. The Diverse Economies perspective has recently suggested the need for a ‘economic ethics for the Anthropocene’ which focusses on how we want to live, in common, in ways that respect the ecosystem, other species, and other people both now and in the future. I want to argue that developing an ethics of How we should live is valuable, but perhaps the issue is less to imagine other ethical perspectives than to examine practices for living in a convivial economy. The paper looks at two areas in which a convivial, democratically-controlled economy is being enacted, through community currencies and worker managed firms, to examine the extent that practices are enabling a different ethics to be enacted.

Open Day

Open Day - University of Luxembourg - Belval 19 mars 2016

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Olivia Bina (Lisbon & CUHK) - Mind the Gap: Our future imagined in popular art and in the Grand Societal Challenges 23rd February, 12h30-14h, Black Box (MSH, Belval) European science policy (so-called Horizon 2020) is guided by Grand Societal Challenges (GSCs) with the explicit aim of shaping the future. In this talk I propose an innovative approach to the analysis and critique of Europe's GSCs. As part of a task within FP7 project FLAGSHIP: http://flagship-project.eu/ I ask: what do imagined futures and challenges within fiction (novels and films) have to say about our policy-defined challenges, and why does it matter? The aim is to explore how speculative and creative fiction offer ways of embodying, telling, imagining, and symbolising ‘futures’, that can provide alternative frames and understandings to enrich the grand challenges of the 21st century, and the related rationale and agendas for ERA and H2020. There are six ways in which filmic and literary representations can be considered creative foresight methods, providing alternative perspectives on these central challenges, and warning signals for the science policy they inform. As well as, potentially for our futures. I will highlight how fiction sees oppression, inequality and a range of ethical issues linked to the dignity of humans and nature, as central to, and inseparable from innovation, technology and science. I conclude identifying warning signals in four major domains, arguing that these signals are compelling, and ought to be heard, not least because elements of such future have already escaped the imaginary world to make part of today’s experience. I identify areas poorly defined or absent from Europe's science agenda, question our technoscience agenda and argue for the need to increase research into human, social, political and cultural processes involved in techno-science endeavours.

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LET'S GET STARTED FOR 12 DAYS OF INTENSIVE LEARNING IN GEOGRAPHICAL MODELLING! From Sunday on, our Master in Geography and Spatial Planning at the University of Luxembourg will host 40 students from 9 partner universities as part of the European funded project MGM+e. An intensive - almost 24/7 ;-) - teaching and learning experience on a variety of the most recent theories and tools to analyse cities, regions and flows. The workshop is also an opportunity for students to create a first European network and an opportunity for instructors to test "live" a first draft of e-tutorials and moocs.