Our team member Adela Petrovic will be one of the speakers at the upcoming event, “Participation of Marginalised Voices in Urban Decision-Making,” which will be held on 29 April 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm (Prague). This event is a part of a 4EU+ project titled “The recognition of the fragile body in the city: An interdisciplinary perspective on European fundamental values.” This collaborative initiative unites academic and professional voices from the University of Copenhagen, Charles University in Prague, and the University of Geneva. Organized under the 4EU+ Flagship 2 framework, this project is a dynamic platform fostering interdisciplinary dialogue among anthropology, urban sociology, history, political science, and architecture. Each workshop hosted by the partnering universities provides a unique lens on the intersection of democratic culture and urban life. The session, led by Tomàš Karásek and Nikolena Nocheva from Charles University, will explore pivotal questions such as how urban actors can ensure the inclusion of fragile and marginalised voices in urban decision-making processes. The invited speakers include:

• Adela Petrovic (Charles University) on public space challenges faced by minority groups.
• Ross Beveridge (University of Glasgow) on redefining democracy in urban life.

Additionally, insights from Talide Cividino (Office de l’Urbanisme, Geneva) and Joy Bruni (La Maison du Récit, Lausanne) will offer practical approaches to promoting inclusive participation. Find more information here, and register by clicking here.    

From 16th to 17th April 2025 the ISAB (International Scientific Advisory Board) meeting took place within the framework of the currently implemented project P JAC: A Mobile Society: Opportunities and Risks of New Forms of Mobility for Czech Society and Economy. The event was really successful. It was full of stimulating discussions and all the planned activities were implemented. The members of the International Scientific Advisory Board are:

• Prof. Eva Fodor
• Prof. Russel King
• Prof. Robert Roth
• Prof. Tiit Tammaru

On the first day, there was a welcome to the faculty, introduction of the project, presentation of individual research plans and election of the ISAB chairman. On the second day, we prepared excursions for ISAB members in the morning around the Černý Most housing estate, and after lunch, there was an open lecture by one of the ISAB members, Tiit Tammaru, entitled: A Comparative Study of Socio-Economic Segregation in European Capital Cities.

More information here and photos here.

⚠️ POZOR ZMĚNA MÍSTNOSTI: AKCE PROBĚHNE VE VELKÉ PALEONTOLOGICKÉ POSLUCHÁRNĚ ⚠️

We would like to invite you to a public lecture of Prof Tiit Tammaru: A Comparative Study of Socio-Economic Segregation in European Capital Cities: From Segregation to Desegregation?, which will take place on 17 April 14:50 at Albertov and online.

About the lecture

He will present a comparative research on residential segregation in Europe, exploring whether segregation levels continued to rise, have peaked, or show signs of desegregation. He will also focus on how changes in segregation align with shifts in income inequality and occupational structures.ách.

Tiit Tammaru

Further information

• You can either come to the lecture in person to Velká paleontologická posluchárna at Albertov 6 or listen to it online. Link to watch here: meet.google.com/kef-negb-nwk
• Further information about the lecture here
• Further information about the speaker here

The concluding conference of the 4EU+ course, “Urban Regulations and Political Memory: Towards Understanding Spatio-Temporal Aspects of Urban Development,” was held in Prague at the Faculty of Science from March 26 to 28, organised by Prof. Martin Ouředníček and Adél Petrovic. The 4EU+ multidisciplinary course “Urban Regulations and Political Memory: Towards Understanding Spatio-Temporal Aspects of Urban Development” (UNREAD) is one of the educational projects developed under Flagship 1. The topics of this course include the driving forces of urban change, the development of smart cities, and multidisciplinary methodologies in urban studies applied to cases in Czechia, Poland, Italy and beyond.

About the course

Within the 4EU+ Alliance framework, the UNREAD course was established through a collaboration of historians, lawyers, and geographers from three universities in 2021: the University of Warsaw, the University of Milan and Charles University. Since then, the course has continued uninterrupted, despite various challenges. In 2023, the team was enriched by one additional member from Sorbonne University and in 2024 by Heidelberg University, counting now five member universities from the Alliance. Each year, a conference is organized at one of the participating universities, where students can finally meet and spend a few days together, presenting the results of their teamwork.

Topics of conference presentations

At this year’s conference, students from the course presented their research project outcomes. Gentrification, urban renewal, urban green spaces, and mobility are the main topics covered by students during the three panels of the event. Participants also enjoyed a guided tour of Prague’s housing estates and suburbs. On the final day, the project’s main coordinators led a panel discussion and sought feedback from the attendees. Despite the challenges, the positive aspects emphasized that the course is multidisciplinary, interactive (even in its virtual format), and international, offering the chance to connect with colleagues from other universities and establish international contacts.

Photos from the conference here.

We are excited to be part of the prestigious four-year Johannes Amos Comenius (P JAC) grant!

The principal investigator of the project Society in Motion: Opportunities and Risks of New Forms of Mobility for Czech Society and Economy is Prof. Martin Ouředníček, the head of our research team. The project partners include the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University and the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The project focuses on research in:

• Mobility, migration, and socio-spatial inequalities
• A new phase of economic and social globalization
• Transformational processes in the settlement system and metropolitan areas
• The impact of new technologies, big data, and cartographic visualization

The main research goal is to conduct multidisciplinary research through five research objectives. The project aims to generate new insights, methodological approaches, and innovative analytical methods, as well as develop advanced modeling tools and cartographic visualization techniques.

The project is divided into five research objectives, which are interconnected through the composition of research teams from partner institutions, shared theoretical concepts, and methodological approaches.

Learn more about the project in an interview with Prof. Martin Ouředníček.

More information about our research team’s activities can be found at www.urrlab.cz, and soon also on the project’s website, which is currently under development.

We’re on Linkedin!

You can now follow us on Linkedin in addition to Facebook and X. You can find us there as Urban and Regional Laboratory (URRlab). We’re still rather getting our head around there, but we’ll soon start posting regular updates on important happenings in the team. As well as here.

Follow us!

During autumn, members of our research team published several peer-reviewed articles. All of them we recommend to read. Some of them are in open-access form, so they should be available to everyone.

Public, private and the pandemic: Everyday life in large housing estates during the COVID-19 lockdowns

• Authors: Slavomíra Ferenčuhová, Marie Sýkora Horňáková, Jana Kočková, Petra Špačková
• More

Movement matters: uncovering life-course similarities and differences in residential environment perspectives

• Authors: Marie Sýkora Horňáková, Jan Sýkora, Pavel Frydrych
• More

The project titled “Understanding intersections of neighbourhood change, marginalisation and racism: a comparative and collaborative research initiative“, funded by Charles University’s Strategic Partnership fund, successfully implemented key activities and workshops, fostering collaboration between Charles University and the University of Zurich. Despite challenges, such as a last-minute cancellation due to COVID-19, the workshops in Prague and Zurich proceeded with minor adjustments. The workshop was rescheduled in Prague and involved Urban Social Geography students, enriching their understanding of socio-spatial inequalities and neighbourhood change. In Zurich, Adel Petrovic and Prof. Martin Ouředníček (URRlab) joined Prof. Hilbrandt and her team (SURB) to explore social exclusion and racism in urban contexts, complemented by small-group discussions, research project presentations (URRlab presented OP JAK project, while SURB Responsible City project) and neighbourhood bike tours. The collaboration extended to the Swiss Geoscience Meeting in Basel, enhancing project outcomes and paving the way for sustained partnerships. The insights gained are already being applied in teaching and research at both institutions. Looking ahead, this partnership continues under the OP JAK project, supporting research on mobility and urban transformation over the next four years. Prof. Hilbrandt’s role as an external URRlab member underscores the project’s enduring impact on academic and institutional collaboration.

We’d like to invite you to attend a public talk by Anastassia Vybornova from the IT University of Copenhagen on the topic of ‘Mathematics in the Ghetto’: pitfalls (and potentials) of computational approaches to urban segregation, that will happen on December 4th at the Faculty of Science. Anastassia Vybornova (she/her) is a PhD student in Urban Data Science at IT University of Copenhagen. Her work is centered around geospatial data and applications, socioeconomic inequalities, and sustainable mobility.

“Mathematics in the Ghetto”: pitfalls (and potentials) of computational approaches to urban segregation

In an increasingly data-driven world where inequalities and polarization are on the rise, what role can computational approaches play for urban segregation? In this talk, we will explore this question based on two ongoing research projects and several ideas-in-the-making. Looking at several contemporary examples of how Big Data – and the assumptions underlying its usage – influence (de)segregation patterns and policies, we ask: “How did we get to this?” We then trace back the history of segregation research and its ideological interdependence with prevalent economic theories and public discourse, highlighting the inherently political nature of corresponding mathematical models. Our overarching aim (work in progress!) is to develop a better discernment of the pitfalls (and potentials) of computational approaches to urban segregation.

• Date: 4.12.2024
• Time: 16:30
• Place: Faculty of Science, Albertov 6, room G2, Prague
• In-person event

During the summer months, members of our research team published several peer-reviewed articles. All of them we recommend to read. Some of them are in open-access form, so they should be available to everyone.

Suburban Autonomy? The Case of Inter-Suburban Commuting Outside Prague

• Authors: Jiří Jakub Zévl, Martin Ouředníček
• More

A shape-based heuristic for the detection of urban block artifacts in street networks

• Authors: Martin Fleischmann, Anastassia Vybornova
• More

Decoding (urban) form and function using spatially explicit deep learning

• Authors: Martin Fleischmann, Daniel Arribas-Bel
• More

Movement refrains of people with visual impairments: A post-phenomenological geography beyond space and place

• Authors: Lucie Pospíšilová, Pavel Doboš, Robert Osman
• More