Human Geography

How do we live in the city? This seemingly banal question is at the heart of the complex activities of urbanHEAP (Health and Everyday Activities take Place). The urbanHEAP research group is concerned with the everyday coexistence, juxtaposition and also opposition of life in the city - a life characterized by the diversity of people, their desires, realities and relationalities. The group works along the two socio-geographical guiding questions, namely 'How do societies organize themselves urban-spatially?' and 'What roles do spatial conditions play in the functioning of an urban society?' She conducts interdisciplinary critical urban research and is currently working on the following research projects and topics:

• Critical perspectives on digitalization in cities
• Sustainable urban development
• Urban political ecology and environmental justice: socio-culturally innovative and socio-ecologically just aspects of urban developments (housing, food, health)
• Gender studies and feminist geographies
• Posthuman geographies and ontologies

The activities are fundamentally reflective of social theory and address urban strategies in the field of tension between:

• Social romanticism & radical democracy,
• green economy & environmental justice,
• digital gap & welfare gap,
• modernization optimism & technology sovereignty,
• power & powerlessness,
• Socioecological society & biosocial embodiment ...

urbanHEA cooperates with the Regional Centre of Expertise Graz-Styria, a center at theFaculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciencesthe University of Graz. It was founded in the framework of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) and certified in 2007 by theUnited Nations Universitycertified. Thus, the RCE Graz-Styria is part of the international RCE network with currently more than 150 RCEs worldwide - the map below shows the regional distribution.

More about the RCE Graz-Styria

More about urbanHEAP