Original Thinking Lecture - Michael Hodson

Our Original Thinking Lecture series showcases some of the world-leading research from colleagues at Alliance MBS.

This event will be hosted by Michael Hodson, Professor of Cities, Innovation and Society at the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), at the Innovation, Management and Policy (IMP) division, Alliance Manchester Business School.

How are digital platforms being mobilised to re-imagine the future of cities, who is doing this, and why?

Innovation with urban infrastructure and its social organisation has become a key strategic concern for policymakers and other stakeholders at urban scale. As a response to a range of pressing contemporary and future challenges facing urban contexts, infrastructural innovation is frequently mobilised in visions of the future of the city that are produced by public authorities, business organisations and NGOs. Yet, visions of infrastructural innovation are not benign, technocratic representations of the future of cities but are media through which the struggle for the future of the city, and the role of infrastructural innovation in this, is played out. This requires critical thinking about the strategic centrality of urban infrastructure to how the future of the city is being re-imagined but also focusing on the politics of possibility in shaping urban infrastructure and the future city.

In this lecture Mike will construct an argument that provides a first step towards this end by addressing how digital platforms as a form of urban infrastructure are being mobilised in visions of the future of the city, the social interests shaping this, and what the implications of this are.

The event will be facilitated by Andrew McMeekin, Professor of Innovation in the Sustainable Consumption Institute.