Glossary

Humans co-inhabit this planet with multiple non-human elements. The notion of Materialities contributes to Decentring humans and opens up to a Multiplicity of more-than-humans, such as Buildings and nature – all of them crucial in the Sustainability Transition. Materialities also encompass the human body and its Affects.

Team members: Martin Müller, Quentin Rihoux, Zoé Berney

Projects: Materialities of big buildings, The Everyday Politics of Urban Landmarks

A term inspired by the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Multiplicities means that things can always be otherwise; that no situation is fixed and pre-given, but that it can be enacted and disrupted. Multiplicities harbours political potential in that it recognises contestation as immanent to political situations. We embrace Decentring and Mixed Methods as ways of actualising Multiplicities and experimenting as a key tactic, for example in Culture.

Team members: Martin Müller, Violante Torre, Clotilde Trivin, Quentin Rihoux, Giovanna Gray Nassralla

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Urban Projectification, The Everyday Politics of Urban Landmarks

Big cities are our fields of study and experimentation. Metropolis are enmeshed in Global networks, hubs of Culture and key sites for Projects. We recognise the potential for radical change inherent in the dynamics of Metropolis but also the need for Decentring from a few dominant Metropolis in the Global North.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Violante Torre, Clotilde Trivin, Quentin Rihoux

Projects: Uneven Geographies of Urban Knowledge, Urban Projectification

We understand Culture not only as art, but as ways of knowing and feeling that are produced, enacted and circulated in cultural institutions and their material spaces. We examine how iconic Buildings such as cultural flagships and Major Projects can play an active role in inspiring and leading the Sustainability transition. By adopting a Mixed Method approach we collect both Qualitative and Quantitative data to understand how arts and cultural organisations serve both as interventions into the urban fabric, and as potential catalysts for envisioning more sustainable futures. Through our research, we aim to decentre Culture as a putative prerogative of the West and challenge Western constructs, such as that of “cultural flagship”.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Violante Torre, Clotilde Trivin, Greta Ortalli, Zoé Berney, Giovanna Gray Nassralla

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Materialities of big buildings

We interpret a Building as an active participant in shaping urban life, rather than merely a static architectural object. A Building embodies social, political, and material forces, acting as a site of interaction and negotiation. A Building’s significance extends beyond its physical form or design to include its material, sensory, affective, and symbolic dimensions. Through its conception, presence, transformation, use and eventual disappearance—whether by demolition or abandonment—a Building contributes to the production of urban space. We focus on critically examining spectacular Buildings as tangible expressions of the symbolic economy and geopolitical ambitions, where cultural flagships or other landmark structures play a key role in global interurban competition, urban revitalization, and the creation of urban cultural capital, as well as in articulating new political claims by emerging players. We employ Qualitative Approaches and develop Databases to examine Buildings. We engage with Materialities and affects to interpret them as dynamic entities in urban geography.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Violante Torre, Clotilde Trivin, Giovanna Gray Nassralla

Projects: Materialities of big buildings, The Everyday Politics of Urban Landmarks

We understand Sustainability as the challenge of living a good life for everyone within planetary boundaries. To achieve this, we need to reshape current modes of thinking and acting. It is entangled with Global circulations of ideas, resources, and governance frameworks that influence how transitions take shape across different geographies. A Decentering approach to Sustainability challenges dominant Western models, foregrounding diverse knowledge systems and localised strategies for change. We aim at assessing the Sustainability of major sports events and cultural organisations globally through the use of Databases and Qualitative Approaches. We contribute to existing research by developing and providing concrete tools and Mixed Methods aimed at empowering the transformation needed to live well within planetary boundaries.

Team members: Martin Müller, Greta Ortalli, Zoé Berney, Giovanna Gray Nassralla

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Sports for the Planet?

The term Global underscores the multidirectional flows of power, resources, and knowledge that connect diverse regions, actors, and scales worldwide. Global transcends geographic boundaries, integrating multiple ways of knowing and embracing new perspectives rather than merely extending the Global North–South dichotomy. It goes further by incorporating multiplicities—of experiences, histories, and futures—evident in interwoven Metropolises, Major Projects, and Materialities, creating complex webs of power and knowledge. A decentring perspective is essential to challenge dominant paradigms within Global discourse, recognizing often-hidden epistemic struggles. By acknowledging these intersections and disparities, Global demands experimentation and critical engagement with the complexities of sustainability transition, cultural practices, and the governance strategies that shape urban spaces worldwide.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Violante Torre, Clotilde Trivin, Quentin Rihoux, Zoé Berney, Giovanna Gray Nassralla

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Sports for the Planet?, Uneven Geographies of Urban Knowledge, Urban Projectification, The Everyday Politics of Urban Landmarks, Thinking with the Global Easts

We approach Decentring as a dual engagement with the Global: geographically distancing from the Global North and conceptually challenging persistent Western frameworks. This involves critically interrogating power imbalances in knowledge production and thinking with perspectives from marginalized contexts. Decentring is an active practice of reimagining geography as situated within intersecting epistemic struggles—linguistic, gendered, racialized, and classed. By questioning linguistic privileges and looking otherwise at topics such as Major Projects and Metropolises, we aim to challenge dominant paradigms and move beyond Global North–Global South dualisms, such as through working through the Global East.

Team members: Martin Müller, Violante Torre, Clotilde Trivin, Greta Ortalli, Giovanna Gray Nassralla

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Uneven Geographies of Urban Knowledge, The Everyday Politics of Urban Landmarks, Thinking with the Global Easts

Using Databases in our research enables systematic and comparative analysis of urban phenomena  by integrating both quantitative and qualitative data from a variety of sources. This approach captures the multifaceted impacts of Projects in Metropolis through dedicated indicators, providing a comprehensive view of Sustainability Transition processes. The use of Databases in our research facilitates broader, more representative insights advancing the knowledge generated from case study research. It creates a replicable, robust and dynamic open-access knowledge based on sources scattered in online and offline mediums.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Greta Ortalli

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Sports for the Planet?, Uneven Geographies of Urban Knowledge

Major projects are large-scale urban ventures that present themselves as new or innovative and exert significant impacts on Metropolises’ built environments and populations. To Materialise, Major projects engage in intricate processes of absorbing and assembling a wide array of actors and (inter-)mediators operating across multiple scales. They usually involve regulator exceptions and public-private collaborations, driven by political and economic elites, to overcome planning restrictions. While their conceptual roots lie in Western modern frameworks, Major Projects are now predominantly implemented in the Global South and East, where they are used as tools for urban transformation. This shift underscores the importance of more Global research to understand their diverse impacts and contestations, particularly in non-Western contexts, where their dynamics often challenge established paradigms.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Quentin Rihoux

Projects: Sports for the Planet?, Urban Projectification, Materialities of big buildings

We use a Mixed Methods approach to study changes and transformations in Metropolises, the trajectories of Major Projects, cultural flagships, and mega-events, integrating qualitative approaches with quantitative analysis. This allows us to combine in-depth case studies with broader comparative research, generating a multi-dimensional understanding of urban change. As a tactic of Decentring, Mixed Methods challenge dominant epistemologies by foregrounding Multiplicities of perspectives, revealing the entangled dynamics of human and non-human actors, infrastructures, and affects. Recognising that quantitative dimensions exist within qualitative research, just as qualitative insights shape quantitative analysis, this approach resists rigid methodological boundaries. By strategically pairing different methods, we navigate between particularism and universalism, tracing both local specificities and Global circulations of ideas, resources, and models of governance. Through this approach, we embrace methodological experimentation to extend urban theory.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Greta Ortalli, Giovanna Gray Nassralla

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Sports for the Planet?, Uneven Geographies of Urban Knowledge, Urban Projectification

We build on ethnographic approaches like participant observation and interviews, critically addressing their Western-centric foundations and role in perpetuating imbalances in knowledge production. By incorporating More-than-Human Approaches, we honour the sensory and emotional dimensions of place. Through methods such as walking interviews and affective mappings, we capture the lived and felt experiences of places. Our commitment to qualitative research reflects a Decentring ethos, challenging dominant narratives and expanding geographical inquiry beyond representational methods and the written word.

Team members: Martin Müller, David Gogishvili, Violante Torre, Clotilde Trivin, Zoé Berney

Projects: Culture Goes Sustainable, Sports for the Planet?, Urban Projectification, Materialities of big buildings, The Everyday Politics of Urban Landmarks