Jeroen van den Bergh and Alexander Fidora to participate in the Disputatio of Barcelona

22/12/2020

The event, which will be held on January 19 at 6:30 pm, will be devoted to “Cities, Climate and Pandemics: Reflections from Urban Studies and Environmental Economics”, and will shed new light on the aforementioned questions by bringing together experts from different fields.

In the Middle Ages, disputations were a very popular academic genre in universities, in which two professors discussed a controversial issue in front of the rest of the professors and students. This session will also count with the participation of urbanist Prof. Kathrin Golda-Pongratz, UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, and it will be coordinated and moderated by Prof. Alexander Fidora, ICREA Research Professor in the Department of Antiquity and Middle Age Studies of the UAB.

Starting in the early twentieth century, rapid urbanisation has become one of the dominant demographic trends of our times, driving the interrelated issues of climate change and public health issues. The Disputatio of Barcelona aims to push the interrelated issues of city planning, climate change and pandemics to the forefront of the public agenda, and to find the tools necessary to face the challenges that these issues pose to citizens locally and globally.

The session will focus on the essential role of cities in climate change mitigation and in the control of pandemics such as COVID-19. Barcelona, along with other major metropolises in the world, will provide for an interesting analysis.

The session will follow a hybrid model of (limited) in-person attendance as well as access via live streaming on Zoom. Previous registration needed: https://www.iec.cat/jornades/disputatio2020.asp

This information is related to the following SDG

• Affordable and clean energy
• Responsible consumption and production
• Sustainable cities and communities
• Climate action