The University of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Municipality, Ymere and the Office for Social Engineering present:
Social Engineering in the Amsterdam Metropolis
Thursday June 11 2009
20.00, drinks afterwards
Grote Zaal, De Balie
Just City
James C. Scott
To what extent do rules and standards lead to a just society? Planned utopias proved not to lead automatically to a free and equal way of living, or all-inclusive solidarity for that matter. State governance seems fated to produce a certain form of social marginalization.
Could engineering a just city entail the conscious incorporation of the lawless, the untamed and the subversives within our city borders? Do these groups, which are evading or excluded by the system, represent a way of living that we could learn from? How can their rules inspire us in engineering a more righteous place, a just city?
Yale University Professor James C. Scott is author of the most eloquent critique of the tradition of high modernist planning Seeing like a State (1998). His latest research focuses on the contrast between the lowland city-state and its labor control vs. the non-state-hill periphery in South East Asia. Based on this expertise he will comment on how the city should be studied as a living, breathing and dynamic process.
Tickets: 5 €
Registration is necessary: maakbaarheid@partizanpublik.nl
Tickets can be obtained at De Balie ticket office or online at debalie.nl. Ticket-reservations can be made from Monday to Saturday from 12.00 till 18.00 through 020-5535100.
Information on the Masters of Intervention series through:
https://engineeringsociety.wordpress.com
This series is part of the UvA/IIS minor Maakbaarheid in de Grote Stad (Social Engineering in the Amsterdam Metropolis)
De Balie Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10 1017 RR Amsterdam.
Engineering Society 