This year’s City Collaboratory meeting day began in a pouring rain so appropriate to this year in Zurich. We gathered in the entry hall, grateful for the dry and warm, and started with informal chats over a morning snack buffet. Having time to connect is key.
Once the day officially began, we divided the participants into groups according to their choices and interests. This allowed for a series of fascinating icebreaker discussions, facilitating new connections between researchers from different universities and backgrounds. It also helped us all take stock of the situation with respect to urban research in Switzerland. A great way to start the day!
The excellent buffet lunch allowed all participants to mingle again, continuing the thematic discussions of the morning and learning about the work of colleagues in a pleasant and informal way.
This was followed by the fabulous keynote by Sara Safransky, who explained her work on Detroit and the imbrications between capitalism and racialisation in the production of urban forms and policies. It was engaging and impactful, and attracted a large audience even outside the CC members and participants on the day. The hall was packed! After her talk, the discussion sought to understand if and how parallels can be drawn between Detroit and Switzerland, concluding that the topic of urban racialisation in Switzerland is still little analysed. There is much work to be done.
After an invigorating refreshment break, the participants divided again into various groups to discuss issues related to the purpose and future of the City Collaboratory overall: how to organise our own doctoral school, how to institutionalise and formalise the work we’ve accomplished so far, but also how various Swiss researchers deal with the difficulty of navigating between Global South and Global North. A brief final recapitulation allowed us to think back over what we achieved during the day, celebrating the enthusiasm shown by the participants, and making plans for how to continue the energy moving forward.
We also wished best of luck to the organising team for next year: City Collaboratory Geneva 2025.
And then, of course, it was time for an aperitif to continue the discussion and let off a little steam. If you were there, thanks for showing up and making it a fabulous day! See you again soon! And if you weren’t there, well, Geneva 2025 is happening in May and we hope to see you then!