An introduction to our work
The Urban Institute provides a space for researchers to interrogate the changing nature of urban life and imagine urban futures which respond to climate change, intensified urban inequalities and exclusions, infrastructural change, and new urban technologies in automation and social control.
We analyse and promote propositions about the urban world today, revealing, visualising and valuing what is hidden within the materiality and ephemerality of everyday life, in order to critically interrogate, and alter, existing and future trajectories.
Our eight research themes provide a mechanism for bringing together interdisciplinary teams within and outside the Urban Institute through processes of building research agendas, undertaking projects, writing and engagement. Each theme is led by a named member of the Senior Leadership Team and includes post-docs, associates, visitors and collaborators from around the world. We meet weekly as a team to share and get feedback on work-in-progress and identify commonalities and intersections.
Our aspiration is for engaged and impactful work that contributes to societal debate, opens imaginations and shifts the horizons of possibility.