The Future of Cities series is a series of international conversations that the Goethe-Institut Toronto and the City Institute at York University will organize in the 2011-12 season. The first of these events is entitled “Intrinsic Knowledge: Global Times, New Global Cities” and will take place on Thursday, September 22nd at 6 pm in the Urbanspace Gallery (401 Richmond Street West).

The event will take place in English, admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

Cities follow their own logic. This seems to be more rather than less the case in the age of globalization. German sociologist Professor Martina Löw (TU Darmstadt) is part of a group of urban scholars who are looking at cities’ “intrinsic logic,” that is to say the specific and ‘typical’ characteristics that ‘silently’ contribute to the meaning of a particular city. In this event, Löw will be in conversation with anthropologist Professor Angela Stienen (The City Institute at York University) about the ‘intrinsic logic’ of two Latin American metropolises: Medellín, Colombia and Salvador, Brazil.

Martina Löw’s work focuses on space-related social analysis, urban and regional sociology. She had previously held the positions at the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt. In 2000 she was awarded the Christian-Wolff- Prize. Martina is in Toronto as a Visiting Researcher at the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at York University, and her presence at this event has been facilitated by CCGES in partnership with the DAAD – German Academic Exchange Service.

Angela Stienen is professor in Sociology at the Pedagogical University Berne and associate researcher at the Human Rights and Research Institute IPC in Medellín, Colombia. Angela Stienen is at the City Institute at York University during her sabbatical in 2011.