Lecture Three; Urban Virtualism And The Socio-Technical Organisation Of Expectations

Professor Adam Leaver is taking the stage at GPL, Teaching Room 1, The University of Sheffield on Wednesday 18 November, from 3:30pm to 5:00pm. He's from the university's School of Management, and the talk is titled Urban Virtualism And The Socio-Technical Organisation Of Expectations.

It's a bit of a mouthful, but the core is something we see playing out across the city every day: how the way we imagine the future actually shapes what gets built. Leaver draws on Daniel Miller's concept of 'virtualism' to look at how abstract representations of the future work as both organising forces and destabilising mechanisms in the material development of cities. His argument is that economic abstractions can become self-fulfilling, reorganising life to fit the visions set out within those models. If you've ever looked at a new development and wondered why it's taking a particular shape, this is exactly that kind of conversation.

The talk is part of the Sheffield Urbanism Lecture series, an initiative of the university's Urban Institute. The series builds on the Faculty of Social Science's 'Finance Urbanism' research and follows a longer trajectory of debate on the relationship between the city and finance. It's not a one-off; it's part of a wider look at how money and the built environment interact, so if you're interested in how Sheffield is changing, this is a good place to plug in.

It's free entry, and the room is in the GPL on Winter Street, S3 7ND. It runs from 3:30pm to 5:00pm on Wednesday 18 November.