Event Details

The 7th Annual John Urry Lecture 2025 - Professor Simon Marvin (University of Sydney & Sheffield University) will deliver a talk on "Urban Cybersymbiosis - The Future of the Techno-Social City"

We are delighted to invite you to our annual John Urry Annual Memorial Lecture, featuring this year’s guest speaker Prof Simon Marvin, author of the landmark ‘Splintering Urbanism’ and, most recently, 'Artificial Intelligience and the City'. His talk is on the latter subject and is titled:

‘Urban Cybersymbiosis: The future of the techno-social city’

Unpacking urban AI’s genealogy, dynamics, and implications will be a programmatic responsibility for urban studies. This will take time, and the need for cautious, rigorous analysis will help avoid the trap of too quickly embracing utopian imaginaries or dystopian visions of AI’s benefits and dangers. However, we must also carefully scrutinise other ‘post-smart’ technological trajectories that are less visible yet actively operationalising selected milieus, humans, and more-than-human urban life. This talk offers a critical reflection on the current state of the urban technological landscape and its potential future development.

This event will take place at 5-6.30 pm on Thursday 27th February on campus at Lancaster University (Furness Lecture Theatre 1), in-person only. We are hoping to make a recording of the event available on the CeMoRe website at a later date. Refreshments will be available beforehand from 4.30pm outside the lecture theatre.