Re-visit the lecture with Deb Chachra here!

About the lecture

Drawing on her recent book, How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World, Deb Chachra will give a lecture on rethinking the relationship between ourselves and these systems, and the new possibilities around energy, materials, and networks that will allow us to transform our built environments in ways that support human agency and thriving and bring about enriching, inclusive and sustainable societies within planetary boundaries.

This lecture is for anyone working with, studying or researching the futures of our built environments - from urban planners and architects to city officials, designers, technologists and educators.

Former The Conference speaker, Deb Chachra will return to Malmö to talk about how our infrastructural networks – water and sewage, electricity, communications, transportation, and more – shape our lives, cultures and societies, often in ways we don’t think about. She’ll discuss how we might approach the relationship between renewable energy and materials in new ways and how to apply ethics of care as an alternative to the (implicit) utilitarianism that has informed much decisionmaking around the infrastructural systems that are embedded in and sustain our built environments.

Speaker

Deb Chachra is the author of How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World (Riverhead/Torva, 2023), and she writes, thinks, builds, and speaks widely on themes of technology and society.

As one of the earliest faculty at Olin College, Dr. Chachra has been deeply engaged in all aspects of undergraduate engineering education, including the design of learning experiences and programs, as well as educational research. Dr. Chachra’s technical background is in engineering physics and materials science, with a focus on biological systems; prior to joining the faculty of Olin College, she was a postdoctoral associate at MIT.

Moderator: Reeta Hafner, Foresight Lead, Media Evolution

Agenda

• 18.00 – Doors and bar open

• 19.00 – Lecture starts

• 19.45 – Q&A, discussions, conversation and mingling

• 20.30 – Event ends

You can also participate digitally via the live stream.

The lecture is organized as part of The Futures We Build, a strategic project within Smart Built Environment, one of Sweden’s 17 Strategic Innovation Programs, with funding from Vinnova (Sweden’s innovation agency), The Swedish Energy Agency and Formas (Swedish government research council for sustainable development).