Activities

Why do long-term climate goals struggle to compete with short-term political priorities? In a recent interview with Berliner Morgenpost, Alexandra Schwell, Professor at the University of Klagenfurt and Principal Investigator of EU-URGE in Austria, discusses this question in light of findings from the EU-URGE project. Drawing on research in Klagenfurt, Warsaw and Ljubljana, she speaks …

In September 2026, the EU-URGE international team met in Warsaw for its third Joint Fieldwork. Besides working on the book proposal, it engaged with several municipal institutions that address issues of climate change and ecology, such as the Służew Community Centre, which runs a community garden, the Kamień Pavilion, and the Urban Forests’ Centre for …

From 29 June to 3 July 2026, the international EU-URGE team from Klagenfurt, Ljubljana and Warsaw met in Klagenfurt for a Booksprint dedicated to developing a joint book proposal on competing urgencies. The week began with a guided sustainability walk through Klagenfurt led by Horst Ragusch, introducing the team to several local sustainability initiatives. Among …

Together in Ljubljana, in early September 2025, our EU-URGE team turned streets, offices, markets, gardens, and riverbanks into sites of research. We met with local organizations and stakeholders, visited city offices, and explored everyday life in between. A city that proved to be more than Slovenia’s green capital; a living laboratory of climate neutrality in …

Ljubljana is part of the European Union’s Mission 100 to achieve climate neutrality by 2030 – sustainable mobility and transport are a key factor in this endeavour. In her presentation at SIEF2025, EU-urge project member Saša Poljak Istenič (Institute of Slovenian Ethnology / ZRC SAZU) explored the tension between Ljubljana’s measures for a car-free city …

Klagenfurt has a water problem, or rather, it has many, or none at all, depending on who, or what, you ask. Nestled between the Alps and the Adriatic, the city sits beside one of Austria’s most beloved lakes, fed by rivers and an Alpine aquifer that would be the envy of drier regions. And yet …

Warsaw makes a selected district the model for energy transformations as part of their efforts for climate neutrality (EU-Mission100). In their presentation at SIEF2025 Anna Ptak, Anna Horolets and Maria Małanicz-Przybylska of the University of Warsaw look at the district ethnographically, treating it as material, socio-cultural and institutional reality. Does the project overwrite or erase …

On May 9-11, 2024, EU-URGE team gathered in Warsaw to kick-start the project. The EU-URGE kick-off meeting included a Research Seminar “Urgency in urban climate policy: local receptions and translations” on May 9, in which invited guests Asta Vonderau, Valentina Gulin Zrnic, Panagiota Kotsila gave their lectures. Zofia Boni and Jan Franczewski spoke of their …