European cities and European urbanism are characterized by the notion of the city as a condition and expression of the civic society, based upon a ¡®res publica¡¯. This ¡®res publica¡¯ is deeply rooted in the essence of the urban form and social structure of most European cities. Through history the concern for a public domain has resulted into a wide variety of characteristics in urban form and urban policy, from the urban square as the centre of the urban society, to urban planning as an embodiment of public policy. As a result, we find a variety of balanced interrelationships between both the public and the private domain.

During the 20th century the relationship between urban development and social development has acquired a special dimension wherein the rise of urbanism, as a separate and particular discipline, coincides with the rise of the welfare state. With the cracks and fractures in the concept of the welfare state, and with the increase in a belief of the power of the global market, the definition of the ¡®res publica¡¯ and its spatial expression has, as a result, been transformed as well as placed under pressure. With this in mind, European urbanism has arrived at a crucial junction. The future of European urbanism will be related to the way the ¡®res publica¡¯ of the 21st century city can be defined as well as expressed within urban spatial forms and urban structures.

In general, ¡®Europe¡¯ can be considered as the territory between the North Pole and the Mediterranean, and between the Atlantic and the Ural. However, main characteristics of a European cities and its urbanism, are not limited to a strictly prescribed territory. The borders of what has been considered as ¡®Europe¡¯ have changed several times through historical evolution. Moreover, and with greater importance, it could be said that European culture has historically been deeply influenced by cultures from abroad, as well as exerting influence to ¡®external¡¯ cultures itself. Therefore, with our focus on a ¡®European urbanism¡¯ our intention is directed at investigating the specific characteristics which are explicitly present as form and as policy for many European cities. Furthermore, we seek to establish regions of influence wherein European urbanism has been influenced by external forces, or alternatively, where European urbanism has influenced urbanism beyond its own region or domain.

The first aim of this seminar is to define within levels of precision the common characteristics of a European urbanism, as well as any differences or variations which might arise within regional and temporal characteristics. Differences of character are defined herein as either being differences in periods, differences in regions, difference in city formations, and conclusively differences or similarities of regions of influence outside a ¡®European world¡¯.

Finally, a second aim seeks to investigate the potentials, questions and problems associated with the role of a European urbanism set against both the contemporary and future urban ¨C as well as social ¨C scenarios, for both within as well as outside of Europe.