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Lisbon, the capital of Portugal has increasingly become a ‘mecca’ for European expats wishing to relocate. Attracted by sun, beaches, food, culture and a low cost of living, it has been ranked as the world’s third most livable city for foreigners. Inevitably, the results of this have been varied. Seen as a boost to the local economy, it also adds to property prices. It places strain on public services like health and transport, and is criticized repeatedly from a social sustainability standpoint.

Livable for many then, Lisbon is also a city of challenges for others. Like a multitude of other places across Europe, it has experienced epochs of deindustrialization, periods of population growth and decline, and varied phases of investment and disinvestment. It has had architectural and urban ‘golden ages’, as well as times of abandonment and degeneration. It has seen attempts at city boosterism, concerns about resilience and public health, efforts to improve its sustainability, and attempts to preserve its heritage. It has been a site of innovations in housing, and a place of social unrest.

In all this it is prototypical – a city that has documented the social and urban changes of recent times – whether they be Daniel Bell’s post-industrial society, Jane Jacob’s life and death of cities, or David Harvey’s city and social justice. It has echoed Richard Florida’s cultural city and reflects the traits of the smart city. It is the home of UNESCO world heritage sites and a place where public transport can be, and is, complicated and slow. It is a city and, as such, is contested.

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Interested in examining the city as a site of livability across times and places, this conference uses the host city as a point of departure for examining the varied issues at play when we think about livability:

Architecture, urban planning, social integration, community participation, housing, public health, smart city technology, sustainability, resilience, transport, urban economics, heritage, the arts and cultural sectors, and more. Themes are varied and reflect the diversity of perspectives offered by international and interdisciplinary scholars on the notion of the ‘livable’.

Themes include, but are not limited to:

Urban identity, culture and communities | Architecture, design, planning and context| Public health and wellbeing | Urban regeneration and economic prosperity | Sustainability and resilience | Human geography and urban migration | Critical sociology and the urban experience | Cultural policy and arts management | Communities, participation and representation | Landscape design, art and placemaking | Heritage, conservation and tourism | Intelligent cities and smart urbanism | Transport, mobility and infrastructure | Social justice, accessibility and inclusive design.

Image: Colin Lloyd