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Short abstract:

This paper analyses four figures in which city administrations perform knowledge in the European city: the laboratory, the forum, the exhibition and the ceremony. It examines how experimentation, collaboration, display and triumph are modes of constituting urban expertise as a collective concern.

Long abstract:

Over the past decade, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, European cities have experienced a shift towards collective practices and democratic episodes in urban planning. As public sector performance succumbed to new circuits of performing and viewing 'the urban', with feedback loops operating across multiple entities, urban expertise underwent multiple reconfigurations. Beyond technocratic bureaucracy, there has been an increase in focus on public issues. Issues such as affordable housing and public spaces have gained momentum, highlighting the importance of liveability and equity. Rather than simply the management of urban growth, the modern approach of city builders and planners has been extended by what David Stark (2020) calls the 'performance complex'. As well as suggesting that our society is saturated with performance, this approach argues that we are living a paradox in which challenges such as environmental change and smart innovation, once scripted by ideals of managerialism, now support emotionally charged preoccupations that transform technical and political expertise beyond the realm of efficiency, favouring collaboration and engagement by responding to the growing expectations of communities, stakeholders, investors and diverse urban actors.

This paper will conceptualise and analyse four figures in which city administrations perform public knowledge in the European city: the laboratory, the forum, the exhibition and the ceremony. Drawing on ethnographic research in various European capitals, we will not only see how city governments bring planning knowledge to the public stage, but also examine how experimentation, collaboration, display and triumph are modes of constituting and sharing urban expertise as collective concern.