Urban Sociology Laboratory researchers launch three new books
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On 7 March, researchers at EPFL’s Urban Sociology Laboratory will unveil three new books exploring family mobility, cross-border mobility in and around Basel, and intermunicipal cooperation in urban development.
How do couples manage the competing demands of work, family and personal life, and how does mobility fit into the equation? How do residents of Basel live their lives? How should authorities manage intermunicipal urban development projects?
Researchers at EPFL’s Urban Sociology Laboratory have been exploring these questions. On 7 March, the authors of three books published in recent weeks will unveil their findings at a joint launch event at the Librairie La Fontaine bookstore in EPFL’s Rolex Learning Center.
Keeping pace with modern life
Urban Sociology Laboratory scientist Guillaume Drevon examines how couples juggling work and family demands arrange their travel and manage their time. His book follows a line of research that the laboratory has recently begun exploring—the pace of modern family life, and why today’s couples are busier than ever.
Drevon delves into common tensions in households with two working parents and outlines strategies and practical solutions that busy families can use to limit stress in their lives.
Living in and around Basel
Thousands of people commute into Basel every day, many crossing over the borders with neighboring France and Germany. Yann Dubois, an associate researcher working at the Urban Sociology Laboratory, explores the many facets that make Basel unique—how its residents get around, where they go to shop, meet friends and spend their free time, and the emotional attachment that people feel to the place and its languages. Dubois also draws on the concept of motility—or an individual’s ability to move independently—to expose social differences between locals and cross-border commuters.
Growing the city
Marc Antoine Messer is a historian, urban planner and lecturer at EPFL. His new book, based on his PhD thesis at the Urban Sociology Laboratory, looks at intermunicipal urban development projects between Fribourg and Lausanne. Projects such as these require unparalleled coordination and cooperation between the authorities. Messer explores what lessons planners can learn from the past, and how they can do better in the future. The book is intended mainly for researchers, teachers and practitioners in urban planning, sociology and political science, as well as for planning and development officials. It should also be of wider interest to anyone involved in intermunicipal cooperation.