Greek architect and urban planner (Master's degree in Architecture/ School of engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) Greece, research Master's degree in urban planning/ Institut d'Urbanisme de Paris (IUP) France). Currently a PhD student in urban geography at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS/Géographie-Cités) in Paris, working on the question of conversion of industrial brownfields into sustainable neighborhoods in two French cities (Nantes and Saint-Ouen) through sustainable urban planning policies and citizen engagement aiming to preserve the local industrial heritage.
PROCEEDINGS AND PAPERS
-Toura V.(2018). Deindustrialization and urban shrinkage. The interdependence of intercommunal public policies and the local challenge in two urban renewal projects in France: Ile-de-Nantes and Docks-de-Seine in Saint-Ouen (in French). Annual conference of the French Association of Regional Science (ASRDLF), Caen, France.
-Toura V.(2019). From urban shrinkage to participatory planning processes. Study of two urban renewal projects in France: Ile-de-Nantes and Docks-de-Seine in Saint-Ouen (in French). Annual conference of the French Association of Regional Science for young researchers (Doctorales ASRDLF), Grenoble, France.
-Toura V.(2019). The French écoquartiers as contributors of cities' transformation (in Greek). Conference Public Space+, Thessaloniki, Greece.
-Toura V.(2019). Deindustrialization and urban shrinkage. Achieving urban sustainability in former industrial cities in France: the case studies of Nantes and Saint-Ouen (in English). Annual congress of the Association of European Schools of planning (AESOP), Venice, Italy.
-Toura V.(2020). «From urban shrinkage to participatory planning processes» (in French), Mondes Sociaux, 17 February, [https://sms.hypotheses.org/23020].
AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS
-Scholarship awarded for the competition organized by Caisse des dépôts et consignation and EHESS for PhD students, April 2019.
-Finalist (5 candidates on the final round) of the annual award in industrial heritage for young researchers organized by CILAC, December 2019.
-Award young researcher of the annual competition organized by the French-Swedish Association of research, January 2020.
Sessions in which Varvara Toura participates
Monday 29 August, 2022
Sessions in which Varvara Toura attends
Monday 29 August, 2022
Si la vallée du canal de Lachine a été le berceau de l’industrialisation canadienne, la géographie industrielle métropolitaine ne s’y est pas confinée, peu s’en faut, Outre les grandes concentrations d’entreprises des quartiers centraux, elle est constituée des réseaux infrastructuraux, d’une douzaine de centrales hydroélectriques et des ensembles manufacturiers disséminés dans une quinzaine de petites villes aujourd’hui intégrées dans l’aire métropolitaine. La conférence proposera un surv...
Tuesday 30 August, 2022
Efforts to preserve industrial heritage occurs in a socio-economic and political context. But what is being preserved and for whom? And, relatedly, what is the relationship between industrial heritage sites and the deindustrialized working-class communities that often adjoin them? The keynote will consider the ways that the preservation of Montreal’s Lachine Canal, Canada’s premier industrial heritage site, has enabled gentrification processes that have forc...
Wednesday 31 August, 2022
In this lecture, I would like to talk about deindustrialised communities, heritage and memory in the context of right-wing populism. Drawing on studies of memory and heritage, I argue that right-wing populists have cornered the market on talking about the past of deindustrialised communities. They have successfully misrepresented this rich and complex history to fuel rage, resentment, fear and reactionary nostalgia. Indeed, ‘the past’, and in particular the industr...
Thursday 1 September, 2022
This lecture will argue that the landscapes of industrial heritage that can be found in different parts of the world are directly related to the place-specific trajectories of deindustrialization. In other words: the different ways in which deindustrialization impacts on local communities has a direct bearing on the emergence of forms of industrial heritage. I will differentialte between deindustrialization paths and related industrial heritage regimes in a) Anglo-...
Friday 2 September, 2022
In the refusal of people in communities abandoned by industrial capital to abandon their own places, we can read an implicit critique of the mobility and unaccountability of capital, raised by those who were once inside (however tenuously or uncomfortably) and now find themselves marginalized, “left behind.” The desire to catch up again, whether through attracting new investment or transvaluing abandoned sites as tourist attractions, makes this an essentially conservative critique that is ...
