Civitas: The Flows of the City
Civitas: The Flows of the City
Curator and moderator: João Seixas
In one of Italo Calvino's beautiful invisible cities, the population of Ersilia establishes relationships and exchanges of the most diverse nature, such as affections, goods and services, knowledge, and politics. The city is not defined solely by its inhabitants or the physical spaces they occupy, but rather by a vast web of relationships. The city is a strong network of millions of ties – fragile ties – because they are human.
What strengthens, or on the other hand, what weakens the ties between the population in a city? What elements and conditions allow for the formation of heterogeneous, dynamic, and tolerant urban communities, especially in the face of the current crisis of urbanism and unequal access to housing and the city itself?
Fátima Vieira, Vice-Rector for Culture at the University of Porto and specialist in utopian studies, and sociologist Richard Sennett, from the London School of Economics, discusses this intersection.
25 FEB 2026
WED 19:00
Free admission*
Duration 2h
*By pre-booking or collecting your ticket 15 minutes before the event (limited to the venue's to capacity).
On the day of the event, pre-bookings that have not been collected will be made available 15 minutes before the start of the event.
In English
BIOGRAPHIES
Fátima Vieira is vice-rector of the University of Porto for cultural affairs. She was director of the Department of Anglo-American Studies and president of the Utopian Studies Society / Europe. She has coordinated scientific projects and conferences in the areas of literary utopias and utopian thought, as well as in the fields of the future of food and the language of the future. She is director of the New Library of Utopias collection.
Richard Sennett is an American sociologist and professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and New York University. He is the author of several internationally renowned books on urban sociology. He is a senior fellow at Columbia University's Center on Capitalism and Society and a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the founder of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
