Curatorial Ways of Making Cities and Navigating Futures Through Urban Experiments

Miguel Valdez & Matthew Cook

Geographical Journal2026https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.70070article
AJG 1
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Focused on urban experiments such as electric vehicle deployments and the development of requisite urban technologies and infrastructures, this contribution argues that such developments become sites where place‐based, relationally constructed futures can take shape. We outline a curatorial approach founded in relational geography to inform the construction and navigation of such futures. Drawing parallels with nineteenth‐century curatorial approaches centred on exhibits as instruments of power and seduction, a critical perspective on contemporary technology demonstrators foregrounds how urban experiments promote specific futures and implicitly pare down alternatives. A curatorial lens is applied to urban experiments to reveal the tensions and topologies of power as technology developers, communities and local authorities add new elements to urban constellations and in doing so (re)negotiate the meanings and futures associated with urban technologies such as low‐carbon vehicles.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.70070

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@article{miguel2026,
  title        = {{Curatorial Ways of Making Cities and Navigating Futures Through Urban Experiments}},
  author       = {Miguel Valdez & Matthew Cook},
  journal      = {Geographical Journal},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.70070},
}

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Curatorial Ways of Making Cities and Navigating Futures Through Urban Experiments

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.