In this Wenner Gren workshop we turn our attention to the problem of ‘unbuilding’. Confronted with the crumbling legacy of 20th century infrastructures, the toxic effects of extractive and manufacturing industries, and the shadow futures of new investments, we are facing the urgent question of how to unbuild worlds. This workshop brings together a group of scholars over four days who are working on sites of unbuilding around the world, to interrogate empirically and theoretically what unbuilding entails, the effects it produces and the political relations that it demands.

Conveners: Constance Smith (University of Manchester), Penny Harvey (University of Manchester), Hannah Knox (University College London), Maria Salaru (University College London)