BGUrban Lab
The BGUrban laboratory was founded in 2018. It is part of the Department of Geography and works in cooperation with the Negev Sustainability Center at BGU, and the Hurst Family Chair of Urban Studies. The lab is a home for research students and experts from across the campus and beyond. It accommodates joint research and policy forums with city councils, government authorities, civil society and private companies. The lab is often active beyond the campus walls, conducting action research, plans, and urban improvements in cooperation with urban and regional communities. It also works in cooperation with other academic bodies, such as Sapir, Achva and Sami Sham'un Colleges, the Technion, Tel-Aviv and Haifa University.
Heads of Labs
Prof. Oren Yiftachel
Prof. Oren Yiftachel teaches political and legal geography and urban planning at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersehba and is a visiting professor in the Department of Geography and the Bartlett School (DPU) at University College London. Yiftachel is the Lloyd Horst Chair in Urban Studies, and co-manages the BGUrban Laboratory. Yiftachel served for eight years as Head of the Department of Geography and Multidisciplinary Studies and in a number of senior positions on campus. He is currently leading a research group with Prof. Erez Tzafdia on the subject of "urban displaceabilities: Lessons to Israeli Cities" and another project on the "just digital city."
The Just City Lab, headed by Prof. Oren Yiftachel, deals mainly with research on the interface between spatial and urban processes and theories and practices of social justice. The Lab's researchers work on diverse dimensions of the aspiration for a just society, including distributional, identity and procedural justice. The lab accommodate a multidisciplinary team of researchers, from geography, planning, law, history and the social and computing sciences. The lab conducts workshops, raises research funds and is involved in the scientific, policy and social discourses over the right to the city, focusing on minorities and marginalized groups.
contact
Address:
Ben Gurion University in the Negev,
1 Ben Gurion Street, Beer Sheva.
Department of Geography,
Building 72
The Municipal Laboratory,
Building 74,
1st floor, room