Dr. Louis Volont

Louis Volont is a Belgian sociologist whose work explores alternative forms of city‑making. While urban futures are increasingly shaped by market logics, his research investigates how the future can be reclaimed as a ‘cultural commons’ – a shared realm of possibility. Within the research training group, Louis focuses on the dramaturgical dimension of urban future-making, examining the rituals, icons, and symbolic distinctions that emerge when social actors actively subject the future to collective re-imagination. Together with Monika Grubbauer and Alessandra Manganelli, he co-edited the volume Conflicts in Urban Future-Making: Governance, Institutions, and Transformative Change (Transcript Verlag).

Before joining HafenCity University, Louis was a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Program in Art, Culture & Technology, where he contributed to the project ‘Choreographing the City’, coordinated by Prof. Richard Sennett. This interdisciplinary initiative brought together dancers, choreographers, engineers, researchers, and policymakers to envision more inclusive mobility futures for the Boston metropolitan area. What unites the seemingly distant worlds of choreography and engineering, after all, is a shared concern with moving bodies through time and space.

Louis’s interest in alternative forms of spatial development originated during his PhD at the University of Antwerp, where he wrote the dissertation Shapeshifting: The Cultural Production of Common Space. In this project, he examined the symbolic rituals and everyday struggles of urban commoners active in initiatives such as LJ Works (London), the Floating University (Berlin), and Pension Almonde (Rotterdam). This work culminated in a typology of future-making practices, developed through critical urban theory (e.g. the late Marxism of Henri Lefebvre) and post-foundational political theory (e.g. the thinking of Jacques Rancière). In this context, he also co-edited The Rise of the Common City: On the Culture of Commoning with Thijs Lijster and Pascal Gielen (ASP Editions).

In addition to pursuing his academic research, Louis collaborates closely with civil-society actors. He co-developed the thematic research line and symposium Time for Space with Kunstenpunt, focusing on the future of free spaces and artist studios in Flanders. He is also a member of the Culture Commons Quest Office, an interdisciplinary collective of artists, activists, and academics exploring how art and culture can help reclaim the future of Antwerp and beyond.

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