'Cafés Scientifiques' 2020 on sustainable cities

The Cafés Scientifiques provide a framework for the public to engage in a debate on current scientific issues in a more accessible setting than that of a formal lecture. Following the success of previous editions, and as part of the "Sustainable Cities" series on health, sustainability and resilience organised by La Casa Encendida and the British Council, this year's cafés focus on the response thus far to Covid-19 and the recommend response going forward. The debates will revolve around examples of British and Spanish cities that are demonstrating their capacity to create better living conditions in the built space of the future.

• 04 November. 7.30 pm – Social responses to Covid-19

  This digital meeting will analyse the social networks that residents of different neighbourhoods have created for mutual support and to help the more vulnerable collectives.

  Speakers:

  • Rosa Jiménez. Convinced that proximity is one of the keys to social transformation, Rosa Jiménez Pereda is the founder of the La Escalera project [“Stairway”], an initiative with the motto "Life is a shared problem, let's solve it together" which encourages social interaction and collaboration between apartment block residents. With broad experience in the field of social innovation, Rosa coordinates the experimentation and intergenerational programme De 0 a 99 [“From 0 to 99”] at Medialab Prado. She has collaborated in the design and implementation of participation programmes like the pilot project Prevención de la soledad no deseada [“Preventing loneliness”], run by Madrid Salud, and she has designed community cultural activation projects like Antes todo esto era vecindario [“All this was once a neighbourhood”].

  • Jon Chamberlain. An applied sciences lecturer and researcher at the University of Essex, England, Jon Chamberlain is an active member of the university's Language and Computing (LAC) research group, which covers a wide range of disciplines including linguistics, computer science, information retrieval, social media analysis and psychology. He has been a reviewer and editor for several publications, including associate editor for the journal Human Computation, and is on the programme committee for workshops, including PlayIT (WWW2011), Disco2013, GCI2012 and GamifIR 2014. He is co-chair of the Games4NLP workshop that formed part of the LREC conference in Japan in 2018.

• 11 November. 7.30 pm – Scientific responses to Covid-19

  This talk will explore the public health measures that can be implemented locally, whether from the perspective of municipal protocols or from the angle of social interaction in the public space.

  Speakers:

  Margarita del Val Latorre. The Spanish chemist, virologist, immunologist and scientific researcher at the Severo Ochoa Centre for Molecular Biology (CBSMO) of the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) will discuss the immune response to viral infections. She is the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Platform on Global Health Research and defends the efficiency of the use of vaccines and quarantines in epidemiological crises like the coronavirus pandemic.

The talks will be given in English and Spanish with the option of simultaneous translation.

This event forms part of the 2020 Science Week programme.

The activity will be held in a Zoom room with the possibility of English/Spanish simultaneous translation. Click on Tickets to enrol and before each session you'll receive a confirmation email with the login details for the event.