CfP: Images of City - City of images

CFP: Masculinity and the Metropolis (Canterbury, 22 - 23 Apr 2016)

University of Kent, Canterbury, April 22 - 23, 2016

Deadline: Dec 20, 2015

This interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the University of Kent,

takes as its starting point the range of complex and contradictory

engagements between masculinity and the developing metropolis since the

beginning of the twentieth century. Throughout this period the

metropolis maintained a paradoxical status as a place of liberation and

possibility, but simultaneously as one of alienation, sin, and

oppression. What do responses to the modern city in visual art, film,

and literature tell us about masculinity as it both asserts itself and

registers its own anxieties, and subsequent representations of the

city? In what ways do these contrasting positive and negative

conditions, which encouraged complex responses, fit within the

framework of masculinity?

In the wake of industrialization artistic reactions to modern urbanity

were spurred on by the rapid growth of cities and the transition from

rural to metropolitan living. This caused socio-cultural changes and a

diverse range of masculinities to develop within the metropolis in

terms of race, class, and sexualities. How has masculinity been

visualized with the construction of this modern cityscape and ideas of

the urban? And later in the 20th Century, how did artists registering

with ideas of deindustrialization or feminist and queer art forms

affect or approach theories of masculinity and the urban? Can we

construct an overarching lineage on this relationship? As one starting

point, the so-called “crisis of masculinity”, and the way it is

represented in various media, can be connected in interesting ways to

the rise of the metropolis. This conference will bring together

scholars from varying fields in order to begin a dialogue regarding the

way theories of masculinity and the metropolis have developed in

tandem, charting their evolution from the beginning of the 20th Century

to the present day. Scholars with diverse interests and approaches to

this broad subject are welcome with papers concerning various media

within the 20th and 21st centuries.

Examples of subjects invited for submission include, but are in no way

limited to:

•    Representations of the male and masculinity in metropolitan

society within literature, film, and fine art. Contributions from

theatre, and music are also welcome.

•    Male as artist or witness to the evolving physical cityscape

•    Modern and contemporary responses to 19th Century representations

of industrialisation and the urban / de-industrialization and the

changing nature of the urban and the masculine

•    The metropolis as a milieu of capitalist oppression, and how this

can be related to masculinity

•    Urban photography and the metropolitan male identity

•    Masculine national identities within the cityscape

•    Masculinity and the nocturnal city

•    The modern or contemporary flâneur

•    Cityscape planning and the organization of male spaces

•    Destruction of the city and the crisis of masculinity

•    The male Superhero

•    Masculinities and sexualities within the metropolis

•    Depictions of the urban male and race

•    The relationship of masculinity to musical sub-cultures / the

protest song and music as social commentary

•    Feminist, gay, and / or trans artistic reactions to masculinity

and the urban

•    Masculinity and dramatic performance within the metropolis

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Deborah Longworth, University of Birmingham

Dr. Hamilton Carroll, University of Leeds

Dr. Gabriel Koureas, Birkbeck, University of London

Submission process

We invite submissions of short abstracts (300 words) accompanied by a

brief biography (100 words). The time slot for presentations is 20

minutes with a 10 minute session for questions at the end of each panel.

Please send your abstract as an attachment (.pdf or .doc) to:

masculinemetropolis@gmail.com

The subject of the email should contain the words: “Masculinity and

the Metropolis submission”

The body of the email should include author(s) name, affiliation,

abstract title and the email address you would like us to use to

communicate with you.

Deadline for submissions: 20 December 2015.

Notification of acceptance/non-acceptance: 26 January 2016.

Registration:

Postgraduate students / University of Kent Staff and Students: £10

Other researchers: £20

CFP: Rethinking Pictures: A Transatlantic Dialogue (Paris, 19- 20 May 16)

Deadline: Jan 25, 2016

On the occasion of the launch of Picturing, the first volume of the

Terra Foundation Essays, a new publication series exploring themes of

critical importance to the history of arts and visual culture of the

United States, the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris, and the

Terra Foundation for American Art are jointly organizing a conference

that will further the transatlantic dialogue about what pictures are

and what they do.

Since the 1980s, theories of visual studies in Anglo-American

scholarship and of Bildwissenschaft in German art history have expanded

the field of potential subjects for study, building an extensive body

of literature and introducing innovative methodologies and approaches. 

Developed nearly contemporaneously, these theories about the nature and

reception of images have run parallel to one another. While on the

Anglophone side visual studies have branched out to a wide range of

media following a socio-critical impetus, Bildwissenschaft finds

origins in Aby Warburg’s methods and (among other approaches) is

notably nourished by a hermeneutic perspective.

Over the last decade on both sides of the Atlantic, new avenues of

inquiry have questioned the purely visual nature of images to consider

them as objects that possess agency or vitality in and of themselves.

Pictures are now understood as inviting complex experience in which the

entire body, not only the eye, is solicited, and as invoking multiple

temporalities, by collapsing past and present. Attention is called to

the materials that constitute the object world and the ways in which

their circulation creates social relationships that become part of

their meaning over time. In alignment with object-centered approaches

in anthropology, material culture, media studies, and philosophy,

recent theories of the visual have raised questions of affect,

subjectivity, and medium in Anglo-American scholarship, while

socio-historical considerations have gained particular ground in the

German literature. As renewed attention to the art work’s “materiality”

shifts the terms of investigation, this conference invites speakers to

reflect on the differences and convergences between the intellectual

traditions of visual studies and Bildwissenschaft. Are there ways to

think about pictures anew by bringing these models more closely

together?  Does the move away from visuality towards the material offer

possibilities for overcoming early differences between these two

approaches?

We seek proposals for 20-minute talks introducing new ideas and

propositions. We especially welcome submissions from early- and

mid-career scholars. Presentations are encouraged to focus on specific

objects and historical conditions in order to anchor theoretical

questions. While binary considerations of comparative methodologies and

the scope of national traditions will certainly arise, the discussion

will be plural and interdisciplinary, inviting reflections on the

various forms of study of the visual arts in Europe, the United States,

and beyond.

Please submit abstracts no longer than 500 words in English along with

a CV, to rethinkingpictures@gmail.com by January 25, 2016. The

symposium will cover travel and lodging. Selected participants will be

notified by February 15, 2016.

Call for Papers: "Zones of Representation: Photographing Contested Landscapes"

Contemporary West Coast Perspectives on Photography and Photograph-Based Media 

SF Camerawork, San Francisco, April 23, 2016

Deadline: January 8, 2016

Contemporary global events and phenomena continue to shape visual interpretations of economic, social, environmental, and political geographies, and to disrupt conceptions of region, nation, citizenship, and community. “Zones of Representation” will consider how photographers and time-based media artists have responded to transformations in the global landscape through new ideas about the function of photographic media, and the shifting roles of makers and audiences. We want to know: how can novel visual practices disrupt traditional narratives of spatial representation?; in what unique ways do artists in time-based media acknowledge and respond to the historical contribution of their medium in defining, producing, and perpetuating these same narratives?; what new connections do these practices demonstrate and reveal?; and, in what ways do contemporary technologies, modes of distribution, and access impact interactions with the land?

We invite papers that address the expanded role of photography and time-based media in global landscape discourses and social fabrics. Proposals on contemporary topics or new perspectives on historic materials are encouraged. Proposals from image makers are also welcome. Please send a 300-word proposal, a one-paragraph biographical statement, and full contact information to zonesofrepresentation@gmail.com by January 8, 2016. 

“Zones of Representation” aims to connect artists, historians, curators and arts professionals, and students in Northern California, facilitating a regional network for the latest art historical scholarship. The symposium is organized by Makeda Best (California College of the Arts), Bridget Gilman (Santa Clara University), and Kathy Zarur (California College of the Arts). It is presented in collaboration with SF Camerawork and is co-sponsored by the Northern California Art Historians (NCAH), a College Art Association affiliated society.

CFP: Moving Cities: Contested Views on Urban Life - Krakau 11/15

European Sociological Association Research Network 37 - Urban Sociology

10.11.2015, Krakau 

Deadline: 29.01.2016 

Contemporary cities are traversed by a diversity of movements, making them very special locus for analysing society. The ESA's Research Network 37 - Urban Sociology - coordination team is working to stimulate scientific debate within the area of urban sociology. In times of digital information, conferences are very important spaces to debate current issues, showcase emerging research and discuss new approaches. 

The ESA Research Network 37 - Urban Sociology - Midterm Conference will take place at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, June, 29th July, 1st, 2016. Our will is to create a cross-disciplinary space of scientific debate open to sociologists and scientists from other disciplines interested in analysing and understanding urban life in moving cities around the globe. We welcome papers from young and senior academics developing research on cities and urban life, expecting that everyone can take useful insights to their works from their participation in this conference. We hope that this meeting can be a starting point for joint research and networking. 

The conference is organised in five tracks (see below) and open sessions. Authors are invited to submit their abstract either to one of the five tracks (see below) or to the open sessions. Please submit one abstract to a single session only. 

Abstracts in English of maximum 300 words should be submitted to esamovingcities@gmail.com until December, 15th. Please indicate in the subject of the e-mail either if you are proposing a paper for discussion in a specific track (identifying the number of the track) or to an open session (indicating Open Session). Notifications of acceptance will be sent by January, 29th. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: 

Saskia Sassen, Columbia University in the City of New York Talja 

Blokland, Humboldt University of Berlin 

Ayo Mansaray, University of East London 

Jacek Gadecki, University of Science and Technology in Krakow 

Track 1 - Methodological approaches to the moving city 

Track 2- Moving cities: between structure and agency. Urban institutions and the pop-up city 

Track 3- Social processes in the globalised moving city 

Track 4- Dynamics and meanings of public spaces in the moving city 

Track 5- Changing Neighbourhoods in the Moving City 

If your work does not fit in these tracks, you can submit your proposal to the open sessions. 

POSTERS

In this conference scientific posters are used as tools for networking. We welcome poster proposals (abstracts in English of max. 300 words) presenting draft projects and ideas for future projects from teams and individual researchers who are looking for research partners. The organization will print and display the selected posters in a visible place and will assign specific times to meet the authors.

Exhibition, Istanbul: Passion, Joy, Fury

11 December 2015 - 30 April 2016, Maxxi Contemporary Art Museum, Rome. 

The passion for creativity - The joy that emerges from achieving objectives- The fury of the city

An exploration through major works and new artistic production with in-depth examinations and first-hand testimony, Istanbul: Passion, Joy, Fury tackles the dynamics, the changes and the cultural demands of contemporary Turkey, a bridge between the western and eastern worlds. Starting out with the recent protests at Gezi Park, the exhibition examines five major themes: urban transformations; political conflicts and resistance; innovative models of production; geopolitical urgencies; hope, by the works of invited artists and architects.

curated by Hou Hanru with Ceren Erdem, Elena Motisi and Donatella Saroli
http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/en/events/istanbul-passione-gioia-furore/

 

CfP: Masculinity and the Metropolis

Deadline for submissions: 20 December 2015.

This interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the University of Kent, takes as its starting point the range of complex and contradictory engagements between masculinity and the developing metropolis since the beginning of the twentieth century. Throughout this period the metropolis maintained a paradoxical status as a place of liberation and possibility, but simultaneously as one of alienation, sin, and oppression. What do responses to the modern city in visual art, film, and literature tell us about masculinity as it both asserts itself and registers its own anxieties, and subsequent representations of the city? In what ways do these contrasting positive and negative conditions, which encouraged complex responses, fit within the framework of masculinity?

In the wake of industrialization artistic reactions to modern urbanity were spurred on by the rapid growth of cities and the transition from rural to metropolitan living. This caused socio-cultural changes and a diverse range of masculinities to develop within the metropolis in terms of race, class, and sexualities. How has masculinity been visualized with the construction of this modern cityscape and ideas of the urban? And later in the 20th Century, how did artists registering with ideas of deindustrialization or feminist and queer art forms affect or approach theories of masculinity and the urban? Can we construct an overarching lineage on this relationship? As one starting point, the so-called “crisis of masculinity”, and the way it is represented in various media, can be connected in interesting ways to the rise of the metropolis. This conference will bring together scholars from varying fields in order to begin a dialogue regarding the way theories of masculinity and the metropolis have developed in tandem, charting their evolution from the beginning of the 20th Century to the present day. Scholars with diverse interests and approaches to this broad subject are welcome with papers concerning various media within the 20th and 21st centuries.

Examples of subjects invited for submission include, but are in no way limited to:

- Representations of the male and masculinity in metropolitan society within literature, film, and fine art. Contributions from theatre, and music are also welcome.

- Male as artist or witness to the evolving physical cityscape

- Modern and contemporary responses to 19th Century representations of industrialisation and the urban / de-industrialization and the changing nature of the urban and the masculine

- The metropolis as a milieu of capitalist oppression, and how this can be related to masculinity

- Urban photography and the metropolitan male identity

- Masculine national identities within the cityscape

- Masculinity and the nocturnal city

- The modern or contemporary flâneur

- Cityscape planning and the organization of male spaces

- Destruction of the city and the crisis of masculinity

- The male Superhero

- Masculinities and sexualities within the metropolis

- Depictions of the urban male and race

- The relationship of masculinity to musical sub-cultures / the protest song and music as social commentary

- Feminist, gay, and / or trans artistic reactions to masculinity and the urban

- Masculinity and dramatic performance within the metropolis

Submission process

We invite submissions of short abstracts (300 words) accompanied by a brief biography (100 words). The time slot for presentations is 20 minutes with a 10 minute session for questions at the end of each panel.

Please send your abstract as an attachment (.pdf or .doc) to: masculinemetropolis@gmail.com

The subject of the email should contain the words: “Masculinity and the Metropolis submission”

The body of the email should include author(s) name, affiliation, abstract title and the email address you would like us to use to communicate with you.

Deadline for submissions: 20 December 2015.

Notification of acceptance/non-acceptance: 26 January 2016.

CfP: "Architecture, Democracy and Emotions", Berlin

From Brasilia to post-unification Berlin, from polyclinics in post-war France to the social housing projects in post-Apartheid South Africa, ideas about community and participation on the one hand, and architecture, space and emotions on the other are intimately linked. Picking up where history's spatial turn and architecture's emotional turn have left off, this conference seeks to unravel the close connections between politics, spaces and feelings.

Built environments enabled, (un)intentionally provoked, or methodically educated a variety of feelings towards different forms of democratic governance-here understood as a political claim as well as a practice. They did so through their conception, materiality and use. Architecture rendered ideas about emotions and their value for democratic governance concrete. Ideas about morality and conduct were inscribed into it. This, to some extent, is true for all government and official architecture. Yet particularly after the Second World War and during decolonization, almost all countries, regardless of actual practices of governance, claimed to be democracies or at the very least republics. This conference asks what effect these claims had on the organization of architecture and space, on the feelings that circulated within them and how this contributed to the challenged history of democracy.

The conference on "Architecture, Democracy and Emotions" aims to interrogate three interlinked ways of politicizing and emotionalizing spaces: 1) The way in which democratic governments in the 20th century thought about the sensatory relationship between state and citizens as experienced through architecture; 2) the way citizens experienced their governmental institutions through built space; and 3) how citizens (and among them architects and urban planners) wanted to fashion democratic relations among themselves and with the state by way of built space.

To this end, the organizers invite applications for papers on democratic architecture and emotions since 1945. These can range from the architecture of parliament buildings to the interaction of state and citizens within the physical manifestations of expanding social welfare institutions or attempts at fashioning radically new living arrangements through squatting or communes. Within this context democracy itself should be historicized and grand narratives of democratization and liberalization be challenged. 

Accordingly, the organizers welcome applications dealing with the people's democracies of the Eastern Bloc and with democracies in newly decolonized states to engage in a discussion about the specific global conditions of different 20th century democratic built spaces and the emotions associated with them.

The conference will be held in English.

The Max Planck Institute for Human Development will contribute towards travel and accomodation expenses. If you are interested in participating in this conference, please send us a proposal of no more than 500 words and a short CV by 15 December 2015 to cfp-emotions@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.

Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes.

Master’s programme in Urbanism Studies - Royal Institute of Technology.

This one-year Master’s programme is aimed at graduates from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and city planning who are specifically concerned with design issues of the public realm and the effects these have on social life and human behaviour. Our focus is to deepen theoretical and design knowledge, changing the mindset of professionals regarding the importance and value of the public realm in the design of our cities.

More Info: https://www.kth.se/en/studies/master/kth/urbanism-studies/description-1.501405    

Call for Membership - GSZ Berlin

In order to focus the increasing research interest into the theme-complex of New Urban Tourism / Touristification / New Mobilities, the Georg-Simmel-Center at HU Berlin is setting up a group for PhD students and Post-Docs.

In the process and in accordance with GSZ`s philosophy which explicitly strives to bring together diverse disciplinary and theoretical-conceptual perspectives. It is planned that publication proposals will be developed and implemented. It is also envisaged that a resulting expert conference should take place.

The meetings are planned to take place at regular intervals, 2-3 times a year. The kick-off meeting will be on 27th. November 2015 at the Georg-Simmel-Center and will be in the form of a workshop, in which the common agenda – depending on the specialist focus of the members – will be more precisely agreed.

Doctorial candidates and post-docs with interest in joining a qualified, professional network are cordially invited to apply by latest 9/11/2015 with a brief description of their research focus (max. 1 page) and tabular resume/ CV (please E-Mail to bueroleitung-gsz@hu-berlin.de). Currently the working group consists of 6 members (Berlin, Hamburg, Potsdam, Trier).

Should you have any further queries please contact Natalie Stors (stors@uni-trier.de) and Christoph Sommer (christoph.sommer@gsz.hu-berlin.de).

FYI: VACANT CITY BOOK

Between 2012 and 2015, the KÉK – Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre invited to Budapest a dozen Dutch practitioners, whose work is organised around the reuse of vacant buildings and areas. By presenting these practices, connecting them to their Budapest counterparts and creating situations of formal and informal exchange, KÉK opened new spaces for thought in the Hungarian architecture, planning and development culture and in civil society. The Vacant City book is the result of these encounters, assembling the key thoughts and experiences of the program’s 3 years.


Offline Purchase
The book can be purchased directly in KÉK’s gallery for 2.000,- Ft.
Address: Budapest, XI. Bartók Béla út 10-12.
Opening times: Monday-Frinday, 9.00-18.00

Online Purchase

In case of requiring an invoice or ordering more than 2 copies to the same Address, please write to lakatlan@kek.org.hu.

Urban Imagineering and the Construction of Cool Cities Workshop - Full Program

Urban Imagineering and the Construction of Cool Cities (Sept. 30 - Oct. 1)
Central European University

Budapest, Hungary

Image is everything. The way people, companies, causes and places are presented is increasingly deemed to be a key to success. City and neighborhood branding has become an urban policy tool; culture, history, aesthetics are consciously and creatively deployed in urban redevelopment projects. Many activities and places which had been considered uninteresting and better to hide have become ‘cool’ and sell well (street food, street art, slum tourism, red-light and entertainment districts, ruin pubs, lofts).

Image is everything. Or, perhaps not?

For more details see:
http://sociology.ceu.edu/events/2015-09-30/urban-imagineering-and-construction-cool-cities-workshop

CFP: Building Bridges: Cities and Regions in a Transnational World

Building Bridges: Cities and Regions in a Transnational World 

3rd - 6th April 2016, Karl-Franzen- University, Graz, Austria

Regional Studies Association Annual Conference 2016

Throughout history, cities and regions have been cornerstones of economic, social and cultural institution building and centres of communication and trade across borders of empires and nations. In a globalised world dominated by multi-level governance and declining economic and political significance of the nation-state, cities and regions are becoming ever more so important in building bridges across nations, supra-national unions, and even continents.

These challenges surpass the usual aspects of integration: it is not sufficient to reduce barriers for the mobility of labour, goods, services and capital, to create a homogenous competitive environment, and a solid monetary system. What is needed in addition are more elements of a new regionalism, which is based on non-hierarchical relationships, on self-government, and on the creation of flexible alliances leading to interregional transnational cooperation. The development of a region is affected by its competitive and complementary relationships with other increasingly distant regions. 

These relationships have to be embedded in an overall structure of relations which encompass the purely economic ones and have strong social, cultural, legal and political dimensions. The objective of the conference is to initiate an interdisciplinary dialogue about the future of a transnational world of urban and regional cooperation. We welcome submissions from researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in all areas of regional analysis.

Special Session’s Proposals

Besides paper presentations we also welcome Special Sessions. A Special Session could be a themed workshop or innovative forms of networking and collaboration. We are open to your ideas and happy to discuss these with you. 

There are two types of Special Sessions:

Open Session: the session organiser proposes the topic and provides a short description for a special session. Delegates can submit their abstracts for this session when they register for the conference.

Closed Session: the session organiser proposes the complete session including all speakers. Other delegates cannot submit their abstracts for this session. Both sessions are open to all delegates to attend as audience.

For more information please visit www.regionalstudies.org/conferences/conference/building-bridges-cities-and-regions-in-a-transnational-world or contact Wanda Miczorek at wanda.miczorek@regionalstudies.org

Exhibition:THE DIALOGIC CITY : BERLIN WIRD BERLIN

The autumn of 2015 marks the second collaborative project between four of Berlin’s leading art institutions: Berlinische Galerie, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, and Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will present a total of four thematically related and coinciding exhibitions.

The exhibition The Dialogic City : Berlin wird Berlin, planned by Brandlhuber+ Hertweck, Mayfried, reveals perspectives of dialogic behavior in the city in seven chapters; the publication of the same name provides its central point of departure. Going beyond the rudiments of participation, possibilities for combining seemingly irreconcilable differences are sketched from various points of view. The first issue of Dialogic City is dedicated to Berlin, where these antagonisms are more extreme than elsewhere.

Following the subject matter of the publications chapters, seven comments will be installed in the large exhibition room of the Berlinische Galerie. The presentation comprises about 500 models from the Berlinische Galeries architectural collection; in its capacity as federal state museum for architecture, the gallery stores the documentation and models of Berlin building competitions. Due to a lack of funds and manpower, only a small part of the material has been digitalized so far. The exhibition addresses this problem by entering the models that are transported from the depot to the exhibition room into the museum database in the presence of visitors (until 08.11.2015, Fri–Mon 12:00 am to 6:00 pm). An important part of museum work that is usually hidden from the public eye thus becomes visible. On the one hand, the models help to imagine an alternative Berlin, which may be reconstructed on the basis of the competition entries; on the other, they illustrate a history of ideas that continues also in its unimplemented form and which may be used as a source of inspiration for present-day debates about the city.

http://www.berlinischegalerie.de/en/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/stadtbild-brandlhuber/?contentId_=17271&cHash=55b41ee2172758f03512ae92951b0b29

WORKSHOP (Berlin): Urban Heritage und Urban Images: Imagineering Urban Heritage (29-30 Oct.)

Urban Heritage und Urban Images: Imagineering Urban Heritage
Humboldt University of Berlin, 29-30th October 2015

In Cooperation with the Institute for Art – and Image history at the Humboldt University of Berlin

Images of cities have a long history and have long been research objects in art history and related disciplines. But city images, produced for economic purposes, have only been analysed recently, and primarily in the social sciences. The production of city images is conceptualized as Urban Imagineering. This describes a differentiated field of discourses and practices in which above all agents from city branding and urban economy are involved, but also urban politics and architecture, in order to generate specific pictures, narratives and symbols of urbanity. Nevertheless, these city-branding and identity-creating processes are continuously changing and at the same time influencing the self-image of the city: this happens in a matrix of urban images, history, economy and heritage.

In this context, tangible heritage gains a special function: different components of heritage are interpreted anew with the help of history. They are overloaded with different symbols and narratives in order to acknowledge their uniqueness.

Within these frameworks the workshop aims to examine the interaction between image, history and architecture. The following questions are formulated: 

Which interaction exists between the tangible heritage and the production of city images? 

To what extend does history play a role in the process of transformation of heritage into images? 

The workshop intends to introduce and analyze case studies from all over Europe. There will be special focus on cases studies which discuss the following perspectives: 

In the realm of architecture, they focus on the interaction between image, history and materiality in urban space; 

In the realm of social practices, they analyse the constructed and projected images. 

The whole programme of the workshop can be found under the following link:

stadtforschungmeetsheritage.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/urban-imagineering-workshop-programm.pdf

Location: Institue for European Ethnology/Georg-Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies, Humboldt University Berlin

Address: Mohrenstraße 40/41, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Registration is required.

If you would like to register, please send an email to urbanheritage@t-online.de

The Istanbul Arts Biennial / SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms

The Istanbul Arts Biennial SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms opens to the public on 5 September 2015.

“This citywide exhibition on the Bosphorus hovers around a material– salt water –and the contrasting images of knots and of waves."

http://14b.iksv.org/

CFP: Book - Visual Representations and/of Citizenship

Call for papers for Book Essays in edited collection

Deadline: Oct 1, 2015

Co-editors: Corey Dzenko, Ph.D., Monmouth University, cjdzenko@gmail.com; Theresa Avila, Ph.D., Arizona State University, sahibah@hotmail.com

Traditionally defined by an individual’s membership and level of participation within a community, scholars such as Eric Hobsbawm describe how “citizenship” results in access to benefits or rights. Yet citizenship moves beyond political framings. According to Aiwha Ong, cultural citizenship is a “dual process of self-making and being-made” but done so “within webs of power linked to the nation-state and civil society.” Taking citizenship as a political position, cultural process, and intertwining of both, this book seeks essays that examine the role of art and visual culture in the Modern and Contemporary eras.

We seek proposals that engage with the questions: How does citizenship inform artistic and visual practices? And how do images inform citizenship? How do images and the built environment reflect, confirm, or challenge ideals of citizenship across visual media and geographical boundaries? Topics addressed may include, but are not limited to: nation building, civic practices, transnationalism, civil rights, politics of identity, labor, border zones, affects of belonging, and activism as well as resistance to citizenship. Queries are also welcome concerning submission topics.

Essay abstracts (approximately 500 words in length) and a CV should be sent to Dr.Theresa Avila at sahibah@hotmail.com and Dr. Corey Dzenko at cjdzenko@gmail.com by October 1, 2015. Drafts or longer outlines are also welcome at this time.

Selected authors will be notified by November 1, 2015. Full first drafts of essays will be due by December 15, 2015, at the latest.

For those invited to contribute to the book project, essays should be 6,000-8,000 words (author-date system in Chicago style with a list of references, and minimal endnotes, please).

For images, due to space limitations, we ask that only the most relevant images be included.  Image copyright is the responsibility of the author and should be established prior to submitting the final

version of the essay. When submitting final essays, proof of copyright permission will need to be made available.

CfP (Journal) :Political Informality, Power and the Other Side of Urban Space

Call for Papers "Political Informality, Power and the Other Side of Urban Space"

L'Espace politique online journal (publication in 2016).

Papers can be submitted both in English and French.

More details on https://espacepolitique.revues.org/3435 

Submission deadline: December 15th, 2015.

Sébastien Jacquot (sebastien.jacquot@univ-paris1.fr), Alexis Sierra (a.alexis.sierra@gmail.com) and Jérôme Tadié (jerome.tadie@ird.fr)

Hands Over the City, Chinatown, The Elite Squad… these and many other films depict the influence of informal or even illegal practices in cities such as Naples, Los Angeles or Rio de Janeiro. Beyond the symbolic dimension of these cities, informal ways of governing the city emerge together with the diversity of power controls. Cronyism, obscure awards of public contracts, collusion, circulation of rumours, more or less autonomous forms of governance of neighbourhoods (self-management, lynching, vigilantes or control of markets by thugs, for instance), resistance (defined as mobilisations out of institutional realms), organised racket, all refer to the informal governance of the city. This issue of L’Espace politique aims at understanding the roles and meanings of informal practice in city governance and urban life. How does the diversity of urban power structures emerge and consolidates, in informal and sometimes illegal ways? What influence does it have on the production, administration and control of urban space?

By transferring the notion of informality – which is usually encountered in economics – to the political realm, this call for proposals seeks to explore the importance of arrangements and informal (even transgressive) practice in cities — the dark side of city governance as it were. The notion of political informality extends beyond the reference to the legal framework, and to its transgression. It points more broadly to common social norms, in relation with power structures. Thus political informality encompasses the “forms, practices, activities and expressions which, because they are not beneficiating of a recognition and a legitimacy from the prescribers and most influential agents of the field, are ‘rejected’ outside of this field even though they partake, fully or incidentally, in its constitution” (Le Gall, Offerlé and Ploux, 2012, p.16).

From this perspective, informality calls for another type of approach to the analysis of public policies, moving away from an approach which usually only takes into account official and visible policies (participative programs, decentralisation). We need to consider implicit underlying practices such as corruption or clientelism. In the practice of power and governance, informality invites us to take into account ‘political’ dynamics outside or beyond overt practice.

Questioning political informality also implies that we analyse the structure of urban power: their diversity, their everyday forms and practices, their articulations, their visibility as well as the mechanisms which legitimise them. Such studies can focus on the residents, the leaders, the political or economic elites, whether they interact or not. What are the conditions for such practices to become possible? what are the arrangements, tolerance or circumventing strategies? Are these power centres articulated to the forms of government (State, decentralised power, dominant local coalition, etc.)? What relationships do they entertain: do they build alliances? Are they autonomous or on the contrary do they compete? Are they in some ways more or less disconnected? Are they at the source of urban differentiation? In other words, does political informality produce power structures and spaces which operate differently?

The aim here is not to oppose, in a dichotomic way, a dominant legal sphere with subjects characterised by their informal political practice. We wish rather to identify the modalities of the construction of political spaces – if not of politics – either on the margins of urban intervention — playing the political game in order to reach specific urban goals — or in the practice of everyday city governance. City residents with little resources or access to the dominating spheres, intermediaries as well as elites, are all concerned with political informality. These arrangements are at the source of different types of fabric of the city, through their original articulation with urban space.

This special issue is at the junction of two academic traditions: urban studies – often focusing on the more official policies and dynamics – and the studies on informality – often too limited to the cities of the global South and to the fields of economy or criminality studies. We encourage contributions based on fieldwork in cities, which will be the basis for comparison between several local case studies. They can relate to the following topics (this list is non-exhaustive and with overlapping boundaries):

1. Political informality, everyday practice and the meaning of law in the city: proposals can examine the ways in which laws and rules are interpreted and transgressed in the everyday governance of the city. They can analyse how neglecting or circumventing those rules leads to reshape them (through favours, cronyism, nepotism, corruption...), as well as the roles and attitudes of the actors involved (public authorities, private actors, businesses, lobbies, mafias, city dwellers…).

2. Political informality and urban governance: can urban governance be analysed through the lens of political informality? How do groups of residents, coalitions of public or private actors or political parties emerge and maintain themselves? Does the State itself use informal repertoires in urban governance?

3. Political informality and resisting residents: beyond the institutional spheres of mobilisation and political contestation, what are the informal practices contesting established urban power structures? What are the repertoires of political action for the residents deprived of recognised political rights?

4. Spaces of informal organisation: certain spaces are governed through informal practices, by alternative, and sometimes criminal structures. How do they maintain themselves? What are their relationships — if any — with the State or the government? How do they build their legitimacy or get accepted by the residents?

5 The role of practical knowledge: what types of knowledge are used in the conduct of informal arrangements or the circumvention of rules? How are rumours, legends, etc.… articulated to political informality?

6. Arrangements and temporality: are there favourable moments or privileged spaces in the constitution, negotiation, conduct or contestation of such arrangements? They are based on different contexts and representations of the city as well as on sometimes changing networks. In such cases, how can they be secured and become permanent?

Contributions should be sent to Sébastien Jacquot (sebastien.jacquot@univ-paris1.fr), Alexis Sierra (a.alexis.sierra@gmail.com) and Jérôme Tadié (jerome.tadie@ird.fr) before December 15, 2015.

CfP: Digital-Cultural Ecology and the Medium-Sized City

 

Digital-Cultural Ecology and the Medium-Sized City

Conference: 01-03 April 2016

Place: Bristol, UK

Organisers: Architecture_MPS, CMIR, UWE

Venue: Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Arts

http://architecturemps.com/bristol-uk/

Key Dates:

01st Nov 2015: Abstract deadline

01-03 April 2016: CONFERENCE

01st July 2016: Begin Publication of Full Papers

Publications:

Conference proceedings online; Book publications in print; Special Issues of the Architecture_MPS journal.

Publisher: Intellect Books

In every country in the world medium-sized cities out number capital cities in both quantity and gross population. They are however, historically overlooked. In a digital and interconnected age these cities have the potential to by-pass capitals and challenge the hegemony of central economic and political organisations. They can form networks vastly more complex, intricate and numerous than the now standard group of connected ‘global cities’; can become self-sustained economically and culturally; and forge forward with new ideas in their specialist fields.

In this context, the present conference focuses on how the medium sized cities from across the world are adapting to the economies, practices and infrastructures of the digital age; how the interaction and communication of the digital message is reframing life in these cities, whether new or old; and how the digitization of the urban arena is changing the reality of the representation of city life.

In short, it asks what are the implications of the digital times in which we live, on the civic, cultural, economic and urban forum of medium-sized city.

It welcomes the participation of architects, planners, activists, artists, technologists, animators, filmmakers, cultural studies experts, programmers, gamers and more.

http://architecturemps.com/bristol-uk/

Tomorow in Berlin - UrbanoFilms

Urbanofilms#33 meets Himmelbeet

http://www.urbanophil.net/urbanophil/urbanofilms/welcome-goodbye/

We Tact! Urban Imagineering and the Construction of Cool Cities workshop in Budapest!

CEU Workshop, September 30 - October 1, 2015

Image is everything. The way people, companies, causes and places are presented is increasingly deemed to be a key to success. City and neighborhood branding has become an urban policy tool; culture, history, aesthetics are consciously and creatively deployed in urban redevelopment projects. Many activities and places which had been considered uninteresting and better to hide have become ‘cool’ and sell well (street food, street art, slum tourism, red-light and entertainment districts, ruin pubs, lofts).

Image is everything. Or, perhaps not?

The Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology* in cooperation with the TACT network (International Research on Art and the City) is running a one-day workshop to critically engage with the discussion of urban imagineering—the process through which professional and non-professional urban actors actively generate specific images, narratives and symbols of the city and strategically use them in redevelopment,—the role of urban imagination in the construction of ‘cool’ cities, and its relationship with politics and economy.

If interested, pls. contact: Juli Székely (szekely_julia@phd.ceu.edu)

* supported by the CEU Event Fund

CFP : The City as Commons: Reconceiving Urban Space, Common Goods and Urban Governance

6-7 November, Bologna, Italy

Deadline: 10 August 2015 

This conference will introduce participants to the rapidly growing field of study on the urban commons, stressing the importance of an 'urban narrative for the commons' for urban assets or resources such as urban infrastructure, urban services and urban real estate. The conference also aims to bridge the gap between research and practice as it will bring together thought leaders who study or work on cities from different perspectives and disciplines (urban design, service design, law, urban economics, political studies, commons studies) to build a common language and cultivate a community for the study and practice of urban commons. The conference is organised by LabGov - LABoratory for the GOVernance of commons, a joint partnership between LUISS Guido Carli ICEED and Fordham University Urban Law Center, with the support of the City of Bologna and Fondazione del Monte di Ravenna en Bologna. 

 

 http://www.labgov.it/wordpress/urbancommons/

 

 

PhD Studentship

The University of Manchester Department of Geography is pleased to announce a PhD studentship on the ESRC-DFID Poverty Alleviation project: "Turning Livelihoods to Rubbish? Assessing the impacts of formalisation and technologisation of waste management on the urban poor" (Empirical work in South Africa). The supervisor s Dr Erik Swyngedouw, known for his work in urban political ecology and analysis of the post-political condition. The deadline for applications is 20 August 2015. 

For full details and the application process, please email erik.swyngedouw@manchester.ac.uk. 

 

Symposium - Urban Activism: A dialogue - East and West, North and South

The Symposium

We would like to bring in researchers from different disciplines and locality of origin who shared a common belief “in the potential for radical change of non-institutionalised urban political action” (Pickvance, 2003:104). We have also relaxed the term “urban (social) movement” and prefer the term “activism” to incorporate actions that are seemingly unconnected or be politically too sensitive to call themselves “movement”. Yet the actions we are interested should be symbolically or materially embedded in the political process but are not associated explicitly with established political processes or institutions.

There are also no limitations to the theoretical premises or type of empirical 

cases. What we intend to examine are:

• New cultural meaning that enables local movements to increase the capacity to intervene in civic society.
• The specific social, economic and political context that help to advance our understanding of urban activism
• New issues, new perspectives to activism that has the potential in bringing social change

The symposium will be held on 20-21 March 2016 in City University of Hong Kong. Support on travelling and lodging for invited participants from outside Hong Kong will be provided. Yet participants who are able to fund their journey to Hong Kong are also welcome and lodging will be offered.

Submission of Abstracts

Abstracts are invited for the symposium. Such abstracts should be around 300 words and be sent via the following link before 30 September 2015. Notification of acceptance will be sent out before 1 November 2015. We are expecting an advanced version of the draft paper, at around 5000 words, be sent out for discussion on the symposium before 1 March 2016.

Abstracts can be submitted to:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1o_ycROHq3GOLhj21M6XrMe7CLmVAhQnh118CS7NOrOI/ viewform?usp=send_form 

If you are in Berlin ....Gütermarkt

3 May - 11 Oct 2015

Sundays from 12 until 19

Gütermarkt, a hybrid between craftsmen, DIY and flea market, looks for the imaginary and newly possible socio-economical models on the local scale. It involves diverse site-specific services, providing space for various ways of exchange and allow experimentation, social critic and productive discussions about current ‘urban development’ and transformation of Moabit. 

Beyond trading with ‘goods’, Gütermarkt promotes alternative ways of knowledge exchange, with an aim to serve as a local platform for critical urban pedagogy and community development. 

In this season, 2015 the Gütermarkt is build on 6 different conceptual islands to blur the official borders between the ZK/U Center for Arts and Urbanistic and the city park in order to create an inclusive space for unexpected social relationships. Additionally is the Gütermarkt inspired by a variety of different topics namely “holidays”, “education” or “communication”.

This is what you can do:

• Rent a market stand and sell your favourit things

• Craftsman offer their specific skills to repair and up-cycle

• Hello Kids! Bring your blankets, exchange and finally trade your Pokémon-Cards and Lilifee-Horses!

• Ideas, yes please! You want to offer a workshop or present your skills … Call us!

• Learn secret-skills of the local Boule-master and become Güterchampion in the Boulodrom!

No passion for forced - participation! Then your right here. Simply enjoy becoming a happy consumer of live music, culinary specialities from the neigh bourhood or let your pants, toaster and bike get fixed on spot.

http://www.zku-berlin.org/satellite/guetermarkt-2015/

 

CONF: Re-framing Identities: Architecture's Turn to History

ETH Zurich, Switzerland, September 10 - 12, 2015

Registration deadline: Aug 31, 2015

East West Central 03: Re-framing Identities: Architecture's Turn to

History, 1970-1990

The years between 1970 and 1990 were characterized by the rise of

postmodernism in architecture in Western and Eastern Europe. During

this period, the 1980s in particular, several socialist countries also

witnessed processes of liberalization and economic reforms, and the

overthrow of state leaderships in 1989/90, which would mark the end of

Europe's political division. Architecture, in these processes, became a

means through which to reframe identities, reconsider relationships to

history, and thus call into question not only the modern project but

also its wider political promises. The aim of this two-day

international conference is to revisit this historic period, and to

analyse and compare parallel developments in architecture and urban

design on both sides of the Cold War divide against the backdrop of

unfolding geopolitical transformations.

While postmodernism’s impact could be felt across different

disciplines, its origins can be traced most strongly in architecture

and urban design. After all, the term and concept postmodernism first

emerged in these disciplines. Since the mid-1960s, an increasingly

critical attitude toward functionalist modernism developed within

architecture that led to a spread of revisionist thinking and a growing

concern for historicism, symbolism and meaning. This change was

paralleled and sustained by a proliferation of architectural theory,

influenced in particular by phenomenology and semiotics. During the

1970s and 1980s, the recognition of architecture’s capacity to reflect

and ground identity reignited the search for ways to represent local,

national and regional traditions through built form.

The conference will address, among others, questions concerning:

- the chronology of the turn to history in architecture and urban

design in different European countries.

- how terms and concepts such as modernism and postmodernism were

discussed by architects and theorists in East and West.

- the relationship between postmodern discourse and mainstream

architectural culture during the 1970s and 1980s, asking how elements

of critique and opposition manifested themselves.

- role played by questions of heritage and identity in architectural

practice, and the specific forms this took in various countries in

Europe.

- the impact of historicism and postmodernism on the development of

cities in Eastern and Western Europe.

- the mechanisms of international exchange and transfer that allowed

postmodernism to become a global phenomenon.

In recent years, postmodernism received growing attention though both

scholarship and popular exhibitions such as "Postmodernism – Style and

Subversion 1970—1990" at the V&A and the Landesmuseum Zürich (2012).

However, the focus of academic research and public shows tended to be

on Western Europe and North America, where postmodernism's conceptual

basis was developed and where, arguably, its impact could be felt most

strongly. Thus far, parallel developments and exchanges with Eastern

Europe have played a marginal role. A complex comparative analysis of

these developments that accounts for their heterogeneous nature is

missing. The question whether and to what extent the term and concept

postmodernism can be usefully applied to the Eastern European context

remains insufficiently addressed.

Our objective is to examine the historical turn in architecture in

Eastern and Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s as a common

cultural legacy, situated in relation to fundamental and far-reaching

socio-economic and political changes – the erosion of communist

regimes, their eventual disintegration and the triumph of global

neoliberal capitalism. We propose a framework that treats

contemporaneous architectural phenomena in Western and Eastern Europe

on equal terms and side by side, thus asking for mechanisms of

interconnection, mutual exchange, transfer, and translation across the

political divide.

The conference will bring together an international group of

established and younger academics and practitioners, including a number

of former protagonists. Keynote lectures by Ákos Moravánszky,

Stanislaus von Moos, Joan Ockman, and Karin Šerman.

Attendance of the conference is free of charge. We kindly ask you to

register your interest by sending an email to

professur.moravanszky@gta.arch.ethz.ch until 31 August 2015.

Chair for Theory of Architecture

Prof. Dr. Ákos Moravánszky

Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta)

ETH Zurich

Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5

8093 Zurich

Switzerland