TACT is moving to a new homepage!

After starting this blog in 2013, many things have changed. During the years, we have grown bigger, we have participated in more and more projects, and we have become more conscious about our aims. At this point, we feel the need for renewal. We will no longer use this blog, but check out our new TACT blog at https://tactcity.wordpress.com/blog/. Visit us and follow us!

PANEL SEARCH (UHA '16): Citizens Working out the Urban Future

Urban History Association 2016 Conference

Chicago, IL

October 13-16, 2016

http://uha.udayton.edu/conf.html

We’re seeking two panelists for a session on citizen engagement in planning and re-imagining the city at UHA 2016. Our papers look at citizen-led attempts to promote new visions of two Canadian cities—Montréal and Toronto—in the 1960s and 1970s. Both were rooted in a period of change in municipal politics; both were influential at the level of ideas but experienced significant obstacles to implementation.

In keeping with the conference theme of “the working urban,” the panel will explore these and other examples of citizens working out alternative urban futures. What other historical contexts have been receptive to citizen-led urbanisms? What visions of the city have been promoted in the name of participatory democracy, and what has their relation been to government and urban expertise? What strategies—appeals to rights, personal influence, creation of new mechanisms of consultation— have citizens used to promote their visions of the urban future?

Valérie Poirier (Université du Québec à Montréal) will present a paper examining the Citizens’ Commission on the Future of Montreal, set up at the instigation of the heritage group Save Montreal in 1976-1977. 

Daniel Ross (York University) will present on Toronto’s citizen-led Central Area Plan (1976) and the larger debates over development and the future of downtown that gave rise to it.

To encourage a comparative discussion we welcome papers dealing with other time periods and regions. Also happy to discuss joining or merging with another panel on a similar topic. Please submit abstracts to Daniel Ross (dgratyork@gmail.com) and Valérie Poirier (valerie.poirier1@gmail.com) by February 15th (sooner if possible!).

Open call: Funding the Cooperative City

Please find below our call for innovative cases of Community-Led Urban Development. With the call we collect good practices of community-led real estate development, new economic models of building, renovating or running community spaces and maintaining the commons. The selected initiatives will be part of our upcoming book and will be invited to workshops held this Spring in Budapest, Madrid, Rome and Rotterdam, to engage in a Europe-wide exchange around civic economy and spatial development.

We would be happy if you could spread the call among your colleagues and the initiatives in (and beyond) for whom it could be interesting. Please find here a link to the call:
http://eutropian.org/share-your-story/

We are looking for stories about the economic organisation of community spaces (including social centers, cooperative businesses, co-working spaces, cultural venues in storefronts, buildings or open areas) developed and run by citizens with a social-cultural impact on their neighbourhood. Send us your story, describing the economic and organisation model, funding and human resources and development process of your space. Join us at our upcoming workshops and help other initiatives to learn from you!

Selected initiatives will take part in:

WORKSHOPS in Budapest (April 7-9), Madrid (April 21-23), Rome (May 5-7) and Rotterdam (May 28) to meet your fellow practitioners from across Europe, share your experience and learn how to develop your project further.

THE BOOK collecting emerging models of community-led real estate development for the first time in Europe.

Tell us your story by sending to info@eutropian.org by 15th February 2016.

More details at http://eutropian.org/share-your-story/

“Funding the Cooperative City” explores, promotes and assists experiments in community-led real estate development in European cities. Through workshops (Rotterdam, Berlin and Paris in 2014 and Budapest, Madrid, Rome and Rotterdam in 2016) as well as investigative reports, video portraits and a publication, the project brings together protagonists from various cities to help shaping a new European culture of urban development based on community-driven initiatives, civic economic models and cooperative ownership.

For more info about the Funding the Cooperative City series, please visit

http://eutropian.org/funding-the-cooperative-city/

CfP: Cities Beyond City Limits

Urban History Association Conference (Chicago, 13–16 October 2016)

Organizers: Garrett Dash Nelson (Geography, University of Wisconsin–Madison) and Samuel Kling (History, Northwestern University)

Comment: Prof. Jon C. Teaford (History, Purdue University)

Scholars are well aware of the geographic problem of defining the city as an object of analysis. Research on urban topics often begins by defining what exactly is meant by the city at hand: a municipality defined by administrative jurisdiction, a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by commuter and economic circulation, a bio-ecological region defined by metabolic interactions, or something else entirely.

However, the challenge of determining the city's edges is not just a descriptive and interpretive problem. It is also a problem with its own history, the subject of considerable contestation as cities have grown, shrunk, and transformed across different temporal and geographic contexts. Historical debates over the city’s physical extent can therefore best be understood as carriers of politics, ideology, and power, rather than as the dispassionate products of empirical analysis.

This panel seeks to explore historical accounts of cases in which definitions of the geographic limits of cities (both specific cities and cities in general) have been deployed in the service of ideological aims—whether radical, reformist, or reactionary. What are the different political, social, cultural, and intellectual interests that have motivated such attempts to conceive of a city beyond the simple lines of the city limits? How can historical debates about urban borders offer new perspectives on developments such as suburbanization, metropolitan fragmentation, and regional governance? What broader currents in cultural and political history can we detect in discussions of cities’ boundaries?

We welcome papers that take a historical approach to such themes as annexation; metropolitan institution building; regionalism; core-periphery relations; the politics of federalism; theories of "global urbanism"; transportation, housing, and parks planning; the production of statistics and geographic data; mapping and representation; centralization and decentralization; metropolitan administration; and other topics.

To propose a paper, please submit a 250-word abstract and a CV to Garrett Nelson and Samuel Kling by 19 February 2016.

More information about UHA 2016 may be found at http://uha.udayton.edu/conf.html.

SHARE YOUR STORY! Are you running a space with your local community?

We are looking for stories about the economic organisation of spaces like storefronts, buildings or open areas, developed and run by citizens with a social-cultural impact on their neighbourhood. Send us your story, describing the economic and organisation model, funding and human resources and development process of your space. Join us at our upcoming workshops and help other initiatives to learn from you!

Selected initiatives will take part in:

WORKSHOPS in Budapest (April 7-9), Madrid (April 21-23), Rome (May 5-7) and Rotterdam (May 28) to meet your fellow practitioners from across Europe, share your experience and learn how to develop your project further.

THE BOOK collecting emerging models of community-led real estate development for the first time in Europe.

Tell us your story by sending to info@eutropian.org by 15th February 2016 the following materials:

Filled out questionnaire (text file here or word file here)

3-5 images in high resolution (300 dpi)

Existing project documentation – flyers, reports (max 5 pages )

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us: info@eutropian.org

About Funding the Cooperative City

“Funding the Cooperative City” explores, promotes and assists experiments in community-led real estate development in European cities. Through workshops (Rotterdam, Berlin and Paris in 2014 and Budapest, Madrid, Rome and Rotterdam in 2016) as well as investigative reports, video portraits and a publication, the project brings together protagonists from various cities to help shaping a new European culture of urban development based on community-driven initiatives, civic economic models and cooperative ownership. For more info about the Funding the Cooperative City series, visit http://eutropian.org/funding-the-cooperative-city/

SUMMER SCHOOL: Sewing a small town - Environmental networks and strategic places

Gassino Architecture Summer School: Sewing a Small Town

Located 15 km from Turin, in the center of Piedmont, a region internationally known for prestigious wine (such as Barbera, Moscato, Barolo and many others) and the slow food concept, one hour by train from Milan, two hours from the town of Genoa, in Liguria, and only an hour and a half by plane from Paris, Gassino Torinese is characterized by a medieval historic center waiting for a new reuse, because of its geographical position: in fact, Gassino Torinese acts as a barycenter for the settlements along the river Po, in the stretch between San Mauro Torinese and Chivasso.

The summer school's design themes will focus on the renovation, reuse and re-utilization of old and valuable buildings located in this region to be transformed in strategic places to be integrated into a contemporary territorial context to create a smart, opensource system of cities, that makes everything circular: it will be a territory of the hybrid and of former structures to be transformed into poles for the creation of a network of public transport and social exchanges today nonexistent. Projects to connect former factories, former bus and tramway stations, former agriculture structures and former other things, are the main goals of the projects developed by the participants during the two-week workshop.

Period: From July 18 to 30, 2016.

Eligibility: Gassino Summer School is open to a maximum of 25 participants, students or graduates in architecture (Bachelor or Master), Ph.D. students and architects less than thirty years old on July 30, 2016. These 25 participants will be selected through the evaluation of portfolios and curriculum vitae by a scientific committee.

For information and registration:

summerschool@comune.gassino.to.it

http://www.bit.ly/sewingasmalltown2016

 

Summer Institute in Urban Studies - Manchester 2016

We are delighted to announce the next Summer Institute in Urban Studies (SIUS 16). The event will take place at the University of Manchester from the evening of Sunday 26 June to the evening of 30 June 2016 and the application process is now open.

SIUS 16 provides an opportunity to investigate leading-edge theoretical and methodological questions, along with a range of associated career development issues, in the field of urban studies. The Institute will feature contributions from internationally renowned figures in urban studies, from inside and outside of Manchester.

Format

Open to doctoral students (usually post-fieldwork), postdoctoral researchers, and recently appointed faculty/lecturers (normally within three years of first continuing appointment), the Institute comprises an intensive, week-long programme of activities.  

It is designed to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the innovatory developments and enduring controversies in urban studies, as well as mentoring and support in the different aspects of the academic labour process - from applying for grants to designing courses, from editing books and special issues of journals to writing book proposals, and from publishing in journals to working at the academic/non-academic interface. It will consist of panels, lectures and reading groups with participants involved in shaping the final programme.  

Fees

The fee for the Institute is £275 GBP. This amount covers the organisational costs and includes accommodation for five nights (26 June to 1 July inclusive), a welcome reception (26 June), a walking tour, lunches, and an institute dinner (29 June).

Speakers

Confirmed speakers:

• Tim Bunnell (National University of Singapore)
• Andrew Jonas (University of Hull)
• Stephanie Pincetl (University of California Los Angeles)
• Fran Tonkiss (London School of Economics)

Speakers from the University of Manchester will include: Stefan Bouzarovski, Jonathan Darling, James Evans, Graham Haughton, Andrew Karvoven, William Kutz, Melanie Lombard, Ruth Lupton, Andrew Miles, Stephen Milner, Diana Mitlin, Chris Phillipson, James Scorer, Erik Swyngedouw, Kevin Ward, Helen Wilson, Cecilia Wong, and Albena Yaneva.

Scholarships

Funding from the University of Manchester allows us to offer three scholarships to those attending from countries classified as B or C by the ISA. Scholarships will cover the cost of travel and the £275 Institute registration fee. The scholarships will not cover daily subsistence expenses (meals, local transportation costs etc.).

View the list of eligible countries on the ISA webpage

Deadline

To apply for SIUS 16 download an application form via the link below. The deadline for applications is midnight (UK time) on Sunday 31 January 2016.

Apply for the Summer Institute in Urban Studies 2016

Further information

If you have any questions regarding the 2016 Summer Institute in Urban Studies please email cities@manchester with SIUS 16 in the subject field of your email. 

 

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