PhD Fellowship at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography

The Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) in Leipzig kindly invites applications from highly qualified and motivated individuals for

1 PhD fellowship

to commence as soon as possible. The IfL is a non-university research institute and member of the Leibniz association with currently around 80 employees. It is institutionally financed by the Free State of Saxony and the Federal Republic of Germany in the context of a common research funding agreement.

The fellowship includes

·            a monthly stipend of 1400 Euro granted for six months

·            access to the academic service infrastructure of the IfL (e.g. the Central Geographical Library, the Geography archives, cartographic and IT services, scientific seminars)

·            individual support in terms of exchange and discussions within the international research network of ira.urban

·            flexible working arrangements in Leipzig

The fellowship will be financed within the framework of the international comparative research project “Urban reconfigurations in post-Soviet space” (ira.urban). The project aims at analysing and explaining continuities and discontinuities in the reconfiguration of urban spaces in the light of traditional, reproduced Soviet and newly formed post-Soviet conditions, as well as of changing global economic and social orders. On the basis of transnational comparative case study research, the project focuses on the question to what extent urban development has become part of a socially negotiated adjustment processes, and a mirror of a comprehensive modernisation process of urban societies in the republics of the former Soviet Union.

We expect that the candidate supports the analyses of current urban systems in post-Soviet countries and regions, as well as relations within the systems, in order to understand how the post-Soviet urban systems are composed.

The research project focuses on the following issues:

-          In what way has a specific post-Soviet operating context emerged during the adaptation of the cities to the conditions of globalisation and internationalisation?

-          To which extent is the post-Soviet space composed by separate/independent urban networks or to which extent has the soviet hierarchical urban system  “survived” and influence the further transnational and national urban space production?

-          What specific and general types of urban development paths could be singled out within post-Soviet space?

Please submit your complete application package in English as one pdf file by e-mail to Yuliana Lazova (y_lazova@ifl-leipzig.de). The deadline for applications is March 7^th  2015.

Please enclose the following documents:

·            CV

·            letter of motivation/statement of purpose, including a short display of the links between your project/idea and ira.urban (2 pages max.)

·            exposé of your PhD project, including your work schedule and work progress   (3-4 pages max, excluding sources)

·            list of your publications and presentations, certificates, references

Should you have any further queries, please contact Isolde Brade (I_Brade@ifl-leipzig.de) or  Irina Slepukhina (I_Slepukhina@ifl-leipzig.de). We are looking forward to your application!

For further information about the project: www.ira-urban.de.

For further information about the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography: www.ifl-leipzig.de.

For further Information about the Leibniz Association: www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de

CfP: EURA 2015 Annual Conference

The European Urban Research Association and the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania cordially invite you to the 2015 EURA conference
  Transforming cities, transformative cities
Sibiu, Romania, 17-20 September 2015

Cities are dynamic places, where change is the result of both the innovation which inherently stems from the openness of cities and direct interventions. At the same time cities are involved in bringing about broader social, political, economic and environmental transformation. What happens in the cities has consequences in terms of global change. While cities themselves are constantly transforming, a debate over the contribution of urban areas to the transformation of societies, economies and political systems is on-going.
We approach cities focusing on the multiple dimensions of transformation within them and the transformations cities bring about in the wider society. The political, social, cultural,  educational, economic, spatial, and environmental ramifications of transformation within and generated by cities, means that they are seen to hold a position within modern industrialised states of being the drivers of economic and social change; but is this vision of the role played by cities an accurate one? The conference will focus on the European city, but it will not neglect cities elsewhere in the world or different types of urban areas and encourages submissions beyond Europe. Special attention is given to the transformation of the post-socialist cities in the past two decades as they provide an important locus of transformation and an interesting case study on the transformative power of cities.
  Conference tracks
Track 1. The spatiality of the city as a basis of transformation
Track 2. The democratic city: institutional reforms and policy processes Track 3. The just city: social and cultural transformation of the cities
Track 4.  The growing city and the green city: transforming urban economies and the challenges of global warming
Track 5.  The transformative city
Workshop for young scholars
More details are available on the conference website, at www.eura2015.org
  Submissions
Panel and paper proposals can be submitted via the on-line conference system available at www.eura2015.org
 Deadlines
Application with paper or panel proposals – January 31, 2015
Applicants are notified on the status of their proposal – March 15, 2015 Contact information www.eura2015.org
info@eura2015.org
 

AiR Helgeland - Escape from Urbanity

Escape from Urbanity - Residency in AiR Helgeland and at ZK/U Berlin

Image credit © Maike Zimmermann

OPEN CALL ALSTENØYA NORTHERN-NORWAY - BERLIN

Deadlines:

AiR Helgeland: February 20th, 2015
(residency 23 March - 26 April 2015)

AiR Berlin: March 15th, 2015
(residency 1 - 30 September 2015)

ZK/U is cooperating with AiR Helgeland to offer artists living in Berlin the chance to escape the urban trap by offering the chance to spend time in the wilderness of Alstenøya, Helgeland. The residency is a project initiated by ABH/ ArtBase Helgeland 66°N, Northern Norway. ABH/ AiR Helgeland-Berlin in cooperation with ZK/U, Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik in Berlin, offers two artists a 5 weeks residency in Alstenøya, Helgeland, Northern Norway week 13-17 (March/April) 2015.

Location: Stokkatunet / Alstenøya. Sandnessjøen, Stokka, is the nearest airport - Widerøe is the local operating airline.

How to apply and further information >

http://www.artbase-helgeland.no/#!air-helgeland/c665

 

AiR Berlin (at ZK/U, for Norwegian practitioners)

ABH/ ArtBase Helgeland 66°N inviterer gjennom prosjektet AIR Helgeland-Berlin kunstnere til å søke om 4 ukers opphold ved ZK/U Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik i Berlin. Opphold i 2015 er september.

How to apply and further information >

http://www.artbase-helgeland.no/#!air-helgeland/c665

AIR Helgeland-Berlin is initiated by ABH, financial and supporting partners for 2014 are:

Nordland fylkeskommune, Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter, Alstahaug kommune, Den norsk-tyske Willy-Brandt-stiftelsen, ZK/U - Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik

FYI: Workshop : Current Research on Post-Socialist Cities in East Central Europe

Transformations of Public Urban Spaces after 1989 – Agents, Practices and Strategies

Marburg, 3-4 March 2015

Venue: Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association, Vortragssaal,

Gisonenweg 5-7, 35037 Marburg

On 26 April 2011, the Budapest city council had accepted the changes proposed by Mayor István Tarlós about the renaming of 256 squares and streets. This was the third great wave of renaming since 1989. A similar use of the public space can be observed in other former socialist capitals as well. The various changes and processes can be registered in dealing with the urban public space: There are on the one hand, new forms of urban interventions, thanks to the internet (such as flash mobs, critical mass, graffiti, etc.) which, cross-linked with civil society activities, often point to new claims of various agents on urban public space. 

On the other hand, the control of urban public space became centralized and often derived from former socialist „trained“ understanding of public space. 

In this context, the workshop discusses the following questions: How does the understanding of urban public space developed in the post-socialist cities? Is the urban public space in post-socialist cities equated with that understanding of public, which exists in Western European cities? How did the urban public space of the socialist cities since 1989 change? At what level and in what forms and formats can the process of transformation of the former socialist countries be held and captured in the urban public space? Are there similarities in the transformation processes? 

More information:

http://www.herder-institut.de/aktuelles/detailansicht/calendar/event/termin/2015/03/03.html?tx_cal_controller[uid]=12376&cHash=3950cd2032d35d1bec2089577b0375b9

Call for Papers: Architecture and Resilience on a Human Scale

Deadline: 16 January 2015
 

The Sheffield School of Architecture is pleased to announce a major international conference which will focus on research, strategies and projects that are testing how we can build local resilience in preparation for major societal challenges, such as global warming, scarcity of resources, increase in extreme weather events and shifts in demographics. We are interested in discussing how architecture, urban practices and related fields can make a transformative contribution. The conference will be held on 10-12 September 2015 at The Edge, Sheffield.

Whilst we are based in a school of architecture, we are keen to hear from many disciplines and practitioners including those in architecture, urban design, engineering, planning, landscape and ecology, geography, social sciences and other fields related to spatial studies.

The call for abstract papers is now live. We invite the submission of 350 word abstracts by 16 January 2015 on a range of topics around science, technology, society, pedagogy, practice and local resilience.

Links:
Further information
 

FYI:EXERCISES IN URBAN RECONNAISSANCE-Workshop. April 2015. Berlin Urban Spree

http://urban-reconnaissance.oginoknauss.org/workshop/


http://www.oginoknauss.org/blog/

CfP: Street Art. Contours et détours

Target of the conference is to initiate an academic research on street art, involving specialists from all fields of the Humanities gathered with personalities from the public arena including gallerists, journalists and artists.Long term target is to create a new field of research on street art within the LIRCES, including yearly meetings as conferences and workshops. Therefore proposals from young researchers will be particularly welcomed. Since street art is wide, heterogeneous and quite polemic, we will be promoting discussion and dialogue between different disciplines and approaches. The papers will primarily focus on genetic aspects and genre, in order to circumscribe the phenomenon,on the following themes (the list is not exclusive):

- What is street art?
- Is street art part of contemporary art?
- In the two dimensions artworks, does street art comprise only iconic pieces or also written ones?

Geographic aspects
- Does street art have geographic borders?
- Is street art a worldwide movement?

Legal, economical and political aspects
- Does street art have to be illegal?
- Does street art have to be free?
- Does street art have to talk about politics or social issues?

Contexts: urban environment, public space
- Does street art have to be ephemeral?
- What is the public of street art?

The conference will be held on the 24th, 25th, 26th of September 2015. It will comprise academic presentations, non academic presentations and round table discussions.
Proposals (500 words maximum) for presentations of 30 minutes maximum, in French or in English, and a short presentation of the author should be sent to fusaro@unice.fr by 15 March 2015. Proposals will be examined by the scientific committee. You will be informed if your paper got accepted by the 30th of May 2015.
Papers will be published on Cahiers de narratologie n. 30, July 2016
http://legrandj.eu/article/street_art._contours_et_detours

Panel Search- deadline Jan. 20

The Planning and Governance of Quasi-public Space (deadline Jan. 20)

I am organizing a panel for the 16th SACRPH conference in Los Angeles in November 2015. This panel intends to focus on the planning, use, and governance of quasi-public spaces in urban areas. Examples might include, but are certainly not limited to, pedestrian walkways, tunnels, sidewalks, or public-private open spaces like parks and pedestrian malls. It is my hope that the papers might work together to ask questions about how planners, architects, corporations, and government officials have created exclusionary public spaces in cities, how citizens responded to or resisted those proscriptions, and how that conflict reshaped various aspects of the urban built environment.
The geographic focus of papers is open. I will be offering one that compares spaces in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California. Other Sunbelt-focused papers, other US examples, or those with international focuses would be welcomed. If interested, please send a paper abstract to kyle.k.shelton@rice.edu by January 20.

Kyle Shelton
Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Rice University