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