IfEU staff and PhDs involved with diverse topics in the scientific community
The scientific staff at the IfEU is calling for participation in international conferences and publications:
- Panel in the conference Urban Sociology – RN 37: Seeing Like a City / Seeing the City Through, amongst others organised by Dr. Lisa Vollmer (IfEU), deadline for abstract submissions: May 6, 2022
- Session in the conference CATference 2022: Cities After Transition – 9th International Urban Geographies of Post-Communist States, amongst others organised by Jun. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Daniela Zupan (IfEU) and PhD student Daria Volkova (IfEU), deadline for abstract submissions: May 15, 2022
- Session in the conference RSA Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – Bridging Old and New Divides: Global Dynamics & Regional Transformations, amongst others organised by PhD student Daria Volkova (IfEU), deadline for abstract submissions: May 16, 2022
- Panels in the conference 2nd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS Conference) | 1st RC33 Regional Conference Latin America: Brazil, amongst others organised by Dr.-Ing. Nicole Baron (Chair Urban Planning), PhD student Metadel Sileshi Belihu and PhD student Thalles Breda, deadline for abstract submissions: June 13, 2022
- Special issue in the scientific journal sub\urban – zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung, amongst others organised by Jun. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Daniela Zupan (IfEU), deadline for abstract submissions: June 30, 2022
Please find more details below (in chronological order):
Urban Sociology - RN 37 Midterm Conference: Seeing Like a City / Seeing the City Through
Call for the panel: Beyond the public/civic divide? How PCPs transform urban actors
Description:
In the last decade, European cities have witnessed the timid, but promising emergence of new forms of cooperation between state and civil society actors in different areas of urban infrastructural and service provision. In this cooperation, the involvement of civil society actors in decision-making processes and design processes goes beyond legally prescribed levels of participation. To capture this development, the terms public-civic partnership and public-commons partnership (PCP) have been suggested.
In this panel, we invite contributions focusing not only on the factors contributing to the formation of PCPs, but most importantly on their performative, transformative effects upon the actors involved. How are their practices, knowledge, public discourses and modes of organization being transformed in multifarious ways – precisely by partaking in PCPs and reacting to the specific challenges and opportunities emerging through such cooperation?
Thus, we are interested in presentations that go beyond the public/civic binary and pay attention to the proliferation of forms and instantiations of public administration and civic society, thus also providing more nuanced analyses of the multiple conflict lines and controversies arising in and around PCPs. Accordingly, we also welcome contributions discussing how different actors make cooperation under such circumstances possible and how limits to cooperation are negotiated. Finally, we also look forward proposals that address the theoretical question on how PCPs challenge the relationships between ‘seeing like a City’ and ‘seeing the City through’.
Panel organizers:
Laura Calbet Elias (University of Stuttgart, Germany, laura.calbet@si.uni- stuttgart.de)
Ignacio Farías (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, fariasig@hu-berlin.de)
Lisa Vollmer (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany, lisa.vollmer@uni-weimar.de)
When? October 5-7, 2022
Where? HU Berlin
Call for abstract submissions: May 6, 2022
You can contact the panel organizers for further info or the conference organising committee (rn37.esa[at]gmail.com).
CATference 2022: Cities After Transition – 9th International Urban Geographies of Post-Communist States Conference
Call for the session: Urbanism, politics and post-socialist space
Description:
Ideas on human-centred, high-quality urban spaces, on pedestrian and cycling-oriented infrastructures, or on participatory planning are on the rise across the post-socialist space. Efforts towards “humanizing” cities and making them more liveable have been documented in cities such as Sofia, Belgrade or Moscow. A variety of actors is involved in circulating these ideas: urbanist laboratories, policy makers and consultancies spread these policies; planners and architects adopt and implement them in different localities; blogger-urbanists and educational platforms raise awareness for these ideas beyond the expert communities; and citizen groups fighting against destructive practices of space-production refer to these concepts to legitimate alternative visions for urban development. By doing so, these and other actors contribute to the establishment of urbanism (“urbanistyka”, “urbanizm”, etc.) as a particular field of practice in many post-socialist contexts.
But while initially drawing on a similar set of ideas, their popularisation and politicization resulted in highly differentiated and context-specific ways of how the field of urbanism has been assembled across the post-socialist space. In some contexts, these policies go beyond the fostering of human-centred, high-quality designs, and signify the hope towards creating more just cities, the fight against corruption and increasing authoritarian tendencies. In others, critical urbanist initiatives have been co-opted by the authorities, who turned urbanism into a top-down, state-led project and instrumentalize it to strengthen an authoritarian regime. The post-socialist space also provides ample examples in which urbanist ideas and initiatives have been incorporated into neoliberal projects of city-making, thus primarily serving the further commercialization of space.
We invite scholars to present empirical studies and/or conceptual approaches to study the different trajectories of how the field of urbanism has been assembled across the post-socialist space. By thinking post-socialist cities through the phenomenon of urbanism we hope to shed light on the highly variegated politico-economic drivers and power arrangements that shape contemporary space production.
Session organizers:
Daniela Zupan (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany)
Daria Volkova (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany)
When? June, 27 - July 1, 2022
Where? Budapest, Hungary
Call for abstract submissions: May 15, 2022
If you are interested in joining, please send an abstract to Daniela Zupan (daniela.zupan[at]uni-weimar.de) and Daria Volkova (daria.volkova[at]uni-weimar.de). Please also upload your abstract to the CAT-ference website, indicating that you intend to present in this session.
RSA Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): Bridging Old and New Divides: Global Dynamics & Regional Transformations
Call for the session: Property regimes in and across Central and Eastern Europe?
Description:
In recent years, universalist discourses around property rights have been called into question. The idea of property as legitimate individual ownership of land and landed resources with clear boundaries and a secured bundle of rights fail to explain complex spatialities and forms of ownership beyond Western and Eurocentric experiences. The goal of the session is to transcend the familiar theorizations of property regimes by bringing into a conversation various experiences of land ownership from across the CEE countries. The latter do not only present a fruitful ground for exploration, but share (in part due to the embedded coloniality of the socialist period) long legacies of collectivist land ownership, informality, and fluid spatiality of property boundaries, built directly in opposition to the Western discourse on individual land ownership. The various socialist-era property regimes across the CEE countries are not merely “contrary” to private property, but constitute a separate phenomenon, emerged at the intersections between state-led practices of regulation, indigenous norms of ownership, and experiences of its racial dispossession. This session explores and addresses the issue through both, case study-based investigations and theoretical inquiries.
Session organizers:
Vera Smirnova (Kansas State University, USA)
Guénola Inizan (Université Lumière - Lyon 2, France)
Daria Volkova (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany)
When? September 14-17, 2022
Where? Online & in Leipzig, Germany
Call for abstract submissions: May 16, 2022
To join the session please send a proposed abstract or a set of ideas for the paper to https://lounge.regionalstudies.org/Meetings/Meeting?ID=350 . Feel free to reach out (verasmirnova[at]ksu.edu, guenola.inizan[at]univ-lyon2.fr, and daria.volkova[at]uni-weimar.de) with any questions, comments, and suggestions.
2nd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS Conference) | 1st RC33 Regional Conference Latin America: Brazil
Call for the panel: Methods and Methodologies of Multi-Sited and Multi-Scalar Research
Description:
A broad variety of social phenomena link and transcend a whole array of differently located sites as well as different spatial scales from local to global. Examples can be as different as migrant economies, housing markets, social policies, or social movements. What they have in common is, that we can identify linkages between sites and scales which are brought about in everyday practices just as much as through economic structures and political struggles. Critical methodologies oftentimes take the situatedness of social phenomena and of researchers as point of departure. While we acknowledge this perspective to be absolutely essential, we would like to invite contributions which address the situatedness of social phenomena, research, and researchers, but move towards the question of relational situatedness. We are interested in new approaches that deal with phenomena which cannot be understood without the integral linkages between sites and scales. How can these linkages be investigated, what methodologies and methods correspond with them? Multi-sited ethnography is a well-defined approach to study. We would like to move the attention towards the structural linkages between sites, phenomena, and research for a broad variety of fields, whether it be migration, work, social movements, local and global governance, urban or rural contexts. The session thereby seeks to gain insights into multi-sited and multi-scalar comparative research from a broad spectrum of topics, based on the shared conviction that space in terms of locations, sites, and scales and their interconnections matter in order to understand the phenomena at hand. We are looking forward to abstracts on qualitative and quantitative methods and methodologies.
Panel organizers:
Thalles Breda (Universidade Federal de São Carlos/Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Brazil, thallesvbreda[at]gmail.com)
Isabel Georges (IRD-UMR 201 Développement et sociétés/Universidade Federal de São Carlos, France, isabel.georges[at]ird.fr)
Johanna Hoerning (HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany, johanna.hoerning[at]hcu-hamburg.de)
When? September 8-10, 2022
Where? Online hosted by the University of São Paulo (Brazil)
Call for abstract submissions: June 13, 2022
Please find more information on the SMUS Brazil 2022 Conference via: gcsmus.org/conferences/brazil/
2nd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS Conference) | 1st RC33 Regional Conference Latin America: Brazil
Call for the panel: Hybrid Mapping and Critical Cartography as Research Methodologies for Cities
Description:
This panel brings together urban researchers and educators who have applied hybrid mapping or critical cartography as research tools in cities of the world but mainly in the global south. This panel aims to explore innovative mapping techniques (between quantitative, qualitative, and mixed) as ways of collecting, visualizing, and analyzing data. Moreover, it combines inter-and transdisciplinary perspectives, as well as procedural elements into spatial displays. Hybridity as a concept has proliferated in urban studies in various ways, such as the cyborg, (post-)colonial complexities, and the human-nature relationship. In its widest sense, hybridity refers to the multifarious entanglements of human and non-human actors, materialities, and cultural meanings in the contemporary city. Hybridity challenges conventional polarizations, such as informal/formal, public/private, nature/culture, rural/ urban, and technology/human. In spatial research methodology, hybridity has recently appeared as a means to expand critical mapping by “designerly ways of knowing”. This effort aims to combine the self-reflective and process-oriented procedures of critical mapping with aspects of affect and emotion, as well as the creativity involved in doing research. Through process-orientation, self-reflection, and design approaches, hybrid mapping can integrate positionality, “southern” perspectives, and indigenous knowledge systems into critical urban research. More importantly, it incorporates these different types of data sets into spatial displays. This approach, in a way, also addresses the contextuality of urban knowledge. The inter-and transdisciplinary nature also allows for flexibility and new knowledge and method production. By doing so, hybrid mapping can potentially contribute to provincializing critical urban research and generating valuable new insights into cities. This session invites all contributors interested in sharing and discussing socio-spatial research topics and teaching that employs or considers hybrid mapping or critical cartography in cities, mainly of the global south. Proposals may include data collection and analysis experiences, critical reflections of these methods, as well as on the kinds of outputs these methods generate.
Panel organizers:
Nicole Baron (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany, nicole.baron@uni-weimar.de)
Metadel Sileshi Belihu (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Ethiopia, m.belihu@uni-weimar.de)
When? September 8-10, 2022
Where? Online hosted by the University of São Paulo (Brazil)
Call for abstract submissions: June 13, 2022
Please find more information on the SMUS Brazil 2022 Conference via: gcsmus.org/conferences/brazil/
sub\urban: zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung
Call for papers: Special issue „Autoritärer Urbanismus“
Description (in GER):
Angesichts der Zunahme autoritärer Tendenzen sowohl global als auch innerhalb Europas gewinnt die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Zusammenwirken von Autoritarismus und Stadt in der interdisziplinären und internationalen Stadtforschung seit einigen Jahren an Bedeutung. Autoritärer Urbanismus beschreibt ein zeitlich und räumlich differenziertes Phänomen: Die Materialisierungen und Produktionsbedingungen staatssozialistischer, faschistischer und nationalsozialistischer Stadtentwicklung, die mittlerweile global dokumentierte Aushebelung demokratischer Entscheidungsprozesse durch neoliberale Governance-Arrangements, Stadtdiskurse und Austeriätsmaßnahmen, die Verbreitung „illiberaler“ städtischer Politiken oder die Freilegung rechtspopulistischer städtischer Geographien in den USA und Zentraleuropa sind nur wenige Beispiele im Forschungsfeld zu autoritärem Urbanismus.
Anfangs beschäftigte sich vor allem die historische Forschung mit dem Thema, indem sie städtische Phänomene in autoritären und totalitären Regimen untersuchte. In den vergangenen Jahren kann jedoch ein Wandel beobachtet werden. Neuere Ansätze beziehen sich vermehrt auf praxistheoretische Perspektiven und betonen das gleichzeitige Nebeneinander autoritärer und demokratischer Praktiken in unterschiedlichen Regimetypen. Mit einer Rekonzeptualisierung von Autoritarismus weg von der nationalen Ebene hin zur Untersuchung städtischer Praktiken werden innerhalb des Forschungsfeldes zu autoritärem Urbanismus zunehmend auch autoritäre Entwicklungen in Demokratien beschrieben. So wird beispielsweise in Debatten zu autoritärem Neoliberalismus, Postdemokratie und Postpolitik analysiert, wie Stadtentwicklung in liberal-demokratischen Kontexten von scheinbar technischen, apolitischen Elementen durchdrungen wird, die ihrerseits autoritären Tendenzen Vorschub leisten. Wurde dieser Ansatz zunächst zur Erklärung von Phänomenen in westeuropäischen und US-amerikanischen Städten entwickelt, hat er in den vergangenen Jahren weit darüber hinaus Verbreitung gefunden. Doch auch umgekehrt stellen Beobachtungen gängige Annahmen in Frage: Zwar sind Städte in autoritären Regimen weiterhin von Entwicklungen geprägt, die üblicherweise mit repressiver Machtausübung verbunden sind. Gleichzeitig boomen vielerorts – wie etwa in China und Russland – partizipative Formen der Stadtplanung, also Praktiken, die gemeinhin als demokratiefördernd verstanden werden. Aus einer solchen Perspektive scheinen die Grenzen zwischen Demokratien und Autokratien zunehmend uneindeutiger zu werden. Diese Parallelen, Verschiebungen und Widersprüchlichkeiten werfen neue Fragen für die Forschung zu autoritärem Urbanismus auf, die in unserem Themenheft diskutiert werden sollen. Dafür möchten wir verschiedene Forschungsstränge versammeln und in Dialog miteinander bringen.
Die Zeitschrift sub\urban freut sich sowohl über konzeptionell-theoretische Beiträge zum Themenfeld, z. B. zu den Definitionen von autoritärem Urbanismus und seiner Abgrenzung und Wechselwirkung mit illiberalen und rechtspopulistischen Praktiken; zu den konkurrierenden Definitionsversuchen in den verschiedenen Disziplinen der aktuellen Stadtforschung; zur Frage, welche neuen Ein- und Ausschlüsse eine praxistheoretische Konzeptualisierung von autoritärem Urbanismus hervorbringt, als auch über empirische Studien zu den oben genannten Themenfeldern. Dezidiert lädt das Redaktionsteam auch Beiträge ein, die sich mit den methodischen Herausforderungen der Erforschung von autoritärem Urbanismus befassen, z. B. zu Einschränkungen im Feldzugang und geeigneten Untersuchungsinstrumenten; zum Umgang mit sich dynamisch verändernden Bedingungen etc. Es können Vorschläge zu Aufsätzen ebenso wie zu Debatten- und Magazinbeiträgen oder Rezensionen eingereicht werden.
Special issue organizer:
Daniela Zupan (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany)
Call for abstract submissions: June 30, 2022
If you are interested in joining, please send an abstract as a word-file to info@zeitschrift-suburban.de.