[Kaupunkitutkimus] VL: AAG 2016 - last call - abstract deadline 29.10.

[Ruoppila Sampo]

-----Alkuperäinen viesti-----
Lähettäjä: panu at livady.fi [mailto:panu at livady.fi] 
Lähetetty: 28. lokakuuta 2015 13:41
Vastaanottaja: Ruoppila Sampo
Kopio: hille.koskela at utu.fi
Aihe: AAG 2016 - last call - abstract deadline 29.10.

Dear all,
me and my colleague Georgiana Varna would like to invite contributions to an engaging session at the AAG. Apologies for very late notice.

We would like to focus on emerging urbanities and discuss issues related to public space. Especially we want to reflect if and how public space (or urban commons) can play a key role in reshaping contemporary cities for the creation of better future environments.

If you re working on urban public space and you are focusing on future cities, please send a short abstract of up to 250 words to:

georgiana.varna at glasgow.ac.uk
before 29th October 2015.

We will notify contributors of acceptance before 7th November. All accepted contributors will then need to register for the AAG conference at aag.org.

The full call is as follows:

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Emerging Urbanities: Public Space in the Future City AAG Annual Meeting, San Francisco 29 March - 2 April 2016

Organisers:
Georgiana Varna  (University of Glasgow) Panu Lehtovuori  (Tampere University of Technology)

The last decade has witnessed a rich and constructive discussion about public space and public sphere. In contemporary cities, traditional forms of public urban space are often seen to be in decline. Since early 1990s, scholars from numerous disciplines and a variety of starting points have provided critical interpretations and explanations of these processes: the 'homogenization', 'domestication', 'purification', 'militarisation', or even 'end' of public urban space, and the 'erosion of spatial justice'
(e.g. Davis 1990; Sorkin 1992; Flusty 1994; Mitchell 2003). Instead of being democratic and open, urban space has become increasingly regulated in many city (re)development schemes. 'Privatization' and 'commercialization' of public urban space have led to expanding control in forms of surveillance and policing (Koskela 2003; Varna 2014). The 'exclusionary urge' which often reflects the fears about population regarded as different, has been demonstrated in the way that 'groups and individuals whose lifestyles are viewed as incompatible with so called "normal" ways of behaving have had their access to urban space limited'
(Hubbard 2000: 248).

However, both urban scholars and activists have recently acknowledged that the generalising notions of decline and loss do not do justice for the multi-faceted and rapidly changing terrain of contemporary urban practices. Nuanced concepts and efficient tools of analysis have been found. Events, temporary appropriations, conceptual hi-jackings, systematic resistance or simply the messy ordinariness of urban life provide new inventive interpretations of public urban space. This emergent urbanity has been discussed in many terms. Resisting the simple dualism of inclusion and exclusion reveals the productive contestation in 'regimes of publicity', which are rooted in property rights, but not reducible to them (Staeheli and Mitchell 2008). Likewise, the notion of 'right to the city'
has been creatively re-examined (Mitchell 2003), while the term 'insurgent public space' shows the momentary ruptures in instrumental urban processes and the struggles that make difference possible (Hou 2010). In the urban planning discourse, alternative practices and their socio-spatial contexts have been studied as 'DIY urbanism' (Iveson 2013), 'temporary urbanism'
(Bishop & Williams 2012) and 'tactical urbanism' (Lydon & al. 2012).
We therefore invite contributions that consider inventive contemporary uses and interpretations of urban public space. We welcome papers that reflect how urban public space (shared space/common space) can shape contemporary urbanism and become prominent in building better future cities (more just, more sustainable, better designed). We are interested both in theoretical reflections and/or empirical work not only from urban geography but also complementary fields such as architecture, urban design urban, urban planning, management and transport studies, urban economics etc. We aim to create either an edited journal special issue or lay the foundations for a multi-disciplinary, multi-authored book.

Dr Georgiana Varna,
Scottish Cities Knowledge Center, University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School, Main Building Glasgow G12 8QQ Georgiana.Varna at glasgow.ac.uk http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/business/staff/georgianavarna/

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Yours
Panu


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Panu Lehtovuori, professori, arkkitehti SAFA Arkkitehtitoimisto Livady Oy Hämeentie 4 C 11
FI-00530 Helsinki
Puh. +358-9-3487 0501
GSM +358-50-525 0252
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