Where:
UCL
Main Campus: Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT
Closest
tube: Euston Square, but also walking distance from Euston, Warren
Street, King’s Cross-St.Pancras.
For
further location information, visit:
http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-thedepartment/contacts-location
Food/Drinks:
Lunch
and coffee/tea breaks are catered for on both days at Mac II Room,
Pearson Building. On Monday evening (30th March) we have booked the
upstairs of The Jeremy Bentham (31
University St, Euston, London, WC1E 6JL)
where we can go for drinks (optional). This will be followed by
dinner (optional)
at Ciao Bella (86-90 Lamb's Conduit St, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3LZ).
Presentation
Format:
All
attendees will present on the first day within their track. Time
allocated for each presenter is 40mins, which should be roughly
divided into 20mins of presentation and 20mins for discussion. A
projector and laptop will be available in each room. You can bring
your presentation, if any, on a USB stick or email it to your track
chair in advance.
The
nature of this conference is that of a workshop, where participants
present works in progress and are able to propose ideas not fully
formed. It is expected that each participant will collaborate
reciprocally, providing critical yet supportive feedback and
discussion around other participants’ work. There is no need to
submit any material in written form.
Day 1: Monday 30th
March
9.30–10.00:
Welcome, coffee, introductions (Pearson Building G07)
10.00-17.40:
Track presentation sessions
17.40:
Drinks at The
Jeremy Bentham
(optional)
20.00:
Dinner at Ciao
Bella (optional)
Track presentation
sessions
Track
1: Urban transitions towards sustainability: Visions and realities
(PB G07)
10:00 – 10:40: The
discursive dimension of sustainable building transitions
Bérénice Preller, Université du
Luxembourg
10:40 – 11:20: Community
Currencies: A response to dire economic circumstances, or promoters
of urban sustainable development?
Phedeas Stephanides, University
of East Anglia
11:20 –
11:40: COFFEE/TEA
11:40 – 12:20: Re-municipalisation
of energy utilities in Germany
Jonas Torrens, SPRU University
of Sussex
12:20 – 13:00: The
socio-spatial politics of sustainable transitions: Linking
sustainability initiatives to urban regeneration and gentrification
Irene
Håkansson, Kings College London
13:00 –
14:00: LUNCH
14:00 – 14:40: Discourses,
images and imaginaries; towards a post-car world?
Farzaneh
Bahrami, Ecole
polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
14:40 – 15:20: Sustainable mobility in the city – a
study of Basel, Göttingen and Odense
Paul Fenton, Linköping University
15:20 – 16:00: Urban cycling in
transition – A case study of London
Fanny Paschek, University of
Greenwich
16:00 – 16:20: COFFEE/TEA
16:20 – 17:00: Alternative
Food Networks, the agro-food system and relocalization:
sociotechnical perspectives in Ile-de-France
Raphaël
Stephens, l’Institut national de la recherche agronomique
17:00 –
17:40: Discussion:
Chaired
by Paul Fenton and Fanny Paschek
Track
2: Presenting the past in the contemporary city
Session
A (PB 304)
10.00-10.40: Markets
in Brixton in uncertain times
Sam
Barton, Department of Geography, University College London
10.40-11.20:
Thoughts on local identity in post-war Liverpool
David Kmiot, School of Histories, Languages and
Cultures, University of Liverpool
11.20-11.40:
COFFEE/TEA
11.40-12.20: Green Peace? Multicultural Sarajevo,
‘greening’, and post-war urban processes
Kristen
Hartmann, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University
College London
12.20-13.00: Making sense of ruins: urban
reconstruction and coming to terms with the past in Belgrade and
Sarajevo
Gruia Bǎdescu,
Centre for Urban Conflicts Research, University of Cambridge
13.00-14.00:
LUNCH
14.00-14.40:
Navigating through the urban memoryscape: mobility practices and
creation of places of memory in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Nikolaos
Olma, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University
of Copenhagen
14.40-15.20:
Urban Berlin: memories of a city
Laura Bowie, School of
Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh
15.20-16.00:
Mobilizing heritage in post-war Beirut
Katarzyna Puzon, Anthropology,
University College London/Polish Academy of Sciences
16.00-16.20:
COFFEE/TEA
16.20-17.00:
Discussion:
Chaired
by Sam Barton
Session B (PB 305)
10.00-10.40: Notes
on Skopje: hegemonic and speculative urban narratives
Ivana
Sidzimovska, Faculty of Design, Bauhaus University Weimar
10.40-11.20: What
is acoustic heritage? Counter-mapping sound maps and sonic memories
Paul
Tourle, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
11.20-11.40:
COFFEE/TEA
11.40-12.20: Tracks
of experience: visiting routes in sub-urban space
Maximi Papathanasiou, Department of Architecture and
Urban Planning, Ghent University
12.20-13.00: Imagining
the landscapes of the First World War in modern Britain
Amanda
Phipps, Department of History, University of Exeter
13.00-14.00:
LUNCH
14.00-14.40: Arts
of memory, landscapes of memory: remembrance and ruination in
experimental art on Beijing’s urban fringe
Murray
Mckenzie, Department of Geography, University College London
14.40-15.20:
‘Get to they labours at the mills and leave me to my wrath’:
Derek Jarman, urban cultural memory and dereliction
Alexandra
Parsons, Department of English, University College London
15.20-16.00: Non-locality,
the valise and the exhibition
Jean
Hui Ng, History of Art, University of Oxford
16.00-16.20:
COFFEE/TEA
16.20-17.00: Italo
Calvino’s Invisible Cities:
memories, urban perceptions and mind
Francesco Migliaccio, Dipartimento
di Studi Umanistici, Università di Torino
17.00-17.40:
Discussion:
Chaired
by Murray Mckenzie
Track 3: Conceptualizing the urban through difference
in comparative studies (PB G03)
10.00-10.40: Tehran as a Scene of modernity: The
urbanization and modernization of Tehran since mid-19th
century until today
Azadeh Mashayekhi, Faculty of Architecture, Spatial
Planning and Strategies, Delft University of Technology
10.40-11.20: Guwahati:
A melting pot of disaster risks in rural-urban divide
Sneha
Krishnan, Civil, Geomatic and Environmental Engineering, University
College London
11.20-11.40: COFFEE/TEA
11.40-12.20: Towards Sustainable Streets - Transforming
Processes and Space in New York and Berlin
Annika Levels, Centre for Metropolitan Studies, TU
Berlin
12.20-13.00: International
dreams, African realities: A comparison of new towns in Johannesburg
and Dar es Salaam
Frances Brill, Department of Geography, University
College London
13.00-14.00: LUNCH
14.00-14.40: Creative Cities Beyond Compare?: Making the
case for a comparative perspective in urban cultural policy and
planning
Kerri Arthurs, School of Cultural Studies and
Humanities - Leeds Beckett University
14.40-15.20: Assembling
Cities: A situated inquiry into the modes of comparison
Julio Da Cruz Paulos, CASE (Research Centre on
Architecture, Society and the Built Environment), ETH Zurich
15.20-16.00: Disassembling
connections: Placing local political actors in their telling of slum
upgrading histories in São Paulo and Durban
Camila Pereira Saraiva, IPPUR (Institute for Urban
and Regional Research and Planning) - UFRJ / Department of Geography,
University College London
16.00-16.20: COFFEE/TEA
16.20-17.00: Discussion
Chaired by Frances Brill and Camila Saraiva
Tract
4: Cosmopolitanism’s referential dissonance (PB 301)
10:00-10.40: Modernity,
Representation and Everyday Life in “the biggest city you've never
heard of”
Asa Roast, Geography, University of
Leeds
10.40-11.20: From defence of the
border to ‘Opening up the West’: making the urban in rural Inner
Mongolia, China
Thomas White, Anthropology, University of Cambridge
11.20-11.40:
COFFEE/TEA
11.40-12.20: Tajik
Lost Cities, Mute Dreams and Deep Play
Aeron O’Connor, Anthropology,
University College London
12.20-13.00: Ageing and the City:
Urban Resilience and Socio-Spatial Marginalisation of the Elderly in
East London
Theodora Bowering, Architecture, University of
Cambridge
13:00-14:40: LUNCH
14:40-15:20: Brussels
Quartier Midi: Enacting Transnationalism and Debating Cosmopolitanism
Katherine Prater, Architecture &
Urban Studies, University of Cambridge
15.20-16.00: British
Deaf Diaspora: musings from the field on roadblocks,
(dis)integration, and interconnections
Kelly
Robinson, Anthropology, University College London
16.00-16.20: COFFEE/TEA
16.20-17.00: Discussion
Chaired by Aeron O’Connor
Track 5: Class and Urbanisation (PB 116)
10.00-10.40: Fractured
mobility: SkyTrain and the politics of the middle class in Bangkok
Petchpilai Lattanan, Department of Geography,
University College London
10.40-11.20: The Luxury – Places Development
Li Fang, Urban Studies, University Paris – Est
11.20-11.40: COFFEE/TEA
11.40-12.20: An Ethnographic Study of the Social life of
Shennan Road, Shenzhen, China Ximin Zhou,
Department of Anthropology, University of Manchester
12.20-13.00: Everyday Walking: Unequal Lived Experience
Soledad A. Martinez Rodriguez, Department of
Geography, UCL
13.00-14.00: LUNCH
14.00-14.40: Critical Urban Approaches: Social Justice
and the Right to the City
Volgaridou Eva, Department of Architecture, D.U,Th,
Greece
14.40-15.20: Struggle with Leisure Class: Tourism and
Gentrification
Agustin Cocola Gant, School of Planning and
Geography, University of Cardiff
15.20-16.00: Young South Europeans Heading North: Class
– specific Patterns of Migration in Contemporary Berlin
Stefania Animento, Department of Sociology and Social
Research, Urban and Local European Studies, University of Milan –
Bicocca
16.00-16.20: COFFEE/TEA
16.20-17.00: Discussion
Chaired by Petchpilai Lattanan
Day 2 – Tuesday 31st
March
9.30-9.45: COFFEE/TEA
9.45‐10.30: Review
of Day 1 (PB G07)
10.30‐11.30: Keynote
(PB G07)
In
pursuit of more emancipatory forms of urban planning: motivations and
experiences of participatory and action research in London
Professor
Michael Edwards Bartlett School of Planning, UCL and Myfanwy Taylor,
PhD candidate, Geography, UCL
In
this talk, we discuss our motivations and experiences in doing
participatory work in pursuit of more emancipatory forms of urban
planning in London. In different ways, our work aims to (i) help
unpack (de-mystify) the dominant discourse of neoliberal urban
triumphalism; (ii) assist in the everyday formation and operations of
relevant social movements; and (iii) begin to develop alternative
narratives and proposals for cities and city planning. Our talk draws
on Michael’s 30+ years experience in supporting significant urban
struggles in London, including Covent Garden, Tolmers Square and
Kings Cross, as well as our more recent collaboration with the Just
Space Economy and Planning group.
11.30-11.45: COFFEE/TEA
11.45‐13.15: Breakout
sessions (1)
Creating
urban stories (PB G07)
Dr
Amita Murray, Leverhulme Writer-in-Residence, Human Geography, UCL
Amita
writes stories about people and places. She has published in The
Front View, Writing Disorder, Brand, Inkspill, and others.
In
this writing workshop, we will experiment with writing about the
urban. The best, most creative non-fiction uses techniques of story
telling to create an atmosphere, to evoke an experience, and to help
the reader visualize. How can academics that study the urban utilize
these techniques in their writing? How can you as an academic develop
a story that is based on “truth” and the “factual,” but tell
it in a way that your reader is pulled into your narrative and
seduced by it? In this workshop, we will think of how to write about
the urban, develop a voice, and experiment with storytelling
techniques. We will also reflect on how writing is a methodology,
rather than just a retelling. Come prepared to write!
Thinking
through how to use Actor-Network Theory to study neighbourhood
commercial centres (PB 304)Thinking
through how to use Actor-Network Theory to study neighbourhood
commercial centre
Dr.
Yvonne Rydin, Bartlett School of Planning, UCL
The
material turn in the social sciences is gaining considerable
traction. Actor-Network Theory is in the vanguard of this ‘turn’
but there are other related approaches from socio-technical studies
as well as other disciplines. The methodological implications of this
‘turn’ often trouble researchers with the maxim of ‘follow the
actor/actant’ not providing sufficient guidance. This session will
consider how to use an ANT-inspired approach to investigate a
particular research problematic: the sustainability of local
commercial centres. Which elements of ANT give the greatest insight
into the sustainability of these neighbourhood shopping/services
streets? How can a methodology be operationalised to provide data for
such an analysis? Following a short presentation, the group is asked
to consider this issue.
Participants
should think about a local/small shopping street that they know
(perhaps near where they live) and think about how they would
research its sustainability (broadly understood) taking the
materiality of the street and its built environment into account.
Have a coffee or tea in a local café (if there is one), watch how
people use the street and buildings and think this problem over!
Ethnography
and Urban Theory (PB 305)
Dr.
Austin Zeiderman, Department of Geography and Environment, London
School of Economics
This
breakout session will create a productive tension between
ethnography and urban theory. It is intended for researchers
committed to the ethnographic method who also seek to make
contributions to conceptual debates in urban studies. We will
discuss how, as ethnographers, we engage with concepts from urban
theory, and what we hope to achieve (conceptually) with our
fieldwork. Our goal will be to push towards an empirically grounded,
theoretically inspired approach to research that refuses both
narrow particularism and inflated universalism. We will explore
ethnography as a provocation to question our analytical certainties.
Participants should come prepared to briefly present their research
topics and to discuss the concepts in urban theory that inform
them.
The
following short reading is recommended: Mahmood, Saba. 2005.
Selections from “The Subject of Freedom” (pp. 1-17, 36-39). In
Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and The Feminist Subject.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
13.15-14.15: LUNCH
14.15-15.45:
Breakout sessions (2)
Doing
Interviews (PB G07)
Dr.
Regan Koch, Department of Geography, UCL
Among the most common methods used
in qualitative research, interviews provide a readily intelligible
and effective way of finding things out. Yet anyone deciding to put
interviews at the centre of their research needs to think carefully
about some difficult issues, not least questions of epistemology,
ethics and value. This session will provide an introductory focus on
these topics, and cover a range of practical matters that need to be
considered. It will also explore different ways that interviews can
be used in the research process.
Using
photography to examine the ‘hidden’ within the contemporary city
(PB 304)
Max
Colson, Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence, UCL Urban Laboratory
Beginning
his photographic career as a photojournalist documenting different
subcultures in London, Max now uses a performative mode of
photography to blur the lines between fact and fiction in his
investigations of the covert infrastructure of security and
surveillance in the contemporary UK city.
This
workshop will discuss theoretical, methodological and visual
photographic approaches used to examine hidden areas of the city.
Please ensure that you bring any thoughts stemming from your own
photographic research with you to this session.
Walking spaces: Art, mobility
and urban research
(PB
305)
Dr
David Pinder, Department of Geography, Queen Mary University of
London
David Pinder is an urban and
cultural geographer who has written extensively on utopian thinking
and the urban aspects of twentieth century modernist and avant-garde
practices in Europe. Drawing on the situationists and more
contemporary artists, he has also experimented with the possibilities
for walking and exploration as tools for urban research, thinking and
interventions. The political implications of mobility constitute an
enduring thematic concern in this work.
This session is concerned with
ways of researching the urban on foot. Drawing on work in arts
practice and performance as well as urban studies, it considers
walking as a means of exploring, sensing and knowing urban spaces.
Recent interest in these themes are set in their historical and
geographical contexts, to consider their varied paths and some of the
stakes involved. Selected cases are then considered, with particular
interest centring on the potential of walking practices to address
the pasts of places and to engage with the haunted qualities of the
urban. Participants will be encouraged to think about the
implications of the themes for their own research and for their own
ways of sensing and engaging with the urban, whether on foot or
through other mobile means.
Dr
David Pinder (QMUL Geography)Mobility and
art-based methods (title TBA)
David
Pinder is an urban and cultural geographer who has written
extensively on utopian thinking and the urban aspects of twentieth
century modernist and avant-garde practices in Europe. Drawing on the
Situationists and others, he has experimented with the possibilities
for walking and exploration as tools for urban research, thinking and
interventions. The political implications of mobility constitute an
enduring thematic concern in this work.
16.00‐17.00:
WRAP UP AND GOODBYES
