RESOURCEFUL CITIES

RESOURCEFUL CITIES
Berlin (Germany), 29-31 August 2013
Humboldt-University Berlin, Institute for Social Science, Dept. for Urban and Regional Sociology
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Boundaries and (B)orders – Theorizing the City through its Confinements and Connections

Cities are sites of difference, where the prevalence of multiple forms of confining and connecting those differences within the city-space is longstanding. These practices lead to the establishment of boundaries and (b)orders that are dynamic and contested. Boundaries and (b)orders – in imaginary or/and concrete forms – serve various functions: they may exercise explicit forms of domination, discrimination and exclusion, but also reflect strategies of distinction, protection and inclusion. At the same time, boundaries and (b)orders not only divide urban spaces, but equally define and enable (alternative) linkages between distinct spaces. Hence, we suggest this session as an exercise of papers aimed at theorizing concrete experiences and practices of (b)ordering in contemporary cities.

The aim of the session is to focus on how (b)orders and boundaries help us to understand contemporary forms of urban relations. We seek to bridge urban theory with a broad range of concrete experiences from cities across the world that reflects the plural forms (b)orders and boundaries assume in today’s urban spaces. Therefore, we ask for theoretical approaches towards the relevance and significance of the concrete practices of drawing, enacting and contesting existing forms of (b)orders and boundaries. Committed to this theoretical aim, we invite proposals that address one or more of the following questions starting from various empirical experiences:

•         What functions do (b)orders and boundaries relate to and what stories do they tell us about the social relations that define our cities?
•         How are boundaries and demarcations drawn, enacted, resisted and contested, and by whom?
•         Are concrete and symbolic forms of bordering spaces within the city always coincident? If (not) so, with what kind of effects?

Session Organizers
Johanna Hoerning, Department of Sociology, TU Berlin, T: +49- (0)30-314- 24794, E: johanna.hoerning@tu-berlin.de
Dr. Marit Rosol, Department of Human Geography, Goethe-University Frankfurt, T: +49-(0)69-798-28472, E:rosol@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Dr. Daniela Vicherat Mattar, Leiden University College, The Hague, T: +31 (0)708009537 E:d.a.vicherat.mattar@luc.leidenuniv.nl

http://www.rc21.org/conferences/berlin2013/4.php