RC21 CONFERENCE 2013
Berlin (Germany), 29-31 August 2013
Humboldt-University Berlin, Institute for Social Science, Dept. for Urban and Regional Sociology
Session 7: New urban centralities: towards a global urban studies
Recent empirical and theoretical work is quickly taking us past the era when cities in the global South were either ignored or interpreted through analytical lenses produced by research on very different cities in the North, upending much of the conventional thinking about cities and global urbanism in the process. We see in these recent shifts the emergence of a truly global urban studies, one that is firmly rooted in a changing understanding of what constitutes urban centrality and the relationships between cities on a global scale.
This proposed session aims to bring together cutting edge research that contributes to mapping the social, spatial and political terrain of new urban centralities. It does so through a focus on identifying patterns and contrasts in cities of the South, organized into three overarching themes: first, emergent spatial forms within cities, including transformations of built environments and infrastructure, distributions of populations, and land use change; second, relations between social groups within cities, forms of contestation and cooperation, and the relationship of these to spatial forms; and, finally, the political mobilizations arising from and feeding into the changes cities are experiencing. Transformations of social and spatial environments create a shifting, fragmented, and unstable terrain that political actors must navigate. The city presents both challenges and opportunities for political action and for the creation of new political spaces, new polities, and new
political subjects-citizens.
We seek empirically grounded but theoretically informed papers that address these themes individually and that will further the development of a global urban studies drawn from research into new forms and understandings of centrality. Our hope is to contribute to ongoing efforts by scholars, practitioners, and urban residents themselves to make cities centers of political empowerment and democratic innovation.
Session Organizers
Prof. Tony Roshan Samara, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, T: +1.917.270.9255, E: tsamara@gmu.edu
Prof. Xuefei Ren, Assistant Professor, Sociology & Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, T: +1. 517.355.6644, E: renxuefe@msu.edu
http://www.rc21.org/
Berlin (Germany), 29-31 August 2013
Humboldt-University Berlin, Institute for Social Science, Dept. for Urban and Regional Sociology
Session 7: New urban centralities: towards a global urban studies
Recent empirical and theoretical work is quickly taking us past the era when cities in the global South were either ignored or interpreted through analytical lenses produced by research on very different cities in the North, upending much of the conventional thinking about cities and global urbanism in the process. We see in these recent shifts the emergence of a truly global urban studies, one that is firmly rooted in a changing understanding of what constitutes urban centrality and the relationships between cities on a global scale.
This proposed session aims to bring together cutting edge research that contributes to mapping the social, spatial and political terrain of new urban centralities. It does so through a focus on identifying patterns and contrasts in cities of the South, organized into three overarching themes: first, emergent spatial forms within cities, including transformations of built environments and infrastructure, distributions of populations, and land use change; second, relations between social groups within cities, forms of contestation and cooperation, and the relationship of these to spatial forms; and, finally, the political mobilizations arising from and feeding into the changes cities are experiencing. Transformations of social and spatial environments create a shifting, fragmented, and unstable terrain that political actors must navigate. The city presents both challenges and opportunities for political action and for the creation of new political spaces, new polities, and new
political subjects-citizens.
We seek empirically grounded but theoretically informed papers that address these themes individually and that will further the development of a global urban studies drawn from research into new forms and understandings of centrality. Our hope is to contribute to ongoing efforts by scholars, practitioners, and urban residents themselves to make cities centers of political empowerment and democratic innovation.
Session Organizers
Prof. Tony Roshan Samara, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, T: +1.917.270.9255, E: tsamara@gmu.edu
Prof. Xuefei Ren, Assistant Professor, Sociology & Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, T: +1. 517.355.6644, E: renxuefe@msu.edu
http://www.rc21.org/
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