Monday, May 21, 2007

TOC for the journal _City_

City analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, Volume 11 Issue 1 2007
ISSN: 1470-3629 (electronic) 1360-4813 (paper)
Publication Frequency: 3 issues per year
Subjects: Social Geography; Urban & Social Geography; Urban Cultures; Urban Policy; Urban Sociology; Urban Studies;
Publisher: Routledge

Selected:
Editorials


Editorial
2 - 3
Author: Bob Catterall
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701311776
Original Articles


Cities in the bombsight, cities from below: relevance of critical theory today
Introduction
4 - 6
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701200672

Philosophy in the streets
Walking the city with Engels and de Certeau
7 - 20
Author: Sharon M. Meagher
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701200722

Neo-liberalism on crack
Cities under siege in Iraq
21 - 69
Author: Michael Schwartz
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701200730

Squatters and the cities of tomorrow
71 - 80
Author: Robert Neuwirth
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701200797

Critical theory and Katrina
Disaster, spectacle and immanent critique
81 - 99
Author: Kevin Fox Gotham
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701200870

Re-thinking the urban social
100 - 114
Author: Ash Amin
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701200961

Debates
Urbanization in the developing world and the acutely tenure insecure
115 - 120
Author: Jon D. Unruh
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701200987
Book Reviews


Reviews
121 - 130
Authors: Christopher Baker; Rachael Unsworth; David Beer; David Bell
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701201019
Original Articles


Is it all coming together?
Further thoughts on urban studies and the present crisis: (10) Spectres, spectacles, actors and actions within and beyond neoliberalism
131 - 140
Author: Bob Catterall
DOI: 10.1080/13604810701315785

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

CFP: Common Ground , Converging Gazes

Common Ground, Converging Gazes: Integrating the Social and Environmental in History


International Conference

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales

Paris, 11-12-13 September 2008

Recently, several scholarly articles have focused on the nature of environmental history, its purposes, and its relationships with other close fields of research - particularly social history. The conference aims to open up this discussion further, to demonstrate that it is both possible and necessary to cast an 'environmental gaze' on social history's growing agenda, and to make clear that social history has much to offer to environmental history.

In short, given that climate change, biodiversity loss and other ecological problems pose an enormous challenge to humanity now, and for the future, we do not think it desirable to write social and economic history which does not incorporate an environmental dimension. At a time when societies are confronted with the often dramatic consequences of past choices made in the fields of energy, technology, industry, agriculture, urbanization, consumption and other areas, we need a history that casts more light on the ways in which unsustainable human-nature relationships came into being. This means reconsidering many of the older emphases of social and economic history, and encouraging stronger connections with environmental history.

Conversely, we cannot content ourselves with an environmental history which focuses mainly on nature's agency, the evolution of human attitudes to and understandings of 'nature', or even on humankind's role in global warming or in the disappearance of species. Whatever the legitimacy of these topics may be, we also need research that takes into greater account the social and economic dimensions of environmental problems. Environmental change or pollution, for instance, does not affect people equally: men and women, young and old, white and black, low and high-income communities - all have different experiences. But how environmental issues play out along the lines of class, gender, race, and ethnicity is rarely just a matter of chance, and more often the result of long-term social, cultural, and economic forces. We still have a good deal to learn about how power, resources and risks have been distributed across both rural and urban landscapes, which calls for socio-economic
history know-how.

It is clearly time for environmental history to engage more fully with the tools, methods and concepts of social and economic history - and vice versa. This is not to say that there has been no progress in establishing common ground, but we still need to bring these fields into closer communication, for their mutual benefit.

Proposals may deal with any research area in social or environmental history, so long as they address the issue of interconnections between the two sub-disciplines. The following list gives a number of suggested topic areas, but it is not comprehensive. Themes of sessions will be defined according to received proposals.

Gender, class, race and ethnicity issues
Population and migration
Sites of resistance; struggles against environmental inequality
Landscape and memory; environment and identity
Housing, planning, sanitation and public health
Industry, consumption and business
Natural resources, energy, and transportation
Risks, catastrophes, air, water and land pollution
Labour, the workplace, and occupational illnesses
Agricultural practices, land-tenures, and enclosure of commons
Recreation and tourism
Sources and methods

New researchers and doctoral students are particularly welcome. A limited number of grants will be available to encourage their participation.

One page proposals and a brief CV should be sent by 30 September 2007 to both the conference organizers:

Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud: massard@ehess.fr

Stephen Mosley: s.mosley@leedsmet.ac.uk


Proposals will be examined by a scientific committee composed of:

Patrice Bourdelais, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Michèle Dagenais, Université de Montréal

Chloé Deligne, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Patrick Fridenson, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Marjolein 't Hart, University of Amsterdam

Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales

Stephen Mosley, Leeds Metropolitan University

Simone Neri Serneri, University of Siena

Richard Rodger, University of Edinburgh

Sverker Sörlin, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

Verena Winiwarter, University of Klagenfurt at Vienna


The conference is organised by the Centre de Recherches Historiques (unité mixte de recherche CNRS/EHESS), in partnership with the journals Les Annales des Mines and the Annales de Démographie Historique (to be confirmed), and the Association Le Mouvement Social (to be confirmed), and supported by the European Society for Environmental History and Leeds Metropolitan University.

Participants will be notified by 15th January 2008. The conference will focus on the discussion of pre-circulated papers (6,500 words or 30,000 characters) to be sent to the conference organizers in the form of email attachments by 15th June 2008. The languages of the conference will be French and English. Proposals will be accepted in either language. Pre-circulated papers in French must include a summary in English.

A preliminary programme will be produced, further practical information given and registration opened in February 2008. For any other information, please write to massard@ehess.fr or s.mosley@leedsmet.ac.uk

Stephen Mosley
Leeds Metropolitan University
England

Monday, May 14, 2007

Documentary Studies

DOCS @ UC Davis is a new interdisciplinary research group just forming on campus
read below, and attached flyer). Please come to the first meeting next Wed if you are interested in hearing more about it.


Technocultural Studies Building
Wed May 16th
4-6 pm


What is documentary studies, you might ask?


For our recently formed DOCS Research Group, we're considering documentary techniques that involve text (written documents), video, photography, and/or audio recordings to support inquiry into and analysis of social life. We are especially interested in how documentary methodologies can help individuals articulate and negotiate issues of race, ethnicity, gender and social class in local and regional communities.

We've started some discussions about this kind of work and are eager to connect with other people on campus who are interested in or using documentary approaches in research, teaching, and civic engagement.

As an opportunity for networking and experience sharing, we invite you to join us on May 16h to: - Meet others doing documentary courses and projects
- Hear and share examples of documentary assignments, resources, and events
- Help inform the development of documentary studies efforts at UCD
- Enjoy late afternoon beverages and snacks!

When: Wednesday, May 16 from 4:00 - 6:00 PM
Where: TechnoCultural Studies Building (formerly The Art Annex, behind the
Art Building)
Format: Introductions, brief presentations to spark discussion, inventory
of needs and resources

Presentations by Jesse Drew, Technocultural Studies: TCS's documentary courses and
documentary speaker series
Ari Kelman, American Studies: Integrating audio documentary projects into
undergraduate course
Jay Mechling, American Studies: Integrating photo documentary projects into
undergraduate courses
jesikah maria ross, Women & Gender Studies: University-community projects
with audio documentary
Julie Wyman, Technocultural Studies: Bridging research methods & experimental documentary through mobile video

If you can not make the meeting but would like to stay informed of future DOCS Group activities send your email address to Jesse Drew (jdrew@ucdavis.edu)
) and he'll put you on our new DOCS listserv!

If you have other questions, suggestions, or documentary resources to share,
contact jesikah maria ross jmross@ucdavis.edu

Urban Dystopias

URBAN DYSTOPIAS
A Conference at Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies
Princeton University, May 18-19, 2007
http://dav.princeton.edu/events/e37/conference.html

Friday, 211 Dickinson Hall

10:00-12:30
Gyan Prakash, Director, Davis Center, Introductory Comments
James Donald, University of New South Wales
Sounds like Hell: Dystopian Urban Aurality
Ruben Gallo, Princeton University
Modernist Dystopias: Mexico City, a Case Study

2:00-4:00
David Ambaras, North Carolina State University
Topographies of Distress: Tokyo, c. 1930
Ravi Sundaram, CSDS, Delhi
Imaging Urban Breakdown: Delhi in the 1990's

4:30-6:00
Thomas Sugrue, University of Pennsylvania
Liberal Dystopias: Race, Class, and the Limits of Diversity in Civil Rights Era America



Saturday, 010 East Pyne

10:00-12:00
Anton Kaes, University of California, Berkeley
Phantasms of the Apocalypse: Metropolis and Weimar Modernity
Mark Shiel, King's College London/Davis Center Fellow
A Regional Geography of Film Noir: Urban Dystopias On- and Off-screen

1:30-3:30
Bill Tsutsui, University of Kansas
Oh No, There Goes Tokyo: Recreational Apocalypse in Postwar Japanese Popular Culture
Ranjani Mazumdar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Friction, Collision and the Grotesque: the Edge in Bombay Cinema

4:00-6:00
Li Zhang, University of California, Davis
Postsocialist Urban Dystopia: A View from the Margins
Jenny Robinson, The Open University, UK
Living in Dystopia: Past, Present, and Future in Contemporary Urban Development

Jennifer Houle
Davis Center
Princeton University