Monthly Archives: September 2017

Sharing cities – Shaping cities: a research symposium

Sharing economy and collaborative consumption are attracting much interest for their business, legal and civic implications. Underexplored are instead the consequences of the spreading on sharing-based practices in the urban environmental and daily dynamics.

The ‘Sharing Cities – Shaping Cities (#ShapringCities)’ symposium aims at addressing if and how is sharing shaping cities, the way spaces are designed and lived if social interactions are escalated, the way habits and routines take place in the post-individualist society.

/ Key questions /

Key questions to be discussed at the symposium include:

  • How is ‘sharing’ shaping cities? Does it represent a paradigm shift with tangible and physical reverberation on urban form? How are shared mobility, work, inhabiting, energy and food provision reconfiguring urban and social fabric?
  • Are new lifestyles and practices related to sharing changing the use and design of spaces? To what extent sharing is triggering a production and consumption paradigm shift to be reflected in urban arrangements and infrastructures?
  • Does sharing increase the intensity of use of space and assets or rather increases them to meet expectations of convenience for urban lifestyles?
  • To what extent are these phenomena fostering more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable practices and cities?
  • How can policy makers and municipalities interact with these bottom-up phenomena and grassroots innovation to create more sustainable cities?

/ Submission of contributions and prospect book /

The symposium represents an opportunity to advance answers to above and related questions, especially (but not solely) in the fields of urban studies, urban planning and design, service design, geography, sociology, anthropology, and innovation studies. Attendees of the symposium are expected to address the key topics with highly critical approach and grounded on research findings from fieldwork and real case-study experience; collection of observations, mapping and interpretation of emerging phenomena representing clues that we are experiencing the dawn of a new urban era.

Up to twelve contributions to the symposium will be selected upon the submission of an extended abstract (up to 1,500 words, plus references) via email at sharingcities@polimi.it by 24th November 2017. Upon a double blind peer review by the scientific committee, selected contributions will be presented by the author(s) at the symposium. If interested, the full and revised version of the submitted contribution will be a chapter of a book to be proposed to highly ranked publisher.

 / Attending the symposium /

The symposium will be held on 5 to 6 March 2018, at Politecnico di Milano, in Milan.

There is no cost to attend and catering would be provided; however travel would be self-funded.

/ Important dates /

November 24 / Submission of extended abstracts

January 12 / Notification of acceptance

March 5-6 / Symposium in Milan

/ The team /

‘ShapringCities’ symposium is organised by the LabSimUrb ‘Fausto Curti’ research group at theDept. of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) of Politecnico di Milano.

The research group is also involved in the European H2020 programme funded project ‘Sharing Cities’, more specifically in the context of the Milan municipality. Key questions to be addressed at the workshop emerged from this ongoing research.

Organising committee

Dr Giuseppe Salvia

Dr Eugenio Morello

Prof. Andrea Arcidiacono

Dr Barbara E.A. Piga

Scientific committee

Fabrizio Ceschin / Brunel University, UK

Grazia Concilio / Politecnico di Milano, IT

Mina di Marino / Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NO

Massimo Menichinelli / Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya, ES

Anna Meroni / Politecnico di Milano, IT

Carolina Pacchi / Politecnico di Milano, IT

Ivana Pais / Università Cattolica di Milano, IT

Gabriele Pasqui / Politecnico di Milano, IT

Piero Pelizzaro / Istituto Universitario di Venezia, IT

Laura Piscicelli / Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, NL

Emma Puerari / Delft, NL 

 / Keep in touch /

sharingcities@polimi.it

www.sharingcities-shapingcities.polimi.it

#shapringcities

Identities and the Cities: Urban Transformations, Transition and Change in Urban Image Construction

Call for Papers for the Panel:

Identities and the Cities: Urban Transformations, Transition and Change in Urban Image Construction

As part of
6th Euroacademia Forum of Critical Studies: Asking Big Questions Again
23 – 25 November 2017
Lucca, Tuscany, Italy
Deadline for Paper Proposals: 15th of September 2017

Panel Description:

Urban image construction is a reflection, expression and constitutive factor of local identity formation and dynamics. Cities simultaneously localize identities and connect them with wider global signs of utility, function and symbolic order. Elasticity of the label identity accommodates everything that surrounds us as presence or absence, persistence or change. As a theatrical scenery, cities change after each act, sometimes with discrete adaptations, sometimes with radical interventions. If the scenery is composed of streets, parks, roads, museums, monuments, shopping malls and buildings connected through the intricate network of the perpetual and cumulative actions of its inhabitants, every adaptation and intervention affects its multi-dimensional identities. Changes in urban visual identities unfold as a form of public art feeding from the immense potential of social imaginary significations accommodated by a time’s perception of stability, structure and continuity. Urban change is itself a production of meaning, interpretation and identity making practices.

As the chaotic canvases of cities are being stretched over a framework of identity, its further exploration seems more than appropriate. Amidst the incredibly rapid urban growth crowding more than half of the world population in towns and cities, the questions are only going to keep multiplying. How are city identities made and re-made, used and abused, imagined and narrated, politicised and communicated, expressed and projected, imposed and marketed? And above all, how do they thrive within the dynamic interpolation of the nexus of local-global, centre-periphery, urban – suburban, old and new. As out-dated as these dichotomies may sound, in many places their daily life is far from over. As old cities became new capitals and new capitals struggle for more capital, the challenges of maintaining public-driven collective identities in the face of cultural fragmentation and diversification, coupled with consumer-attractiveness is turning them into urban palimpsests. Urban environments reflect the human needs and values. In an increasingly globalized world, the human beings are becoming more citizens of the world than citizens of the cities. The increasing mobility of the new pilgrims of globalization creates more of the same in the logic of universalized urban functionality. Within this logic, the cities are now in the position to re-evaluate their impact on the world and shape their future in a manner that assumes a wider responsibility that evades a localized mentality. Urban local identities are becoming increasingly thin and rely strongly on negotiating a local specificity with universalized functionality and global responsibility. An increasing need for uniqueness and distinctiveness foster site-specificity aimed at placing a particular urban identity within a global economic hierarchy. Public art became essential for affirming distinctive local urban identities in a universe of serialization and commodification.

As the research on cultural identities of the city is becoming more abundant, this panel aims at adopting a wide-lens inter-disciplinary approach, while focusing on various processes affecting identities in the urban context in its global-regional-national-local interplay.

Some example of topics may include (but are not limited to):

•       Collective Memory, Identity and Urban Image Construction
•       Appropriation, Instrumentalisation and Functualisation of Public Spaces
•       Contemporary Nomadism and the City as a Common Denominator for Collective Identities
•       Architecture as ‘Politics with Bricks and Mortar’
•       History, Heritage and Urban Change
•       Urban Regeneration Projects, Landmark Buildings and ‘Starchitects’
•       Non-Places and (Non)Identity
•       Immigrants and the Cultural Identity of Cities
•       City Marketing and City Branding
•       Cities and Public Goods
•       European Capitals of Culture and European Identity
•       Cities and Sites of Memorialisation
•       Identity Creation and the Cultural Offer of the City
•       Urban Cultural Heritage as Identity-Anchor
•       Minor Places: Dominant Culture and Site-Specific Urban Identities
•       Creative Changes of the Cities
•       Art and Industry in Urban Development
•       Urban Aesthetics
•       Urban Installations
•       Critical Architecture
•       Urbanism and Social Intervention: Inclusion of the Marginalized
•       Centre/Periphery Nexuses in Contemporary Urban Development
•       Cities and the Quality of Life
•       Urban Landscapes and Sustainable Cities
•       Contemporary Cities and Environmental Responsibility
•       Ugliness, Kitsch and Value in Shaping Contemporary Urban Spaces
•       Urban Sites of Identification
•       Temporary Urban Interventions
•       Architecture as Public Art

Please apply on-line using the electronic form on the conference website or submit by e-mail a titled abstracts of less than 300  words together with the details of your affiliation until 15th of September 2017 to application@euroacademia.org

If you are interested to apply, please see complete information about the conference and details for applicants at:
http://euroacademia.eu/conference/6th-forum-of-critical-studies/

CALL FOR PAPERS: Terrorism in Tourism Cities

International Journal of Tourism Cities is brought to you by the International Tourism Studies Association (ITSA)

TERRORISM IN TOURISM CITIES

Guest Editors:

Prof. Alastair Morrison, Purdue University, USA
Dr. Andres Coca-Stefaniak, University of Greenwich, UK 

Terrorism attacks in major cities (e.g. New York, Paris, Brussels, London, Barcelona) and their impact on the image of these global tourism destinations is a topic of growing interest to academics, industry practitioners and policy makers worldwide. The impact of recent terrorist attacks may extend beyond immediate image issues and to wider longer-term aspects such as the resilience of the destination’s brand, its overall competitiveness in global tourism markets and its attractiveness to major investors.

Although a number of studies have analysed the impact of security concerns linked to terrorism on the events industry (e.g., Hu and Goldblatt, 2005; Gordon et al., 2008) and tourism (see Sonmez and Graeffe, 1998; Goodrich, 2002), their scope to date remains somewhat limited with some considering economic impact (e.g., Pizam and Smith, 2000), visitor risk perceptions (e.g., Fuchs and Reichell, 2011; Korstanje, 2015), dark tourism (e.g., Seraphin and Seraphin, 2017), social theory (e.g., Mansfeld and Pizam, 2006) or tourism demand (e.g., Arana and Leon, 2008), with very few adopting a more strategic outlook as regards tourism destinations (Beirman, 2003; Paraskevas and Arendell, 2007). This themed issue seeks to redress this balance by addressing a major knowledge gap in our understanding of the longer term impacts of terrorism on the resilience of tourism destination brands (see Avraham, 2015), their overall competitiveness in the global tourism market and their attractiveness to major international investors.

The aims of this themed issue are as follows:

1.    To determine how acts of terrorism in affected cities influence these cities’ destination images and brands.

2.    To explore how consumers adapt their behaviours in the short- and long-term with respect to affected cities and their surrounding regions.

3.    To examine the strength of destination brand resilience in cities affected by terrorist acts.

4.    To analyze successful recovery strategies in tourism cities affected by terrorism.

5.    To review the overall impacts of terrorism aimed at visitors on global tourism.

6.    To analyze risk-taking profiles of consumers in the context of terrorism acts and their probability of occurrence.

We invite papers which engage with Terrorism in Tourism Cities in the following topics (indicative but not exhaustive themes):

•    Terrorism and destination brand resilience

•    Terrorism management frameworks for tourism cities

•    Destination image recovery after terrorism attacks

•    Visitor behaviour during and after terrorism attacks

•    Crisis management in tourism cities

•    Consumer perceptions of risk in visiting affected cities

•    Changes in activity behaviours of tourists in affected cities

•    Impacts of terrorist attacks on tourism regions

Interested authors should email their abstract (200-300 words) or proposal to Andres Coca-Stefaniak, a.coca-stefaniak@gre.ac.uk before November 15th, 2017.

•    Authors will be notified no later than December 1st, 2017 on the decision over their abstracts.

•    Full articles (6,000-8,000 words) should be submitted by March 31st, 2018. The format of guidelines is provided on the journal webpage: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=ijtc

•    All manuscripts will undergo anonymous peer review.

CALL FOR PAPER: The City Street3 Conference

The organizing committee of the City Street3 Conference is pleased to announce that the conference website has now been launched. Explore the conference by accessing: http://www.ndu.edu.lb/city-street-3/home, where you will learn more about the conference theme, tracks, and other activities, the organizers, preliminary program, registration and submission procedures, and other information.

City Street3: TRANSITIONAL STREETS: NARRATING STORIES OF CONVIVIAL STREETS is an interdisciplinary conference open to students, researchers, professionals, and urban actors working on city street challenges in our times. The call for abstracts, and street photography competition will begin on 1 September 2017, and we look forward to receiving your submissions!

To proceed with registration, abstracts, and/or photograph submissions please visit https://sis.ndu.edu.lb/events/CS-III

For a paper or a poster to be presented in one of the conference tracks, you will need to indicate two track options. The street photography competition is a separate activity from the submission of abstracts.

IMPORTANT: For participants who already attended City Street2 in 2016, kindly note that your registration credentials are the same in case you log in with the same email address, otherwise, you can create new log in information.

The purpose of this email is to invite you to share, and disseminate information about this conference to your colleagues, students, and friends.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me on citystreet@ndu.edu.lb.

CALL FOR PAPERS: E-FAITH industrial heritage

Each year, E-FAITH, the European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage, is organising a weekend where industrial heritage volunteers and associations can meet and learn from each other’s experiences. It always takes place at interesting sites, this year in Barcelona, and in its neighbourhood in the Catalan Museum of Science and Technology in Terrassa and the Water Museum in Cornellà del Llobregat.

There are two themes for this year’s meeting.
The weekend starts on Friday October 20th with a workshop on how to present and promote the industrial heritage during the European Cultural Heritage Year.
On Saturday October 21st the plenum meeting deals with Industrial Heritage – exploring opportunities for education and lifelong learning . In the afternoon associations will present their aims and objectives, and their activities’,
On Sunday October 22nd there are guided visits in Barcelona, showing how citizen’s involvement saved industrial buildings and promoted re-use of them

The call-for-papers and the registration are now open.
For details go to:
http://industrialheritage.eu/activities/industrial-heritage-weekend-2017

Fifth Annual Conference on Construction History April 2018

Our AGM and the Fifth Annual Conference on Construction History will be held in Cambridge on 6, 7  and 8 April 2018 with the AGM on Saturday 7 April and tours of buildings on Sunday 8 April and an annual lecture and dinner on the Saturday night.

The first day of the conference (Friday 6 April) will be devoted to studies of the history of building services and held in collaboration with CIBSE. The Special Call for abstracts for these sessions can be downloaded here. The second day (Saturday 7 April) will include general papers (the General Call for abstracts can be downloaded here). Generous student bursaries covering costs are available for students to present papers. The current plan is for the second day to also feature a timber framing demonstration, the Annual General Meeting, International Symposium, Annual Lecture, Annual Building History Lecture and Gala Dinner. An optional visit will be organised on the Sunday on the theme of building services.