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CFP: Georgia State Urban Studies Institute: Comparative Urbanism: Global Perspectives conference | March 7-8, 2019

CALL FOR CONFERENCE PAPERS

 

Urban Studies Institute | Georgia State University

Comparative Urbanism: Global Perspectives

 

Date and Location

March 7-8, 2019

Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Theme

The purpose of the conference on Comparative Urbanism: Global Perspectives is to advance empirical and conceptual thinking on comparative urban research across the Global North, South, and East. Reflecting near a decade of tentative theorization and intense debate, the field of urban studies is awash with calls for more explicit comparative research that adopts a global perspective. Post-colonial critiques of North American and Euro-centric urban conceptualizations have done much to problematize the purportedly ‘universal’ experiences of the Global North and bring ‘ordinary cities’ and subaltern urbanisms in the Global South to light. However, disputes around the portability of theory between different urban worlds and attempts to theorize the ‘complete urbanization of society’ appear to have reached a stand-off, often with ideological overtones.

The Global East as Third Dimension

The conference aims to shake up this stalemate by introducing a third dimension: urbanisms of the Global East (especially the experiences of China, Japan, and South Korea), which are not easily reconciled with the histories or political economies of either North or South. Approaching urban studies through a comparative lens honed to cities in the Global North, South, and East is an increasingly important orientation because it shifts urban comparative gestures beyond comparisons within these (albeit complex heterogeneous) contexts towards rigorous analysis of urbanization between them. Reloading 'global urban studies' across these three worlds offers new empirical grounds for theory generation and presents a provocative intervention that can disrupt the ideologically polarized camps that characterize field at the present juncture.

Theory, Empirics, Methods, Policy

The conference will incorporate perspectives on urban development from the global urban North, South, and East in deliberations across a variety of sessions. These may take the form of theoretically-informed empirical comparison, conceptual reflections on the North-South-East construct itself, methodological challenges, or other critical approaches to a truly global comparative urbanism. The critical practice of comparison as a method for theory-building will form a substantive component of the conference, in addition to the insights realized through comparative research findings and policy analysis. This highly interdisciplinary event will encourage critical, open, and reflexive debate and lead to concrete outputs that will help define the future agenda for global comparative urbanism.

The Event

The 2-day conference will feature a variety of sessions from traditional research presentations and keynote addresses to moderated panel discussions and interactive workshops. Sessions will be structured to enable extensive time for discussion and debate, with special attention paid to facilitating on-going and near-future collaborative research, focused around target concrete outputs, including articles, special issues, and research symposia in international urban journals, as well as external grant funding proposals.

Keynote Speakers
We are delighted to announce our 3 keynote speakers:

• Professor George Lin, Hong Kong University
• Professor Ananya Roy, UCLA
• Professor Kevin Ward, University of Manchester

 

Call for Proposals

To promote interdisciplinary discussion and debate, the conference will focus on three core prisms: Urban Development and Resiliency; Equity and Social Inclusion; and Sustainable Urban Environments. We welcome paper proposals on the challenges of global comparative urbanism from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, especially those incorporating perspectives from the Global North, South, and East. Topics include, but may not be limited to:

• Theoretical and methodological approaches to comparative urban research
• The (global) urban commons
• Urbanization and development
• Inclusive housing policy
• Urban social movements
• Urban environments and public health disparities
• Gentrification and neighborhood transformation
• Global suburbanization
• Comparative urban policy and law
• Networked urbanism (e.g., global urban security, terrorism, health, food, etc.)
• Policy mobilities
• Climate change, sustainability, and urban resilience
• Globalization, migration, and labor markets
• Infrastructure governance, policy, and planning

Interested authors are requested to submit 500-600-word abstracts to [email protected] by August 1, 2018. Papers will be selected based on their fit with the conference theme and sessions. Participants will be asked to submit a first draft of their papers by February 15, 2019.

Accommodation Information:

The Urban Studies Institute has arranged for a block of rooms at the discount rate of $139/night from March 6- March 9 at Home2Suites. Home2Suites is located at 87 Walton St, in downtown Atlanta, close to public transit and Georgia State University, and a 10-minute walk to the conference venue. More information can be found at: http://home2suites3.hilton.com/en/index.html

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The Urban Studies Institute at Georgia State University conducts top-level urban research from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives; offers an innovative and specialized interdisciplinary curriculum; and engages with stakeholders in metropolitan Atlanta and in other cities around the world. The Institute’s research agenda ranges from local to global, from urban theory to policy research, and is particularly geared to comparative urban approaches. Research themes emphasize urban economic resilience, inclusive development, and urban sustainability. The Institute is housed in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. For more information, visit  http://urbaninstitute.gsu.edu/