"Public space and the City" at the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference 2017

We would like to draw your attention to the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference 2017 at Queen's University in Belfast. We will host a track on "Public Space and the City" to which we would highly welcome your contributions:

"Public spaces play a vital role in the political, economic and socio-cultural transformation of cities. Increasingly plurality in our cities has meant that new definitions, purpose and perceptions of public spaces emerge and are contested in everyday practices. The competing interests manifesting in privatization of public spaces, informal and temporal use of spaces for commercial purposes, and the emergence of new actors have meant that new boundaries are continuously formed and negotiated between people, institutions and the state. The session calls for papers that capture the various dimensions of public space. This includes its positioning and influence on the multi-scalar urbanism that comprises a number of distinct but the connected network of actors, institutions and claims demonstrating complex power relations, narratives of resistance, and civic movements."

The call for abstract submissions is open until 26 May. Please visit https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/PRC2017/ for more information. We are looking forward to seeing you in Belfast!