THEMATIC GROUPS

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Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 05 July 2016

AESOP Thematic Group for Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Series: Becoming Local

Call for papers for a Special Issue in Journal of Urban Design

Becoming Local: inquiries into public space practices, meanings and values

The AESOP Thematic Group for Public Spaces and Urban Cultures aims to better understand the relational nature of public spaces by using different concepts of urban culture as analytical perspectives. We support studies on evolving urban cultures and renewed intellectual and practical challenges that these practices pose to the way public spaces are used, interpreted, designed, and taught. We share and exchange different disciplinary approaches and experiences in practice and theory on the related subjects through research activities and workshops at an international scale.

The Thematic Group has organized a series of meetings under the general umbrella theme “Becoming Local” for the period 2013-2015. Each organisation team (local organisers and AESOP TG representatives) developed their own sub-theme related to the umbrella theme, on the one hand, and embedded into the local context, on the other. Within this context, the meetings reflected different topics as `The power of places & the places of power” (Glasgow), issues of “Emancipation in planning and design” (Vienna), “Transforming spaces, redefining localities” (Paris) or “Generative places, smart approaches, happy people” (Porto). Contributions brought insights in contextual differences and highlighted the necessity of developing new epistemologies, research tactics, action-based methodologies and researcher identities bridging across academic and institutional boundaries. Multiple perspectives emerged along the series, exploring the set of practices and values that interact in urban spaces as crossroads where global and local forces meet and sometimes collide.

Our call for papers for a special issue in Journal of Urban Design has the goal to assemble and to precise insights of the becoming local series. We encourage contributors from the different workshops as well as other authors, who report from different fronts of becoming local in public space.

This call brings out the topics discussed, namely, by:

1)  Understanding public spaces as “places” where global tendencies ‘sediment’ and are being ‘translated’ and ‘transformed’ according to local cultural, social and political contexts.

2) Public spaces as a ‘reflection of local identities’ shaped by community behaviours, patterns of everyday life and collective memories.

 3)    Public spaces as a ‘ground of investigation of place making practices’ by different actors and agents particularly in the context of changing role of state, market and civil society in shaping, creating and transforming public spaces.

Given the above, the aim of this special issue is to explore relevant debates on public space, bringing together researchers and case studies from different urban contexts. The outcome aims to contribute to the debate of achieving a consensus to create inclusive public spaces.

Guidelines for abstracts

Interested contributors from both practice and academia, and at their interface, are invited to submit an abstract of maximum 350 words to the e-mail address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The abstracts should include:

• Title, key words
• Author’s name, current affiliation and e-mail address
• Research question, methodology, and findings of the research
• Maximum five key references
• Short bibliography and list of recent publications of the author(s)
• Two photos at a good resolution (200dpi) illustrating the contents of the proposed contribution (if needed)

The deadline for abstract submission is 31th August. The results of a preliminary review will be announced by the end of September. The selected authors will, then, be invited to submit full papers by the 15th of December.

Sara Santos Cruz (Oporto, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.);

Nadia Charalambous (Nicosia, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.);

Nikolai Roskamm (Berlin, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Links to the series meetings:

Istanbul Meeting (November 20‐23, 2013)

Bucharest Meeting (June 11‐14, 2014)

Vienna Meeting (August 30, 2014)

Paris Meeting (October 23‐25, 2014)

Glasgow Meeting (June 4-6, 2015)

Porto Meeting (September 24-25, 2015)

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Planning and Complexity

Published: 19 June 2016

Scope of the conference

Spatial planning today increasingly operates in a fuzzy, non-linear and dynamic world, characterized by a diffused and globally networked society. The complexity sciences have found a receptive ear with spatial planners and governance experts who try to address and embrace this evolving and multiple world (Boelens & De Roo, 2014). According to Isabelle Stengers (2015), complexity is an experimental science, which makes us think, feel, imagine, act… In that way, its application to spatial planning and governance thus opens up many new possibilities for planning theory and practice. It offers as much a metaphorical (also called sematic by its criticists) vocabulary as a pragmatist orientation on concrete operational perspectives, and hand-on experience in ongoing planning processes – opening up to the emergence of new narratives (Stengers, 2015; Hillier, 2010). In other words, complexity enables planners to act in co-evolution with an ever evolving world of unexpected and undefined becoming.

During the conference three aspects were discussed in particular:

1. The ability to co-evolve. This theme discussed what is actually means to “actin co-evolution with a world of undefined becomings”. What abilities and capacities are needed in planning and spatial governance that create productive forms of co-evolution? How can these abilities and capacities be further enhanced?
2. Trans- or interdisciplinary co-evolutions. Whereas the core of the Complexity Thematic Group lies on spatial planning and governance, the group has over the years received visitors from a diverse set of domains, ranging from architecture and design all the way to even psychotherapy and the medical sciences. This theme discussed what possibilities trans- and interdisciplinary cross-overs and openings can offer to planning theory and practice, and to what extend existing disciplines co-evolve or new disciplines emerge from these cross-overs and openings.
3. Co-evolution between theory and practice. Noticing that many members of the Complexity Thematic Group have both academic positions as engagements as planning practice, this theme asked what fruitful insights can emerge from this combination. This theme discussed explicit examples on how notions of complexity sciences are operationalized in practice and how at the same time planning practice can fuel theoretical innovation and debate.

OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRAM AND PRESENTED PAPERS

Day 1: Wednesday 12th April

Opening and welcome by dr.ir. Beitske Boonstra and dr. Ward Rauws

Keynote Speech by Prof. Robert Geyer: “Complexity, Pragmatism and Policy: Can we keep things simple?”

Round Table discussion “The ability to co-evolve” (Moderator: Hannes Couvreur)
Participants: Prof. Robert Geyer, Prof. Luuk Boelens, Prof. Gert de Roo and Prof. Filip de Rynck; 

Session 1: Transitions and Co-evolution (Session-chair: Sharon Wohl)

• Wim van der Knaap & Joa Maouche – Are Transition Management Theory and Strategic Planning Complementary?
• Gert de Roo – Spatial Planning and the Complexity of Turbulent, Open Environments: About Purposeful Interventions in a World of Non-linear Change
• Sharon Zivkovic – The Co-evolution of Spatial Planning and Social Entrepreneurship in a Complex World
• Barbara Tempels – Resilience From a Co-evolutionary Perspective: The Example of Flooding and the Built Environment

Day 2: Thursday 13th April

Session 2: Thought Experiments (Session-chair: Paulo Silva)

• Sharon Wohl – Deploying CAS dynamics within the Urban Fabric: A Series of Thought Experiments that Illuminate Possible Trajectories
• Jenni Partanen, Annuska Rantanen & Seija Ridell – Beyond Twittering: Networked Cyborg Avatars as a Challenge for Urban Planning Theory

Session 3: Beyond Fixed Regimes (Session-chair: Ward Rauws)

• Yaara Manor-Rosner, Sayfan Borghini, Beitske Boonstra & Paulo Silva – Place Making in a Contested City: A Story of Epigenetic Tactics in Contemporary Jerusalem
• Suzanne Van Brussel – Large Infrastructure Projects Bring Vested Planning Approaches to Their Knees: The Encounter with Complexity
• Robin Neef, Katharina Gugerell & Stefan Verweij,  – Between Aspiration and Reality: Exploring Literature and Actual Practices in Infrastructure Living Labs

Lecture and workshop with the City of Ghent: “Dealing with Complexity in Urban Renewal: the case of Overpoort”

Day 3: Friday 14th April

Session 4: Co-evolution between Formal and Informal (Session-chair: Sharon Zivkovic)

• Wenwen Sun – Co-evolution of Collectives: In Seek of a Position for Complexity-thinking in Chinese Urban Planning Processes
• Paulo Silva & Helena Farrall – Planning Institutions and Informality: Change with Co-evolutionary Insights
• Maisa Totri-Fakhoury & Nurit Alfasi – From Abstract Principles to Specific Urban Form: Applying Complexity Theory for Analyzing Arab-Palestinian Towns in Israel

Session 5: Facilitating Change (Session-chair: Luuk Boelens)

• Ward Rauws – Embracing uncertainty without abandoning planning: Exploring an adaptive planning approach for guiding urban transformations
• Nurit Alfasi – Toward Co-evolution in Planning: The Crucial Role of Mutual Agreement
• Hannes Couvreur, Beitske Boonstra & Griet Hanegreefs – Changing the Landscape, One Conversation at a Time: Solution Focused Brief Therapy as a Complexity-sensitive Approach to Spatial Planning

Session 6: Simulation versus Real: What and how can we learn? (Session-chair: Jenni Partanen)

• Sofia Pagliarin & Lasse Gerrits – Real vs. Simulated Agents in Complex Urban Trajectories
• Angela Ballard – Disrupting Complexity in Planning
• Cristina Ampatzidou – What Can Planners Learn from Emergent Gameplay?

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 03 June 2016

AESOP Thematic Group for Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
Series UNSTABLE GEOGRAPHIES – DISLOCATED PUBLICS
First meeting, Beirut, 9-11 November 2016

Call for papers Defragmenting and Activating Public Spaces in Unstable Urban Settings

The Faculty of Architecture, Art and Design at the Notre Dame University – Louaize will host the first meeting of the AESOP Thematic Group for Public Spaces and Urban Cultures (AESOP TG PSUC) in Beirut, Lebanon. This meeting launches the new thematic series: Unstable Geographies – Dislocated Publics, with its four sub-themes:

• City, refugees, and migration
• Fragmented social fabric – individualised patterns of consumption
• The decline of national politics – Resurgence of the urban political
• Change of perspective – worlding urban studies

The series aims to address current issues related to public spaces common to cities globally, from an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspective, while engaging a variety of actors and stakeholders. The purpose of this meeting, organized in parallel to the City Street2 Conference (refer to http://www.ndu.edu.lb/citystreet2016/index.htm), is to unfold themes under the title of the series within the local and unstable context of Beirut. The meeting will combine the keynote speeches of CS2 presentations from the contributions to this call, a field visit and a workshop. The workshop will provide the opportunity for stakeholders to discuss, exchange views, and propose ideas with the purpose of sharing resources and producing knowledge on contemporary public space concerns. A concluding roundtable discussion will consolidate the ideas, concerns and recommendations presented during the meeting, and set the basis for further practical and theoretical explorations.

Theme

This first AESOP TG PSUC meeting in the new series in Beirut is proposed as an amalgam between the thematic group’s meeting and the CS2 conference thus bringing together a diversity and richness to the discussion on public spaces. Based on the characteristics and issues in Beirut that are also 

pertinent to other cities in the global South as well as the global North, this TG meeting would focus on the two sub-themes: City, Refugees and Migration, and Fragmented Social Fabric: Individualised Patterns of Consumption. Similar to other countries hosting immigrants and refugees, Lebanon is undergoing various dynamics related to refugees, migration and social fragmentation, which lead to changes in urban spaces and everyday social life, thus turning it to fertile ground for collaborative ideas among public space scholars and practitioners from different backgrounds. Through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives, the City Street2 Conference addresses the role of streets in relation to the sudden and sometimes recurring dynamics that affect everyday urban life. Unexpected events are affecting streets worldwide, without differentiation between developed and developing cities. Therefore, learning from cities in either hemisphere, which have gone through conflicts and instabilities becomes significant.
As Beirut has a prolonged history of conflict that affected its public spaces, it serves as a laboratory to explore, unravel, and question the lives of its public spaces, and their evolution through time. In the Lebanese civil war period 1975-1990, public spaces were annihilated, being the most vulnerable urban spaces and least desirable to be in. This fifteen-year absence contributed to an initial neglect of public spaces in the post-war period, while local authorities catered for the more urgent urban needs such as the transportation network, water, and waste water infrastructure to name few. In parallel, and not unusual for the Lebanese case, individual and group initiatives, which are independent from the local authorities, have addressed other everyday needs in response to their lack.
Beirut is a city that has hosted refugees in the past and more recently with the waves of refugees entering the country from neighbouring countries in conflict. It has a strong local identity, yet a global image. Beirut is a city that never sleeps, yet falls silent during turbulences. It is the city of contrasts in terms of its spatial, social, cultural and economic composition. All the stated circumstances impact the city’s urban spaces. Within political conflicts, the escalation of tensions, and increased security measures, the deterioration of urban spaces, and the pedestrian environment within Beirut is striking. Nevertheless, some people still commute on foot, and some public activities persist. The contestations are many, and various borders are drawn, forming obstacles to undisrupted pedestrian mobility, and convivial urban open spaces. Despite the various obstacles, pockets of public spaces that are either managed by the local authorities or invented by urbanites emerge within the city. These signal the co-presence of contrasts on many levels including the social, economic, spatial, functional, and political. Within these contrasts, various ‘publics’ navigate through the city’s urban spaces, and generate social interactions, activities, and relations over time, despite the broader conflicts that the city keeps witnessing.

The purpose of the investigation is to determine the roles of various stakeholders in providing further opportunities for the sustained accommodation of differences, encounter, and exposure to ‘the other’, in an attempt to defragment public spaces within turbulent and unpredictable contexts. Several questions are raised:

As Beirut has a prolonged history of conflict that affected its public spaces, it serves as a laboratory to explore, unravel, and question the lives of its public spaces, and their evolution through time. In the Lebanese civil war period 1975-1990, public spaces were annihilated, being the most vulnerable urban spaces and least desirable to be in. This fifteen-year absence contributed to an initial neglect of public spaces in the post-war period, while local authorities catered for the more urgent urban needs such as the transportation network, water, and waste water infrastructure to name few. In parallel, and not unusual for the Lebanese case, individual and group initiatives, which are independent from the local authorities, have addressed other everyday needs in response to their lack.
Beirut is a city that has hosted refugees in the past and more recently with the waves of refugees entering the country from neighbouring countries in conflict. It has a strong local identity, yet a global image. Beirut is a city that never sleeps, yet falls silent during turbulences. It is the city of contrasts in terms of its spatial, social, cultural and economic composition. All the stated circumstances impact the city’s urban spaces. Within political conflicts, the escalation of tensions, and increased security measures, the deterioration of urban spaces, and the pedestrian environment within Beirut is striking. Nevertheless, some people still commute on foot, and some public activities persist. The contestations are many, and various borders are drawn, forming obstacles to undisrupted pedestrian mobility, and convivial urban open spaces. Despite the various obstacles, pockets of public spaces that are either managed by the local authorities or invented by urbanites emerge within the city. These signal the co-presence of contrasts on many levels including the social, economic, spatial, functional, and political. Within these contrasts, various ‘publics’ navigate through the city’s urban spaces, and generate social interactions, activities, and relations over time, despite the broader conflicts that the city keeps witnessing.

The purpose of the investigation is to determine the roles of various stakeholders in providing further opportunities for the sustained accommodation of differences, encounter, and exposure to ‘the other’, in an attempt to defragment public spaces within turbulent and unpredictable contexts. Several questions are raised:

• What is the people’s understanding of public space in specific cities in unstable contexts, and how does it vary across generations?
• What are the current public space practices of defragmenting public space? How do the various spaces accommodating these practices differ? What does the current state of public spaces in a specific city that has been facing conflict look like?
• Who are the current public space actors involved in public place making in cities within unstable contexts?
• What is the relation between social media networks and public space practices that defragment public space? How does it affect the ecology of city’s public spaces, particularly in times of sudden and sometimes recurring dynamics of stability and instability?
• What can be learned from people’s identification or/ and practices in ‘activated’/ ‘invented’ public spaces in unstable contexts?
• How can we (actors from various fields) intervene in improving the state of public spaces in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness in the current environment of low governmental investment, and a financially capable market-driven approach, particularly in cities and regions facing geopolitical instability?

Important Dates

Deadline for abstract submission is Monday 4 July 2016.

Please submit an abstract of 200-250 words along with a max 100 words biography to 150 words Authors will receive notification regarding their abstracts by Friday 15 July 2016. Use the online submission on: https://citystreet2.exordo.com

Deadline for paper submission is Monday 19 September 2016.


Preliminary Program

Tuesday 8 November - Arivals* | CS2 Registration

Wednesday 9 November - AESOP TG Meeting registration, Presentations | First day CS"

Thursday 10 November - Field visit | Second day CS"

Friday 11 November - AESOP TG Meeting: Workshop & Roundtable | Third day CS2

Saturday 12 November - Departures* | CS2 tours

Sunday 13 November - Optional for those staying after the AESOP TG Meeting | Beirut Marathon

* Arrivals and departures could also take place respectively on Wednesday 9 November early morning, and Friday 11 November evening.

Fees
Participation in the AESOP TG meeting with all its related activities is free of charge. This AESOP TG meeting is interdisciplinary, and targets the inclusion of actors with different perspectives, with the objective of providing insights on public spaces. Therefore, submissions from academicians, practicing professionals, and interested persons from any background are invited as contributions to this call. AESOP TG delegates who would like to participate in the full CS2 conference and receive the full package and documentation, they will have to register for the conference (http://www.ndu.edu.lb/citystreet2016/ index.htm) Otherwise, the AESOP TG delegates are offered to attend the CS2 opening and closing ceremonies, welcome reception and the three keynote speeches free of charge. Moreover, coffee breaks are offered. Furthermore, if they wish, AESOP TG delegates can register for the conference banquet and/or post-conference tours separately, against a fee.

Contacts
For further information on AESOP TG PSUC Beirut meeting please contact:

• Christine Mady (Lebanon) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (local host)
• Nadia Charalambous (Cyprus) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (AESOP TG representative)
• Matej Niksic (Slovenia) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (AESOP TG representative)

The general TG blog at the AESOP page:


▪ The TG wiki page: http://publicspaces-urbancultures.wikispaces.com/

▪ The TG FB page: https://www.facebook.com/AESOPPSUC/

▪ The TG contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 11 May 2016

2016

Date: 10th/11th November 2016

Name: Christine Mady

Institution: Faculty of Architecture, Art, and Design (FAAD), at the Notre Dame University Louaize

Place: Louaize. Lebanon

AESOP TG Representative: Matej Niksic (Slovenia), Nadia Charalambous (Cyprus)

Contacts: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2017

Date: 29th/31th March 2017

Name: Sabine Knierbein, Elina Kränzle, Tihomir Viderman

Institution: Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, TU Wien

Place: Vienna, Austria

AESOP TG Representative: Gabriella Esposito de Vita (Italy), Katarzyna Bartoszewicz (Poland)

Contacts:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Date: 25th/26th/ (27th) May 2017

Name: Biba Tominc /Nina Goršič /Matej Niksic

Institution: Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia

Place: Ljubljana, Slovenia

AESOP TG Representative: Weronika Mazurkiewicz (Poland), Stefania Ragozino (Italy)

Contacts: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Date: 11th-14th July 2017

Name: Gabriella Esposito De Vita, Sabine Knierbein, Ceren Sezer

Institution: AESOP Annual Conference 2017, Lisbon, Portugal

Place: Lisbon, Portugal

AESOP TG Representative: Sara Santos Cruz, Katarzyna Bartoszewicz, Nikolai Roskamm, Plus: All TG members attending the conference and further colleagues

Contacts: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Date: Autumn 2017

Name: Carlo Cellamare

Institution: Tracce Urbane and Laboratory of Urban Studies, La Sapienza, Rome

Place: Rome, Italy

AESOP TG Representative: Sabine Knierbein (Austria), Burcu Yigit Turan (Turkey)

Contacts: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 
2018

Date: March 2018

Name: Marleen Buizer

Institution: Land Use Planning Group, Wageningen University

Place: Wageningen, Netherlands

AESOP TG Representative: Burcu Yigit Turan (Turkey), Sara Santos Cruz (Portugal)

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Date: May 2018

Name: Nadia Charalambous

Institution: Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus

Place: Nicosia, Cyprus

AESOP TG Representative: Ceren Sezer (The Netherlands), Nikolai Roskamm (Germany)

Contacts: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Date: July 2018

Name: tbc

Institution: AESOP Annual Conference 2018, Gotheborg, Sweden

Place: Gotheborg, Sweden

AESOP TG Representative: tbc

Contacts: tbc


Please note that for attending the AESOP Annual Conference, conference fees are required. For the Lisbon and Gothenborg Meetings during the Conference, travel and accommodation costs cannot be covered, so each listed participant needs to cover for him-or herself (travel, accommodation, conferences fees, etc.). Otherwise, the AESOP TG PSUC has established the policy that all meetings should be free of cost to AESOP TG members (urban cultures and public spaces and that affordable accommodation proposals are provided by the local host.

**    In case colleagues from the same country/city have volunteered or colleagues have volunteered for many meetings, I have sometimes put them in brackets as possible second option in case we do not find two colleagues from other contexts. Generally, the idea is to have a abroad inter- and beyond European exchange, therefore the basic idea is to have two local hosts and two colleagues from different partners so at least two have a dialogue between three institutions involved.

 *** As for budget: The AESOP TG PS-UC can apply for an annual maximum support of 500 Euro for events. Publications, keynote speaker costs and conference proceedings can be financed out of this budget, however, no positions other than these three. Our chances will depend on the number and quality of the other applications. In the past, we have only twice asked for this budget to be allocated, particularly when a partner school was situated in an austerity context. Please note that this funding cannot be used to finance the travel and accommodation costs of TG members (e.g. as TG representatives or keynote speakers). Travelling for the TG representatives needs to be provided by the local organizers. In case, the local organizers are facing hardship, other ways can be agreed with the TG representatives (e.g. Erasmus Teaching Exchange or payment of occurring costs by local institution of TG representative). @local organizers: In case you do want to apply for funding (max. 500 Euro) for hosting an event in 2016 we will need your funding bid by 15th May 16, for all events scheduled for 15th May, we will need all funding bids until 15th December 2016, for 2018, until 15th December 2017. Please note that if we receive more then one funding bid for 2017, we will need to take a decision for which event we will issue the funding bid. So please only submit it if you can’t rely on other funding sources. The funding bid decision will be taken by the AESOP EXCO during their specific meetings.