STUDY PROG MA “Social Design – Arts as Urban Innovation”, University of Applied Arts Vienna (Angewandte), Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität (KONS), Vienna, Austria.

“Social Design -Arts as Urban Innovation” is a new master programme at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Angewandte) and the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität
(KONS).

Urban Environment
Today, more than half of the world population lives in cities, and according to UN reports another 200,000 people arrive each day. In the next 20 years, cities around the globe will expand by 1.5 million square kilometres and in 25 years two-thirds of the world population will live in cities. In this global event we can identify the triggering factors behind tremendous restructuring processes: the transformational power of the industrial and digital revolution. This development places cities as complex, self-generating environments under enormous pressure. Through the densification and concentration of the population, economy, capital, and media, as well as culture and knowledge in urban agglomerations, both their spatial and social fabric are subject to overproportional stress.

Social Design
In order to account for this global development, new concepts are needed that address the overall process of knowledge production in society. Especially art universities are predestined to formulate these new, distinct perspectives on the inherent logic of cities and the corresponding dynamics of their processes. Artistic research can generate links between multifaceted disciplinary expertise and the problems posed by the urban realm. The University of Applied Arts Vienna (Angewandte) in cooperation with the Konservatorium Wien University (KONS) have therefore implemented a new master degree programme dedicated to these challenges that emerge within urban social systems and the broad spectrum of related issues. The shaping of reality viewed on the example of urban agglomerations and contrasted with the urban context of Vienna initially forms both the field of work and the scale for the realisation of the individual projects.

Transdisciplinary Programme Structure
The master programme is oriented towards graduates from diverse fields of study, thereby stipulating work in transdisciplinary teams as the central teaching and learning approach in the programme. On the basis of professional competences acquired in their respective previous studies, students become acquainted with transcending disciplinary codes and thinking and working in greater interrelationships. Art in synergy with project-related scientific methods and knowledge is seen as a tool for urban innovation. The academic principle of research-oriented teaching is further enhanced by cooperations with non-university institutions.

Apply Now!!!
Deadline for Submission of Portfolio (Part one of entrance exam): 14.09.2012
Entrance Exam: 24.09.2012 – 28.09.2012

Detailed Information about the Programme and the Entrance Exam:
http://www.dieangewandte.at/socialdesign_en
http://www.konservatorium-wien.ac.at/en/studies/social-design-arts-as-urban-innovation/

Contact
Social Design – Arts as Urban Innovation
Universität für angewandte Kunst / University of Applied Arts
Oskar Kokoschka-Platz 2, 1010 Wien/ Vienna, Austria
Mail socialdesign@uni-ak.ac.at
https://www.facebook.com/SocialDesignArtsAsUrbanInnovation

 

CONF UCL Urban Laboratory Cities Methodologies 2012. London, UK. 4.-7.7.2012

UCL URBAN LABORATORY CITIES METHODOLOGIES 2012

UCL Slade Research Centre
Woburn Square, London

4-7 July, 2012
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanlab/en2/index.php?page=3.0.0

Inaugurated in 2009, Cities Methodologies is an initiative to showcase innovative methods of urban research from across UCL and the wider urban research community. Through peer-reviewed exhibits and events, it draws together undergraduate, masters, and doctoral research, alongside work produced by academics and other researchers and practitioners. Cities Methodologies promotes cross- and inter-disciplinary work and this year showcases recent research on a wide range of cities including Detroit, Paris, London, Johannesburg, Mumbai and Beirut.

This year, through a public call for participants, we particularly welcomed proposals on:

  • Collaborative/public methods for urban research;
  • Mega events and urban change;
  • Housing and dishousing.

Visitors to Cities Methodologies will encounter diverse methods of urban research in juxtaposition – from archival studies to digital media experiments, practice-led art, architectural and design work to film-making, soundscapes, games and public sculpture.

All events are free and open to the public. For full programme of events and exhibitors please click here http://www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanlab/en2/index.php?page=3.0.0

Laura Hirst
Urban Laboratory Administrator
UCL

EVENTS, FILM Premiere and Screening: Builders and The Games, A film about construction workers and the building of the Stratford Olympic Park. London. 8.7.2012 & 2.8.2012

Builders and The Games
57 min. documentary dir. Margaret Dickinson.
A film about construction workers and the building of the Stratford Olympic Park
Two Screenings: July 8th and August 2nd

1) Official premiere – July 8th 1.30 pm Stratford Picture House: http://www.eastendfilmfestival.com/programme/1707/builders-and-the-games
Screening with Pudding Mill Lane 10 min documentary dir. Ausra Linkeviciute, one of the short films made in association with Builders and The Games.
Cinema address: Salway Road London E15 1BX (Stratford tube/rail)

2) And free showing of Builders and The Games with all 4 associated short films by young directors and discussion followed by drinks: August 2nd, 6pm, Raven Row Gallery 56 Artillery Lane, London E1 7LS. (Liverpool St. Station tube/rail)

For more information: www.constructionandthegames.com

EVENTS Architecture as antidote: should cities make us fit? UCL, London. 4.7.2012

Architecture as antidote: should cities make us fit?
4th July, 7pm – 9pm, Henry Wellcome Auditorium, Wellcome Trust, 183 Euston Road, London

A panel of architects and health experts debate the role of architecture and cities in creating healthy lifestyles. Should architects be part of the growing campaign of “fit cities”, or does this represent the medicalisation of architecture?

The debate will be chaired by Claire Fox, Director of the Institute of Ideas. Speakers include Mirko Zardini, Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and curator of the recent exhibition Imperfect Health: the Medicalization of Architecture; David Burney, Commissioner of New York Dept. Design & Construction; Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet and Teva Hesse, Director at CF Møller Architects.

Tickets for this event are available at: http://lfa2012-debate.eventbrite.co.uk

CfP, CONF Space and Childhood in History. Sixth Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY), University of Nottingham, UK. 25.-27.6.2013. Deadline: 31.10.2012

SPACE AND CHILDHOOD IN HISTORY
Sixth Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Children and
Youth (SHCY)
University of Nottingham

25-27 June, 2013

Deadline: 31 October, 2012

The Program Committee invites scholars to submit proposals for formal panels, roundtable discussions, and research-in-progress workshops on any aspect of the histories of children and youth, from any place and in any
era. But we are especially interested in sessions that examine and compare how space and childhood are mutually constitutive in historically and geographically specific settings. Our call, inspired by the French political philosopher Henri Lefebvre, posits that for any person, including children and youth, there is a dynamic rather than a static relationship between a physical place, its social make-up, and childhood as an ideal or imagined condition. The production of space, as Lefebvre famously insisted, happens in the physical world, the social world, and the imagined world. We ask scholars to investigate space not just as a backdrop for the lived experiences of children but as a tangible, social, and discursive construction, which shapes and is shaped by the lives and experiences of children. Although committee prefers proposals for complete sessions and panels that incorporate international representation and global perspectives, individual papers will also be considered.

/// Session guidelines
Sessions will last approximately 90 minutes. At least fifteen minutes should be reserved for audience discussion. This may mean fewer — or shorter — formal papers, entertaining comments from the audience rather than scheduling a formal commentator, etc.

/// Submitting proposals
In order to be considered for the program, proposals must be received no later than October 31, 2012. They should include the following information:

  1. Session title (or title of individual paper)
  2. The session organizer’s name, department, institution, address, and e-mail address
  3. The following information for all participants:
    – Names and roles (paper-presenter, chair, discussant, etc.
    – department and institution
    – address and e-mail address
  4. 250-word abstract for each paper
  5. 2-pp. CV for each participant
  6. Please state what, if any, audio-visual technology will be required for each session or paper.

All parts of the proposal should be gathered into one PDF document and sent as an email attachment to james.marten@marquette.edu. The program committee will finalize decisions no later than January 31, 2013.

Direct queries to the co-chairs of the program committee:
James Marten, Marquette University, james.marten@marquette.edu
Marta Gutman, City College of New York, mgutman@ccny.cuny.edu

The other members of the committee are:
Margot Hillel, Australian Catholic University
Mary Clare Martin, University of Greenwich
Dirk Schumann, Universität Göttingen
Nicholas Syrett, University of Northern Colorado

Marta Gutman
Associate Professor
Spitzer School of Architecture
City College of New York (CUNY)

PUB Analyzing Urban Networks Through the Lens of Corporate Networks: A Critical Review. GaWC. B. Derudder, X. Liu

B. Derudder, X. Liu

Paper here: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb398.html

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of three major empirical models for approximating urban networks based on corporate networks: the ownership linkage model, the interlocking network model, and the two-mode network model. We review the assumptions, implementations, strengths and shortcomings of these models through pedagogic examples. Based on this review, we suggest that (1) there exists a need to synthesize analytical results from different models; (2) calibration approaches are needed to improve the falsifiability of modeling results; and (3) the two-mode network approach seems to be the most promising approach for analyzing urban networks through corporate networks as it is capable of assessing cities and firms simultaneously, as well as modeling the underlying network formation process.

Key words: Corporate networks, ownership linkages, interlocking network model, two-mode networks

LECTURE Urban Perspectives of the World Inaugural Lecture Prof. Jan Nijman. UvA, Amsterdam, NL. 27.6.2012

Urban Perspectives of the World

Inaugural Lecture Prof. Jan Nijman

Wednesday, 27 June 2012, 16:00 – 17:00

Inaugural lecture Urban Studies

Urban Perspectives of the World

Urban Perspectives of the World

The world is in the midst of an urban revolution – a revolution that took shape in the 1980s and that is likely to continue for another couple of decades.

Similar to the industrial-urban revolution of the 19th century, the current revolution is closely related to the emergence of a new mode of production, this time in the form of the information economy.

The main geographical centers of the current urban revolution are located in China and India, but the reverberations are worldwide. Cities like New York or Amsterdam, for example, have been reshaped profoundly – economically, socially, spatially, and politically.

The renewed surge of the field of Urban Studies in the academy is accompanied with a demand for ‘urban knowledge’ by government, corporations, and other interest groups. It is an opportune moment, thus, for critical reflection about the nature of this interdisciplinary field and its societial relevance.

Jan Nijman

Jan Nijman is Professor of Urban Studies and director of the Centre. He also chairs the undergraduate programme in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Trained as a geographer (PhD, U of Colorado at Boulder, 1990), his interests reach across the social sciences and humanities. Most of his work deals with urban theory and the role of cities in their broader regional and historical contexts. His regional expertise is in North America and South Asia, with special interests in Miami and Mumbai. He has 15 years of research experience in urban India. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation (USA), National Geographic Society, Guggenheim Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

His current research projects focus on the rise and fall of US suburbs (part of a larger collaborative and comparative project on global suburbanism) and on the economic and cultural geographies of slums in Indian cities.

Location

Singel 411
1012 WN  Amsterdam
Source: Urban Studies
urbanstudies@uva.nl

CONF, CfP Sensing the City: Experience, Emotion and Exploration, c.1600-2013. York, UK. 4.-5.4.2013. Deadline: 28.9.2012

SENSING THE CITY: EXPERIENCE, EMOTION AND EXPLORATION, C.1600-2013

Urban History Group Conference
University of York, UK
4-5 April, 2013

Deadline: 28 September, 2012

The urban sensescape is an underdeveloped aspect of Urban History. This conference explores the ways in which people have developed relationships with, and to, the urban environment from early modern times to the present.
Recently, the ’emotive turn’ has sought to address the neglected yet important subjects of touch and smell in the city that Joseph Rykwert identified in his book _The Seduction of Place: The History and Future of Cities_[Ed. Vintage Press, 2002]. This conference seeks, therefore, to engage with the emotive turn to explore how people have, since the early modern times, explored and experienced the city through their senses. It also seeks to identify the types of strategies that condition the development of an urban sensescape.
Continue reading “CONF, CfP Sensing the City: Experience, Emotion and Exploration, c.1600-2013. York, UK. 4.-5.4.2013. Deadline: 28.9.2012”

BOOK Brent D. Ryan, Design After Decline: How America Rebuilds Shrinking Cities, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

Brent D. Ryan, Design After Decline: How America Rebuilds Shrinking Cities, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14995.html

Almost fifty years ago, America’s industrial cities – Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore, and others – began shedding people and jobs. Today they are littered with tens of thousands of abandoned houses, shuttered
factories, and vacant lots. With population and housing losses continuing since the 2007 financial crisis, the future of neighborhoods in these places is precarious. How we will rebuild shrinking cities and what urban design vision will guide their future remain contentious and unknown.

In _Design After Decline_, Brent D. Ryan reveals the fraught and intermittently successful efforts of architects, planners, and city officials to rebuild shrinking cities following mid-century urban renewal. With modern architecture in disrepute, federal funds scarce, and architects and planners disengaged, politicians and developers were left to pick up the pieces. In twin narratives, Ryan describes how America’s two largest
shrinking cities, Detroit and Philadelphia, faced the challenge of design after decline in dramatically different ways. While Detroit allowed developers to carve up the cityscape into suburban enclaves, Philadelphia
brought back 1960s-style land condemnation for benevolent social purposes. Both Detroit and Philadelphia “succeeded” in rebuilding but at the cost of innovative urban design and planning.
Continue reading “BOOK Brent D. Ryan, Design After Decline: How America Rebuilds Shrinking Cities, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.”

INTERVIEW “City Life: Dichotomies in an Urbanizing India”: Q&A with Ananya Roy

“City Life: Dichotomies in an Urbanizing India”: Q&A with Ananya Roy

According to the 2011 census, India’s urban growth has surpassed rural growth for the first time in 90 years. This population shift from rural to urban areas underscores the impact of globalized economic progress on Indian society and highlights socio-economic differences. Consequently, urbanization has led to hasty attempts at fixing disparities, such as to develop informal housing sectors, readdress politics in expanding cities, and relocate urban poor.

In an interview with NBR, Ananya Roy (University of California, Berkeley) discusses the impact of India’s move toward urbanization on city planning and design, economic growth, urban politics and what this trend implies for growing metropolises globally.

Read the full interview for insights on the following issues:
– How urbanization could transform Indian politics
– The role of informality in the Indian context and its relationship to class
– How India can look to other Asian cities and even Brazil as inspiration for its urban policy

Link: http://m.nbr.org/N1jBGN

Tracy Timmons-Gray
The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)
Seattle, WA