[oberlist] RO* cfp/urb: Becoming Local Series, Bucharest Meeting (June 11-14, 2014)

[ober at emdash.org]

http://www.aesop-planning.eu/blogs/posts/en_GB/urban-cultures-and-public-spaces/2014/03/07/readabout/call-for-abstracts-becoming-local-series-bucharest-meeting-june-11-14-2014-bucharestbecoming-local-bucharest-meeting-june-11-14-2014-ion-mincu-university-of-architecture-and-urbanism-will-host-a-four-day-annual-meeting-of-the-aesop-thematic-group-of-pub

BECOMING LOCAL BUCHAREST MEETING  (June 11-14, 2014)

Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism will host a four-day
annual meeting of the AESOP thematic group of Public Spaces and Urban
Cultures in Bucharest, Romania. The meeting is a second one under
‘Becoming Local’ theme, following an inspiring first meeting in Istanbul
in November 2013. The aim of the ‘Becoming Local’ series is to share
international, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives in
studies of public spaces and urban cultures.

The objective of Bucharest meeting is to debate locally present issues
within a broader context of the post-socialistic communities across Europe
and wider. The field-visits, presentations and discussions of high quality
work of scholars and practitioners working on the theme aim to offer an
insight into the topic as well as provide valuable sources of inspiration
for further improvements of both theoretical and practical approaches in
the field.

Contacts

Gabriel Pascariu / Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism (on
behalf of local organising team)

gabriel.pascariu at uauim.ro

Matej Nikšič / Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia
(on behalf of AESOP thematic group)

matej.niksic at uirs.si

CALL for PAPERS

‘BECOMING LOCAL’ BUCHAREST

The atomising society and public space – the case of post-socialistic
territories

(Deadline for abstracts: Monday, April 14th 2014)

Eastern European countries have been in a state of a permanent
socio-economic change in the last century. The last major change took
place at a turn of a millennium and caused significant alterations of all
social strata with human relationships redefined and individual and
collective behaviours changed considerably. Consequently the communal
spirit was replaced with the individualism and visible social segregation.
The rise of commercialisation and privatisation more generally have been
shaping a new type of consumerist society seemingly characterised by a
weak social cohesion, weakened empathy and decreased solidarity.

The social changes are reflected more or less directly in a transformation
and evolution of urban public space. Newly designed public spaces, created
under the constrained financial budgets, profit-oriented economic
rationale, and with the know-how bounded with post-fordist economies,
often missed to address the cohesive dimensions. Some newly designed
public spaces may appear to be inviting and attractive at a first glance,
but a more thorough look often reveals their social flatness characterised
by lack of spontaneous encounters and usages of space, exclusiveness to
some user groups, exclusion of some disadvantaged users etc. This may
partly be a result of a widely spread top-down planning approach which
fails to understand and address communal as well as individual user’s
values, behaviours and needs in the broadest sense, as well as a result of
the ongoing commercialisation processes that have other than social
well-being objectives.

Similarly as elsewhere across the continent there were however nuances of
public life in Eastern European cities through time. Viewed from today’s
perspective some of them are prized and some criticized for their
(un)ability of supporting social life and building the commune. Many
cities for example have had some good inter-world-war traditions of sense
of public space, un- paralleled to any examples in the periods that
followed. On the other hand a number of cities got public spaces that were
not conceived for social contacts and improved sense of community in the
post-WWII period as they were rather designed to host public events
related to representation of political powers. Above all any
generalisations are uneven as a considerable variety of the approaches to
the provision of public space accross territories and times can be traced.

This complex situation opens challenging questions at both theoretical and
practical levels:
- What is the role of public space in the environments with a lost sense
of a community? Are there any specifics related to post-socialistic
societies in this sense?
- In what way can a sociality of place be strengthened through public
space provision?
- How local life was created in the frameworks of the communist regimes
(totalitarian social design?) and in space of Western Fordist welfare
states (total social design?) on the one hand, and how local life is
created nowadays under the influence of global flows on the other? To what
extent are the historical traditions and trajectories helpful in finding
contemporary ways of reviving communal being given the contemporary
socio-economic realities?

- Who is in charge of rethinking and improving urban public spaces in
service of local communities? What are the roles of civil society groups,
actors and collectives in these processes? What are the roles of each
individual her-/himself?

- (How) Can grand planning schemes create livable public spaces today?
- How can civil society and how can local authorities deal with the
increasing private interests in the field of public space (resulting in
its privatisation, commoditisation and commercialisation) in order to
protest and foster non-profit interests?
- How can market driven planning approaches be overcome in order to
provide inclusive public spaces and fair redistribution of (public and
collective) resources?

The Bucharest “Becoming Local” meeting aims to reflect different points of
view from the widest professional and general publics. Having in mind that
public space lies at an intersection of a number of disciplines and is a
crossroads between theory and practices, a discussion beyond disciplinary
or academic constraints is anticipated and contributors from any
professional background as well as non-academic groups (NGOs, state
actors, and so forth) are invited to add to the discussion.

Preliminary Meeting Schedule

Wednesday – June 11th 2014 – Arrivals & Introductory session

Thursday – June 12th 2014 – Field trip and discussions

Friday – June 13th 2014 – Workshops and panel discussion

Saturday – June 14th 2014 – Sum up & Departures

Abstract Submission (Deadline: April 14th 2014)

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short biography
of 100 words to Gabriel Pascariu atgabriel.pascariu at uauim.ro and to Matej
Nikšič at matej.niksic at uirs.si by Monday, April 14th 2014. We will
finalise the sessions and inform all respondents of the outcome by April
17th 2014.

Organisational and Advisory Board

Celia Ghyka, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism,Bucharest

Liviu Ianăşi, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and
Urbanism,Bucharest

Sabine Knierbein, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna

Matej Niksic, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Gabriel Pascariu, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism,
Bucharest

Ceren Sezer, Delft University of Technology, Urban4, Delft

Tihomir Viderman, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna

Fees

Participation to the meeting is free of charge.

Related Links

* TG Bucharest meeting (operational from April 2014 on):
www.becominglocalbucharest.org

* Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism: http://www.uauim.ro/en/

* Aesop: http://www.aesop-planning.eu/

* Aesop Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures:
http://www.aesop-planning.eu/blogs/en_GB/urban-cultures-and-public-spaces


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