CRESC Annual Conference ‘Framing the City’

by: Robert Grimm - May 9th, 2011  

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 – 09:00 – Friday, September 9, 2011 – 17:00
Venue

Royal Northern College of Music- Manchester
Description

The deadline for submitting papers is the end of April, not the end of February as was previously advertised.

The CRESC annual conference 2011 takes the rubric of ‘framing’ to scrutinise the processes by which the city has been  conceptualised, conceived , ordered and depicted – and how these processes have been disrupted and contested – in regard to the meta-themes of: the material, ecologies and environments, publics & politics, economies, the visual, and affect.

Cities are now where more than half of humanity live and urban processes affect the whole globe.  The rates of growth, diversity of population, complexity of their activities, as well as the scale of the problems (and possibilities) they pose, are breathtaking.  This conference seeks to capture the diversity and complexity of cities and city life and to explore different routes to understanding ‘the city’ through the forces of materials, objects, economies, politics, microbes and emotions – as well as humans and their projects and purposes.

The conference will be organised according to the following themes:

* The Material – city objects, plans, designs, built environment, assemblages
* Publics and Politics – migration, social movements, networks, mobilities, cultural practices, governance, urban policy, security
* Economies – financialisation, neo –liberal city, diverse economies, post-industrialisation, post recession futures
* Visual – mapping, photographing, filming, drawing, the unseen city, the act of seeing, digital visualisations
* Ecologies and environment – sustainability, eco-systems, spatiality, topologies
* Affect – the imaginary, literature, music, dance, the senses, fear, passion

Key note speakers will address each of the themes (speakers are to be confirmed)

Outside of the conference sessions there will also be an opportunity for exhibitions, stalls, performances.
Call for Papers

Please submit either (a) proposal for individual papers, or (b) panel proposal including 3 papers by the end of April 2011 by using the proposal forms online. Abstracts should not be more than 250 words.

The proposal forms should be sent to the CRESC Conference Administration, 178 Waterloo Place, Oxford Road, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Tel: +44(0)161 275 8985 / Fax: +44(0)161 275 8985

CRESC.AnnualConference@manchester.ac.uk

Website:  www.cresc.ac.uk

About: Robert Grimm

All over Europe, cities are faced with the challenge of using cultural resources to re-position their city in an increasingly culturally and economically diversified European space. Related to this is a clear recognition of the growing importance of cultural resources for economic and community development. This produces new opportunities and challenges for local cultural planning and management. In order to fully exploit the innovative and supportive role of culture in European urban development, it will be necessary to develop a new socially and culturally sensitive professionalism, able to cross the boundaries between the arts, design, urban and spatial planning, public policy and the market, artistic creativity and cultural management. The MA in European Urban Cultures offers a specialist programme aimed at graduate students from Europe and elsewhere with undergraduate degrees in subject areas such as the social sciences; cultural and leisure studies; art, design and architecture; urban theory and planning; cultural marketing and management. The course is also targeted at professionals and administrators eager for the latest experiences, ideas and insights in urban cultural policy.