UNSETTLED Urban routines, temporalities and contestations

The theme

The conference aims to explore conditions and conceptions of the unsettled. Urban life is characterized by diverse manifestations of instability which continuously stretch or redefine the social order and community infrastructures of cities: everyday struggles related to the capitalist system of production, revolutions in political life and political system overthrows, quests for dominance and their oppositions in political, social, economic, ecological or cultural domains. These unsettling practices simultaneously challenge and nourish a variety of idea(l)s of the city as an inclusive place of liberation, cooperation, equal opportunities and shared (better) futures.

The conference explores different notions of unsettled, and thus involves contributions reflecting one or more of the following aspects:

• unsettled as a condition or pre-requisite for urban change, where established political practices are challenged by (voices aiming at) incremental or more radical change;
• unsettled in the sense of the uneven making of public space through contrasting relations of power across daily routines and transformative urban strategies;
• unsettled as a state of mind which results from practices of unsettling which affect individuals and groups in both constructive and destructive ways;
• the acceptance of unsettled as a description of urban realities which are socially produced in and of material space – such as where people are displaced from their homes through warfare or economic and urban restructuring;
• and finally, of unsettled as a paradox, where the city is understood as both a place of settlement of buildings and populations while also a site of unsettlement through trajectories of constant change.

The goal of the conference is thus to

(1) understand the uncertainties, disturbances, inconsistencies, residuals and blind fields which constitute the urban both as lived space and the political idea(l),

and

(2) foster an inquiry into the socio-political potentialities of unsettling and re-settling urban routines, temporalities and contestations.

Registration

Please find an outline of the all information on the themes, the programme of the conference and the add-on day, keynote speakers and registration on our website.

Registrations are accepted until 15 February 2017.

Scientific Committee

Sybille Frank – Prof. Dr. for Urban Sociology and the Sociology of Space, TU Darmstadt, Germany, City of Vienna Visiting Professor 2016, TU Wien

Sabine Knierbein – Associate Professor for Urban Culture and Public Space, TU Wien; Head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, TU Wien

Elina Kränzle – Univ. Ass. MSc BSc, TU Wien

Nikolai Roskamm – Prof. Dr. phil. habil. for Planning Theory, Urban Design History and Sustainable Urbanism, FH Erfurt, Germany, City of Vienna Visiting Professor 2015, TU Wien

Tihomir Viderman – Univ. Ass. Dipl-Ing MSc, TU Wien

Ed Wall – Academic Leader Landscape, MUP, University of Greenwich, UK; Designated City of Vienna Visiting Professor 2017, TU Wien