Call for Papers
Association of American Geographers
Los Angeles9 -- 13 April
"Socialist and post-Socialist Urbanisms: Critical Reflections;
Comparative Perspectives"
Douglas Young, York UniversityToronto
Lisa Drummond, York UniversityToronto
Urban life in the 21^st century has been shaped in quite significant
ways by the thoughts, practices, ideologies and social organization of
the 20^th century. We seek papers that focus on the urban legacies of
20^th century socialism and explore their impact on urban policy,
spatial form and everyday life in the 21^st .With the neoliberal model
of city-building appearing to be in crisis mode and new approaches to
urban issues urgently needed, we consider the possibility that a
critical reassessment of the legacies of socialist models could provide
valuable lessons for urban policy makers and citizens alike.
Actually existing socialism has taken many forms ranging from social
democracy to repressive state socialism. The common thread of the
'social' that runs through them all is a commitment to the modernist
idea of universal progress, a desire to create a socially
de-differentiated society, and a heightened degree of state intervention
in processes of city-building and urban governance.We seek papers that
explore urban areas representing some of those variations of socialisms
as well as variations in their fates. These could be cities that are
socialist today, cities in countries that are transitioning to market
socialism, post-socialist cities, and cities in neo-liberalizing former
social democracies.
We particularly welcome papers that will contribute to the development
of comparative perspectives (for example, Asia and Europe) if not within
individual papers then from the sum of papers on the panel as a whole.
Papers could explore a wide range of topics including urban planning,
housing, social policy, community development, local politics, economic
restructuring and political ecology.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Douglas Young
([email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>) and Lisa Drummond (drummond
@yorku.ca) by 8 October.
--
Douglas Young
Associate Professor and Coordinator, Urban Studies
Department of Social Science
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto ON
Canada M3J 1P3
Office: S702 Ross
tel: 416-736-2100 x77829
fax: 416-736-5615
