Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Friday, May 22, 2015

CfP: Utopian landscapes and landscape utopias

In ways both literal and figural, landscape history is a history of utopias. It is a history of places that have been richly imagined but that, perhaps by necessity, seldom fully realized. Many are not meant to be built at all. One of the oldest utopian landscapes is the paradise garden that features in many religious cultures of the West and the Middle East. On larger scales as well, utopian landscapes have been envisioned to improve the world as we know it, and they have been described in a variety of media including texts, diagrams, plans, paintings, and drawings. While utopia has long been a topic in architectural history and theory, designed landscapes have only rarely been addressed through this theoretical lens and utopian landscapes are still less well known.

This session seeks to uncover these utopian landscapes, and to expand the discussion of utopia, dystopia, and heterotopia in the history of the built environment. The session will provide the opportunity to explore the cultural, social, and political contexts of utopian, dystopian, and unbuilt landscapes; the role of design competitions in the fostering of landscape utopias; the relationship between imagined landscape designs and their (un)built projects; and the idea of utopia, dystopia, and heterotopia in landscape history. Questions to be addressed are not limited to but may include the following: What is the relationship between social and landscape utopias? What role have ideas of nature and space played in landscape utopias, dystopias, and heterotopias? How have utopian and dystopian landscapes been represented over time?

We invite paper proposals that deal with these and related topics and questions. Papers may address a variety of geographies, scales, representational media, and time frames, as well as a range of theoretical and historical issues.

The panel is part of the Society of Architectural Historians 69th International Annual Conference to be held in Pasadena/Los Angeles on April 6-10, 2016. Please submit paper proposals on the SAH website: http://www.sah.org/conferences-and-programs/2016-conference---pasadena-la. On this website you will also find more information about the conference.

Session chairs: Sonja Duempelmann, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, 404 Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; +1 617496;
sduempelmann@gsd.harvard.edu.sduempelmann@gsd.harvard.edu, and Michael Lee, University of Virginia, 111 Campbell Hall, P.O. Box 400122, Charlottesville VA 22904–4122; 434-924-6451; mgl4v@eservices.virginia.edu.

Monday, May 18, 2015

CFP (Detroit): Social Institutions and Sustainability Symposium (deadline June 15)

Ongoing environmental and social changes, such as climate change, population shifts, and globalization, have increasingly highlighted the question of sustainability—in terms of how communities may develop their human and natural resources, while ensuring long-term viability (e.g., via recycling products and resources, green manufacturing, regulating greenhouse gases, building resilient urban systems). This symposium centers on the role of social institutions vis-à-vis sustainable practices, noting that they play a crucial role in setting socioeconomic trends, fostering public engagement, and diffusing innovations.

We define “social institutions” broadly—to include formal organizations that set societal agendas (e.g., government agencies, corporations, local and international nonprofits, media, community groups), and institutionalized best practices of the contemporary social order (e.g., governance, due diligence, scientific rigor, risk management). We encourage research that examines how existing social institutions may both restrict and enable the scope of sustainability; how they may be transformed by sustainable practices leading to newer, more adaptable institutions; and how sustainable solutions to specific environmental and social problems have been facilitated by incorporating social components into their approach.
Procedures and timeline for submissions:
  • Submit an abstract (up to 500 words) by June 15, 2015, with your bio and contact details, to ssf@wayne.edu
  • Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by July 1, 2015
  • Accepted authors will be asked to register for the symposium. Registration is free for all attendees.
  • All accepted authors are invited to submit a full version of their paper (up to 8,000 words), for peer review to a Special Issue of the journal Critical Sociology.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Monday, May 11, 2015

Summer School “Sustainable development: Conflicts and their Solutions on Post-Soviet Space”



The main objective of the Summer School “Sustainable development: Conflicts and their Solutions on Post-Soviet Space” is to give students from the EU understanding of different conflicts on Post-Soviet space.
For this reason, we worked out an intensive educational program with huge practice component, showing the history and actual political problems. Main subjects of our summer school are:
  • “history” — historical perspective on the problem of conflict existence;
  • “culture” — traditions and differences in mentalities and ideologies of peoples in post-soviet countries;
  • “politics and geopolitics” — development of CIS, different points of view and political reasons of conflicts (including economic one) and, of course, a deeper look on all “conflicts on post-soviet space” and “conflict-management”.
All these modules consist of lectures, seminars and practical work, like meetings with national minority organizations or active workshops. To complete the program there will be also excursions around Kharkiv region, which are connected with topics of the modules.
http://www.univer.kharkov.ua/en/study/exchange/schools/sustainable_development 



Wednesday, May 6, 2015

CfP: After the Berlin Wall: 25 years of transformations


We are pleased to invite you to the 7th Slovenian Social Science Conference on ”After the Berlin Wall: 25 years of transformations” organized by the  Junior Sociological Network of the International Sociological Association, the Slovenian National Committee of the UNESCO Management of Social Transformations Program (MOST) and  the School of Advanced Social Studies (Fakulteta za uporabne družbene študije), that will take place in Nova Gorica, Slovenia,  21th - 23th August 2015. 

 

In order to consider the influence of the communist legacies, transition processes and nowadays situation in post-communist countries in a broad spectrum of social reality, the conference will include panels dealing with cultural, economic and political issues. The fall of the Berlin Wall will be (re)considered as a demarcation of the new social and political order, which signified the post-communist countries in the global context. The conference welcomes all contributions addressing the various aspects of these transition processes and its implications on today’s society on different levels referring to the macro and micro dimensions of the listed phenomena. Comparisons with other types of transformations, such as those taking place in Latin America and Africa are also encouraged, as well as placing the “East” ant the “West” in comparative perspectives. 

 

For further info:

http://www.isa-sociology.org/junior_sociologists_network.htm

cfp: European Architectural History Network: Fourth International Meeting, Dublin 2016

Abstracts are invited for the sessions and round tables outlined in the following wwebiste https://eahn2016conference.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/. They may be submitted between 1 June and 30 September 2015. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted to the conference website along with applicant’s name, professional affiliation, title of paper or position, a C.V. of no more than five pages, home and work addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. [Submissions: eahn2016conference@gmail.com]
In order to chair or present at the conference, one must be a member of EAHN – further details at members.eahn.org/members
Sessions will consist of either five papers or of four papers and a respondent with time for questions and dialogue at the end. Each paper should take no more than 20 minutes to present. Abstracts for session presentations should define the subject and summarize the argument to be made in the presented paper. The content of that paper should be the product of well-documented original research that is primarily analytical and interpretive rather than descriptive.
Round tables will have no more than six participants plus chairs and an extended time for dialogue, debate and discussion among participants and their public. Each discussant will have 10 minutes to present a position. Abstracts for round tables should summarize the position to be taken.
Papers may not have been previously published, nor presented in public. Only one submission per author will be accepted. All abstracts will be held in confidence during the selection process. In addition to the 20 thematic sessions and 4 round tables in the document below, open sessions may be announced. With the author’s approval, thematic session chairs may choose to recommend for inclusion in an open session a paper that was submitted to, but does not fit into, a thematic session.
Session and round table chairs will notify all persons submitting abstracts of the acceptance or rejection of their proposals and comment upon accepted ones no later than 31 October 2015. Authors of accepted paper proposals must submit the complete text of their papers to their chairs by 15 February 2016. Chairs may suggest editorial revisions to a paper or position in order to make it satisfy session or round table guidelines and will return it with comments to the speaker by 15 March 2016. Chairs reserve the right to withhold a paper or discussion position from the program if the speaker has refused to comply with these guidelines. It is the responsibility of the chair(s) to inform speakers of these guidelines, as well as of the general expectations for both a session and participation in this meeting. Each speaker is expected to fund his or her own registration, travel and expenses to Dublin, Ireland.
Additional Guidelines for Paper Sessions: No paper may have more than two authors. Final presented papers should be no more than 2500 words, although texts of up to 4000 including notes may be included in the proceedings (submission to the proceedings is optional).
Additional Guidelines for Round tables: Initial position statements should be no more than 1250 words.   Position statements of up to 2500 words including notes will be accepted for the proceedings (submission to the proceedings is optional).

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

CfA – The Housing System /Berlin

 
The House of the World’s Cultures (HKW) host a week-long academy to the project “Housing System” and addresses PhD students, Master students and PostDocs from different academic disciplines as well as practitioners from the fields of urban planning and urban development. With the help of international examples participants will learn about the “Housing System” and reflect their knowledge to discuss alternatives to it. The participation at the academy is free.
 
Deadline: 01/06/2015
For further information about the application and the complete program please look at:
http://hkw.de/de/programm/projekte/2015/wohnungsfrage/academy/the_housing_system.php?nws=1

 Erbil, Irak | Von der UNESCO als der am längsten durchgängig bewohnte Ort der Welt identifiziert | © Jim Gordon, 2007, Photograph, CC-BY 2.0