The Cities Seminar
2010-2011 Theme: New Directions in Urbanism

The Cities Seminar meets monthly during the academic year, and features a combination of guest speakers and focused group readings and discussions.

The theme for the 2010-2011 seminar is “New Directions in Urbanism”. Our concern will be not only to identify and think through the implications of new (or newly recognized) urban forms, but also to address new concepts and paradigms in urban theory.

How are cities – and city life – changing in response to developments such as globalization, transnational migration, new media culture, and environmental engineering?
How does cultural production – ranging from literature and the visual arts to architecture and design – inform or contribute to those changes? What value do critical concepts such as the cosmopolitan, the global, the exurban, and the postmetropolitan have in current debates about cities?
What new concepts and categories do we need to address emergent urban scenes and new formations of urban identity?
Engaging with such questions, the Cities Seminar aims to stimulate open discussion, exchange, and debate on key urban topics within the humanities and beyond.

Seminar Programme
Sept 17: “Rethinking the Urban”, Prof. Gary Bridge (Centre for Urban Studies, Bristol University, UK)
Oct 15: “Other Cities, Other Worlds”, focused reading/discussion led by Prof. Christoph Lindner (ASCA)
Nov 18-19: “Paris-Amsterdam Underground” workshop. Details available on the conference page of this website.
Dec 10: “Smartcities and Eco-warriors”, Prof. CJ Lim (Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, UK)
The programme for Semester 2 will be posted here in December. The meeting dates for Semester 2 are: February 18, March 18, April 15, and May 13.

Refer to
Prof. Gary Bridge (University of Bristol)
Prof. CJ Lim (University College London)
Participation
Participation in the seminar is open to all members of ASCA and registered guests (Research MAs, urban practitioners, city-image makers, etc). Registration is by email to the organizer: Christoph Lindner (c.p.lindner [AT] uva [DOT] nl)