Call for Panelists: The urban at a time of crisis; transformations of public spaces in crisis-ridden cities

[Dimitris Dalakoglou]

Call for Panelists
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting

Los Angeles, California, April 9-13, 2013
Session Title: The urban at a time of crisis; transformations of public spaces in crisis-ridden cities

Organizers:
Antonis Vradis, London School of Economics, UK
Dimitris Dalakoglou, University of Sussex, UK

The session aims to bring together critical geographers and researchers from affiliated disciplines examining transformations of public spaces in crisis-ridden cities, with a particular focus on countries of the Mediterranean and the European South. Fellow scholars from countries from across the globe who are examining specifically the transformation of the urban within their own crisis loci, are also warmly encouraged to apply. Past and present geographical studies of the fiscal-debt crisis sweeping through the peripheries of the Global West have tended to focus on its macro-geographical element, by literally looking at the uneven geographical spread and effect of the crisis (Aalbers, 2009). At the same time, the existing literature on the transformations of public spaces and the right to the city (e.g. Lefebvre, 1996; Low, 2006; Mitchell, 2003; Purcell, 2002) has been rarely, if at all, brought into the debate on what began as a quintessentially urban crisis (Harvey, 2012). The session aims to bridge the gap between the two bodies of literature; to essentially call for a lowering of the scale at which the present crisis is examined, focusing on tangible cases of transformation taking place at the urban terrain. Focused on transformations, eliminations and births of new public spaces in Athens, Greece (see Vradis & Dalakoglou, 2011), the session also aspires to extend to parallel —yet not necessarily similar— transformations occurring in other localities faced with the current global crisis.

Submissions: If you wish to participate, please submit expressions of interest and a brief abstract of 200-250 words to Antonis Vradis [e-mail] by October 15th. Successful submissions will be contacted by October 16th and will be expected to register and submit their abstracts online at the AAG website by October 24th 2012.