
ANISTORITON: History News
Volume 8, June 2004, Section H042
http://www.anistor.co.hol.gr/index.htm
CONFERENCE
Urban Images and Representations in Europe and beyond during the 20th century
"Urban Images and Representations in Europe and beyond during the 20th century"
Organized by Jochen Guckes (Berlin) und Sandra Schuermann (Hamburg),
27 -30 Oct 2004,
Athens-Piraeus
Specialist Session at the 7th International Conference on Urban History;
October 2004
The way in which cities are perceived and what is thought appropriate for
them in terms of public representation has become the focus of a growing
number of works in different subfields of urban history. How those with
power chose to represent "their" town in public, which views on history and
future were circulated, and which measures were taken to make the built city
fit the image - these questions are not only subjects of interest in their
own right, but also reveal a great deal about the social order in a place.
Self-images of towns, foreigners' perceptions, descriptions of a place's
present state and imaginations of a better future also closely mirror
questions of identity and reflect the process of adaptation to modernity in
an urban environment, i.e. the process of "cultural urbanization".
Especially during periods of conflict and change, the underlying ideas and
their constructedness become visible and obvious.
Urban images also reflect more general attitudes of social groups present in
the city and thus can be analyzed as representations of social order at
large. The way in which different actors - city council, educated middle
classes or working class and their associations and institutions - fought
for their vision of the appropriate (self-)image, apprehended existing
images and established boundaries within and around the city (by including
and excluding contradicting images) mirrors the historical processes that
were under way in these towns. While analyzing these representations, the
profound spatiality of the city's social order becomes obvious, since
conflicts over class, ethnicity, gender and religion were deeply rooted in
the respective urban territories. The built environment as well as concepts
of town planning illustrate the results of many a struggle within urban
society.
Analyzing narratives and discourses as well as social practices resulting
from them (e.g. local festivities and performances) allows one to show the
social order of the respective city with all its conflicts. The study of the
fundamental ideas and cultural expressions will also show the links of these
urban representations to other communal, regional, national and ultimately
global trends and processes.
The aim of this session is to gather case studies from a broad geographical
and temporal horizon that will allow us to analyze common aspects as well as
significant differences in an international perspective.
Papers should address at least one of the following key questions:
· How were towns represented in a given historical context? How did those
(self-) images change or remain stable during the 20th century?
· How were representations and self-images translated into built structures?
· Which different groups within the city attempted to represent "their" town
and how were the power relations between them? Who was included or excluded
in urban (self-)images and how did these processes mirror social order?
· Which functions for an urban society were fulfilled by urban
representations? Which role did play different kinds of references to the
city's past or future for them?
· How did conflicts over (self-)images mirror the adaptation to urbanization
and urbanity in general?
· What influence and importance did external factors - such as war, ruptures
of the political system, or change of economic and demographic structures -
have on urban (self-)images?
To facilitate a comparative perspective, the organizers welcome not only
case studies on specific cities but especially encourage papers that look at
cities in different countries. It is planned to include examples from
different European regions.
Papers can be given both in English and French and will be pre-circulated.
Participants should be prepared to give only a five to ten minutes
presentation of their main theses at the conference to allow for longer
discussion.
If you are interested in participating, please email an abstract of your
paper (up to 500 words) and a brief CV to the session organizers.
Contact:
Jochen Guckes
Humboldt-Universita"t zu Berlin
Institut fu"r Geschichtswissenschaften
Unter den Linden 6
D-10099 Berlin
guckesj@geschichte.hu-berlin.de
and
Sandra Schuermann
Museum der Arbeit
Poppenhusenstr. 12
22305 Hamburg
schuermann.sandra@web.de
________________________________________________________________________
H-ARTHIST
Humanities-Net Discussion List for Art History
E-Mail-Liste fuer Kunstgeschichte im H-Net
Editorial Board Contact Address / Fragen an die Redaktion:
hah-redaktion@h-net.msu.edu
Submit contributions to / Beitraege bitte an:
h-arthist@h-net.msu.edu
Homepage: http://www.arthist.net
________________________________________________________________________
