[URBANTH-L]Call for Papers: Eyes on the City

[Angela Jancius]

Call for Papers: Eyes on the City 

2006 Conference of the International Visual Sociology Association 

University of Urbino "Carlo Bo" 

Urbino, Italy 

July 3-5, 2006 

The theme of the 2006 IVSA conference is the city in its multiple 
facets: how urban spaces are shaped by human action and at the same 
time shape our lives. The aim of the conference is to examine, de- 
construct and re-construct the layers of the city, observing how the 
social is embodied in the built environment and how the built 
environment influences contemporary human interaction. 

Cities are visually rich. Urban space is filled with signs from the 
past and present: architecture, art, logos, advertisements, and 
warnings -- all of which compete for attention. Visual sociology can 
aid in disentangling meanings and social processes woven into the 
urban context. Visual sociology includes useful tools for 
understanding and interpreting the complexity embodied in urban 
space; making visible intersections between the rural and the urban, 
between historical legacies and cross-cultural processes; depicting 
local communities and global society; and elucidating social cohesion 
and social conflict. 

Visual researchers also construct their own images and interpretive 
narratives elucidating and questioning "the image" that cities 
project.  We welcome a wide variety of formats including video, 
poster sessions, installations, performances, photo exhibits, and 
multimedia presentations as well as traditional papers. 

Focusing on the city draws attention to the physical dimension of 
human interaction and to the spatial ground that gives rise to social 
phenomena. It also allows us to consider the dialectic between local 
communities and the global society. In order to address these issues, 
papers and sessions may include, but are not limited to, the 
following topics: 

1.    Living in cities: housing and the built environment, markets 
and consumption, fleeing to and fleeing from, tourism 

2.    Denizens of the city: diversity and anonymity, race, gender, 
sexuality and class, children and the aged, migrants and immigrants 

3.    Intellectual qualities of urban life: creative and cultural 
life "music, art, theatre" the city as archive and as repertoire, 
experimentation and innovation, education in and out of school, 
opportunities and barriers 

4.    Place and space: public spaces/private spaces, sacred and 
profane spaces, the city by night 

5.    Global connections: urban, suburban, rural and international 

6.    The city as process: gentrification, urban renewal, 
deindustrialization and urban decay, transportation and 
communication, historical legacy 

7.    The urban imaginary: identity, utopias and distopias, virtual 
cities, ideal cities and planned cities 

8.    War, crime, conflict, disaster and terror in cities 

9.    Centres and margins: Ethnic neighbourhoods, ghettos, slums, 
silk-stocking districts and skid rows 

10. The panoptical city: surveillance, discipline, police, prison, 
social work, mental health, public health, borders and social control 

Sessions, abstracts and deadlines 

Scholars interested in organizing sessions on the topics listed 
above, or other related topics, should submit proposals to the 
conference committee at the following e-mail ivsa-urbino at uniurb.it. 
Deadline for submission of session proposals is January 31st, 2006. 
Please submit an abstract of about 50-100 words on the session's 
theme to be used as guidelines for presenters. 

The final selection of sessions will be published by February 15th 
2006. Paper presenters will submit their abstracts to the session's 
chairs and to the conference committee. 

Papers can be submitted from February 15th to March 31st 2006 
The final programme will be published by May 1st, 2006 

Jerome Krase, Ph.D. 
Emeritus and Murray Koppelman Professor 
Brooklyn College 
The City University of New York 
Email:  jerrykrase at aol.com