[URBANTH-L] CFP: Divided Cities (Transatlantic Graduate Research Program, Berlin)

[Angela Jancius]

From: "Florian Urban" <florian.urban at metropolitanstudies.de>

You are cordially invited to an international conference "Divided Cities"
Second Annual Conference Of The Transatlantic 
Graduate Research Program Berlin ­ New York: "History and
Culture of the Metropolis in the 20th Century"

A cooperation of Columbia University, New York 
University, Technische Universität zu Berlin,
Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

5 ­ 7 October 2006, New York City

Thursday, October 5
Room 1501, International Affairs Building,
Columbia University, 420 West 118th St., NYC

5:30 pm. Welcome by Volker Berghahn (New York) and Heinz Reif (Berlin)
Keynote Lecture by Thomas Bender (NYU): "History, Theory, and the Metropolis"

7:00 pm. Reception


Friday, October 6
Room 1512, International Affairs Building,
Columbia University, 420 West 118th St., NYC

8:30 am. Registration, Coffee

9:00 am.-10:30 am.           Panel I: Urbanization and Suburbanization
Chair: Oliver Schmidt (Berlin)
Presenters:
Harald Bodenschatz (Berlin), Kenneth Jackson (New York)

10:45 am.- 12:15 pm.                Panel II: Socio-Economic Inequalities
Chair: Gerhard Braun (Berlin)
Presenters: Jens Dangschat (Vienna), Peter Marcuse (New York)

12:15 pm. - 1:30 pm.                Buffet Lunch
Lunchtime Talk by Neil Brenner (New York): "Rethinking the Logic of
Comparison in Urban Studies: Promises and Pitfalls of the Globalization
Debates"

1:45- 3:15 pm.                         Panel III: Ethnic Divisions
Chair: Marion Kaplan (New York)
Presenters: Wolfgang Kaschuba (Berlin), Hasia Diner (New York)

3:15- 4:45 pm.                         Panel IV: Controversies over Memorials
Chair: Mary Nolan (New York)
Presenters:
Adrian von Buttlar (Berlin), Andreas Huyssen (New York)
Commentator:
Barry Bergdoll (New York)

4:45-5 pm.                               Coffee

5-6:30 pm.                               Panel V: Local and National Politics
Chair: Cordula Grewe (New York)
Presenters:
Margit Mayer (Berlin), John Mollenkopf (New York)

6:30-7 pm.                               Concluding Thoughts:
Erhard Schütz (Berlin) - Harvey Molotch (New York)

7:30 pm.                                  Dinner (By Invitation)


Saturday, October 7
Room 1512, International Affairs Building,
Columbia University, 420 West 118th St., NYC

9:00 - 10:45 am.                      Panel I: 
"Negotiating Conflicts Over Public Space"
Chair: Deike Peters (Berlin)
Presenters:
Jenny Künkel (Berlin): "The Limits of Sex in Public Space ­ Prostitution
Regimes at the Neighbourhood Level"

Gregory Donovan (New York): "Repurposing The Square: Digital Symptoms of a
Park's Privatization"

Claire Colomb (London): "Urban Renaissance, public space and social cohesion
in contemporary British cities. An emerging politics of 'Revanchist
Urbanism' or a socially sustainable renaissance of the inner city?" (working
title)

10:45 - 11:00 am.                      Coffee

11:00 am. - 12:30 pm.                Panel II: "Places of Creativity"
Chair: Doreen Jakob (Berlin)

Presenters:
Susanne Stemmler (Berlin): "Rap music ­ the sound of a divided city?"

A.Scott Currie (New York): "Putting the Lower East Side on the Map: Creative
Music Festivals and the Consolidation of an Avant-Garde Jazz Scene"

William Aguado: Executive Director Bronx Council on the Arts, BCA

Carolina Peñafiel: Local Project, Long Island City, New York

12:30 - 1:30 pm.                                Lunch

1:30 - 2:45 pm.                        Panel III: "Tourism and the City"
Chairs: Michelle Standley (New York) and Johannes Novy (New York)
Presenters:
Johannes Novy (New York): "Urban Tourism Beyond the 'Beaten Path' ­ Effects
on Neighborhoods In Disrepair"

Jonathan R. Wynn (New York): "Festival City: Preliminary Thoughts On
Studying Nashville's 'Signature Event'"

Michelle Standley (New York): "From Bulwark of Freedom to Cosmopolitan
Cocktails: Marketing West Berlin as a Cold War Showcase, 1960s to 1970s"

Ignacio Farías (Berlin): "Divided 'Divided' Berlin: Interpretative
Discrepancies In English-Speaking And German-Speaking Tours On The Berlin
Wall"

2:45 - 3:30 pm.                        Final Discussion and Closing Words

Please register for the conference at katja.sussner at metropolitanstudies.de

Information on the Presenters:

  Jenny Künkel (Berlin):
"The Limits of Sex in Public Space ­Prostitution 
Regimes at the Neighbourhood Level"

Despite (limited) recongnition of prostitution as work in Germany of
gentrification and inner city renewal is even seen to be rising a against
the background of increased interurban competition. This paper takes a look
at the other side of the coin: how & where sex work is integrated in the
divided city. Focusing on street sex work in two contrasting sites of a
major German city ­ the touristic night life center and a marginalized
neighborhood ­ it analyzes the factors that lead to the constitution
of specific prostitution regimes at the neighbourhood level. Exploring the
role of social space in this process it makes the claim that the perception
of the social space is just as important a factor for the way sex work is
regulated as the framing of sex work itself.

Jenny Künkel is a PhD candidate in political science at the Freie
Universität Berlin. In 2004 she received a degree in urban planning at
'Technische Universität Berlin'. Since then she takes part in the Berlin ­
New Yorker PhD programm 'History and Culture of the 20th Century City'
writing a thesis about the local politics of sex work.

Gregory Donovan (New York):
"Repurposing The Square: Digital Symptoms of a Park's Privatization"

This paper explores the role privatization has played in the repurposing of
New York -City's Union Square Park from an organizational space for
collective action to a 'passing-through-park' for tourists, commuters
and wireless communication. Tracing a shift from public to private
governance, beginning in the 1930s and culminating with the park's current
public/private  management, a decline in collective action at Union Square
can be found alongside an increase in individual wireless
communication, a displacement of union offices by anti-union retail stores,
and a privileging of 'tourist attractions' and 'marketing initiatives'
over public services for the local community. This paper concludes by
examining attempts by certain groups to reclaim the park for collective
action. By utilizing the organizational affordances of virtual space, these
groups are developing ways to overcome the barriers to waging collective
action in Union Square.

Gregory Donovan is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Psychology and a
Certificate candidate in Interactive Technology & Pedagogy at The City
University of New York Graduate Center as well as a fellow at the
Stanton/Heiskell Telecommunications Policy Center. He received his Bachelor
of Arts from Marymount Manhattan College in psychology with a minor
and professional certification in industrial/organizational psychology.
Located in New York City's Lower East Side, Gregory's writing and research
interests concern human-environment interactions, virtual space/place,
technology in educational environments and the privatization & governance of
public space. He is currently involved in projects regarding residential
private communities in New York City, the production of educational media
within the New Media Lab environment at CUNY, collective action in public
spaces and children's media research.



Claire Colomb (London):
"Urban Renaissance, public space and social cohesion in contemporary British
cities. An emerging politics of 'Revanchist Urbanism' or a socially
sustainable renaissance of the inner city?" (working title)

Since 1997 the New Labour government in the UK has put cities at the core of
its agenda, championing a new agenda for the 'Urban Renaissance' of British
cities and encouraging a 'back to the city' movement from the middle-class.
This contribution will examine the tensions and contradictions surrounding
the role of 'public space' in the Urban Renaissance agenda. Whilst public
space is at the heart of that agenda, in practice 'renaissance' strategies
geared at attracting middle-class consumers or residents have often been
associated with an increase in new mechanisms of social control and
surveillance. Whilst most UK authors recognise that the phenomenon of gated
communities and the dismissal of public space experienced in the US have no
equivalent in Europe, they all highlight the emergence or strengthening of
practices of control and regulation of public space in UK cities.

In contradiction with New Labour's social inclusion rhetoric, the practical
processes of social control associated with the physical regeneration of
urban space can therefore actually stimula processes of exclusion and
marginalisation. A number of academics have therefore associated the Urban
Renaissance agenda with Neil Smith's notion of 'Revanchist Urbanism'
(developed in the New York context). This contribution will conclude by
discussing the relevance and usefulness of this American concept for the UK
(and European) context.

Claire Colomb is Lecturer (assistant prof.) in European Spatial Planning and
Urban Sociology at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College
London. She trained as a sociologist and an      urban planner in Paris,
London, and Berlin. Her research interests cover the governance of planning
and urban policies in a European comparative perspective; the links between
collective memory, urban cultures, identities and the development of new
urban landscapes in cities in transformation; European spatial planning and
the impact of the EU on spatial planning practices across     Europe.

Susanne Stemmler (Berlin):
"Rap music ­ the sound of a divided city?"

Hip hop culture with its different musical, visual and corporeal artistic
styles emerged in a segregated urban context. The lyrics of rap music as
well as the music itself refer to racial and social exclusion. Still today,
there are underlying symbolic divisions within urban practice and music
business. On the other hand hip hop with its expressive power has a
communicative and expressive force     which goes far beyond territorial
boundaries - and even the urban context. By analyzing examples from Berlin
and New York my contribution will discuss the transgressive character rap
music in the urban context.

Susanne Stemmler is a Post Doc Fellow in the Transatlantic Graduate Research
Program Berlin ­ New York, working on a comparative project on Hip Hop in
Berlin, New York and Paris.

A. Scott Currie (New York):
"Putting the Lower East Side on the Map: Creative Music Festivals and the
Consolidation of an Avant-Garde Jazz Scene"

A doctoral candidate in the ethnomusicology program of New York University's
GSAS Music Department, Scott Currie is now completing a comparative
dissertation study of avant-garde jazz scenes in New York and Berlin, based
on ethnographic participant-observer field research with artist collectives
in both cities. He is currently teaching jazz, world music, and
African-American music at the Eastman School of Music, and has previously
taught at the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign and New York
University. He gratefully acknowledges the support of the German Marshall
Fund, which provided a fellowship grant for his field research.

William Aguado (New York)
Executive Director ,Bronx Council on the Arts', Bronx, New York.

BCA is celebrating over 40 years as a private, non-profit membership
organization that is the official cultural agency of Bronx County.
Recognized nationally as a leading arts service organization in providing
cultural services and arts programs, BCA serves a multicultural constituency
in excess of 1.2 million residents. Their mission is to encourage and
increase the public's awareness and participation in the arts, and to
nurture the development of artists and arts and cultural organizations.

Carolina Peñafiel (New York)
Founding member & organization coordinator of ,Local Project', LIC.

Local Project is a non-profit organization committed to building a forum for
artists, creating synergy between their art work and the public. LP supports
all forms of self-expression by providing an open space for artists without
concern to their genre, medium, or provenance. In using diversity as the key
to growth, both the artist and the community collaborate towards a richer
and fuller development of both.

Raised in Chile, Carolina at the age of 20 moved to New York City where she
worked a myriad of jobs. She began her work as a serious photographer in
1998. More recently she taught black and white photographic techniques to
Latin American immigrants and organized collective shows for her students.
She has shown her own photographic work as installations at Local Project
collective shows and served as judge and curator for community artistic and
expression contests in Brooklyn and Queens.

Johannes Novy (New York):
"Urban Tourism Beyond the 'Beaten Path' ­ Effects on Neighborhoods In
Disrepair"

Written in collaboration with Dr. Sandra Huning, my paper deals with the
question of how urban scholarship should evaluate the growing influx of
tourists into marginalized neighborhoods in cities in advanced countries.
Examining the cases of Berlin-Kreuzberg and Harlem, NYC, it will be argued
that the recent growth of tourism in neighborhoods "off the beaten path"
represents a complex, and sometimes even contradictory phenomenon that
despite its many risks and pitfalls deserves attention as a potential means
of neighborhood regeneration because it can not only bring about benefits in
terms of neighborhoods' local economy or built environment but also involves
potential benefits for communities that are related to their stock of social
and cultural capital.

Johannes Novy studied Urban Planning in Berlin and is currently working on
his PhD in Urban Planning at New York City's Columbia University. His
research interests include urban development in a cross-national
perspective, planning theory and urban tourism. Novy is an affiliated fellow
at the Center for Metropolitan Studies in Berlin, and recently became a
member of the RTN UrbEurope.

Jonathan R. Wynn (New York):
"Festival City: Preliminary Thoughts On Studying Nashville's 'Signature
Event'"

Since Richard Florida's groundbreaking study The Rise of the Creative Class
(2004), social scientists across the U.S. have focused on how cities
attract, nurture, and reinforce an image of creativity.  Festivals have been
identified as one such way, yet there has been little research to date on
how music festivals work in this capacity. This presentation will offer
preliminary findings on research conducted at this year's Country Music
Association Music Festival,  with a particular focus on how this city's
signature event' has a complex relationship with Nashvillians and the city
government.

Jonathan R. Wynn recently obtained his PhD in Sociology at CUNY with a
dissertation entitled The Walking Tour Guide: Cultural Workers in the
Disneyfied City, focusing on how tour guides both practice and produce
culture in New York City. Currently, he is a lecturer at Smith College and
is working on a research project on the relationship between festivals,
tourism, and urban culture.

Michelle Standley (New York):
"From Bulwark of Freedom to Cosmopolitan Cocktails:
Marketing West Berlin as a Cold War Showcase, 1960s to 1970s"

This paper will examine how West Berlin was marketed and repackaged as a
tourist destination in the decades following the construction of the Berlin
Wall in 1961. It will explore attempts by various organs of the tourist
industry to shape a Cold War tourist         gaze of West Berlin as a
counter model to communist society and as a worthy representative of the
best capitalist democracies had to         offer. I argue that
advertisements for the western half of the divided         city reflected
the tension between the ongoing need to promote West Berlin's status as the
frontline of the Cold War and the desire to package West Berlin as a
quintessentially "modern experience," firmly planted in the future and as
such disconnected from past and present political struggles.

Michelle Standley is a PhD candidate in modern European history at New
York University. She has spent the past two years as a research fellow with
the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst and the Berlin Program at the Freie
Universität in Berlin. Her dissertation, entitled "The Cold War Traveler:
Travel Dreams and Practices in East and West Germany, 1960s-1970s", looks at
the politics of leisure and mass tourism in the two Germanies. She is also
the book review editor of H-Travel, an academic discussion network devoted
to the history of tourism and travel.



Ignacio Farías (Berlin):
"Divided 'Divided' Berlin: Interpretative 
Discrepancies In English-Speaking and
German-Speaking Tours On The Berlin Wall"

The history of the Berlin Wall constitutes a central motif for every single
Berlin tour. Nevertheless, as my ethnographic work shows, the ways in which
the history of the division of the city is presented, performed and
interpreted significantly vary between English-speaking and German-speaking
tours. Simply put, touring the Wall in German is to a great extent about the
tragedy of the German division; meanwhile touring the Wall in English is
mainly about the Cold War and the political opposition between Allies and
Soviets. Starting from these observations, it will be argued that these
discrepancies are less related to differences between both tourist groups
than to the ways tour companies and tourist guides cope with tourists.

Ignacio Farías studied Sociology in Santiago de Chile and conducted
post-graduate studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology in Barcelona.
Currently he is a PhD Student in European Ethnology at the Humboldt
University Berlin and DFG Fellow at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at
the Technical University Berlin. His current main research interests are
social theory, particularly systems theory and Actor-Network Theory, and
urban studies, focusing on urban tourism and city-marketing.

The Saturday Conference is organized by Nicole Münnich,
nicole.muennich at metropolitanstudies.de

Prof. Dr. Florian Urban
Center for Metropolitan Studies
Technische Universität Berlin