[URBANTH-L] CFP: Home, Migration and the City: Spatial forms and practices in a globalising world

Angela Jancius jancius at ohio.edu
Wed May 9 15:35:57 EDT 2007


 Home, Migration and the City: Spatial forms and practices in a globalising 
world

OPEN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL
SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS

Home, Migration, and the City: Spatial forms and practices in a Globalising 
world

The study of globalisation as the increasing interconnectedness between all 
aspects of social, cultural, economic, and political space has seen an 
unprecedented interest across social and political sciences, humanities, and 
urban studies. Seen as the direct result of globalisation, migration is now 
at the forefront of this investigation of cross-border connections, but this 
interest has predominately focussed on poor migrants' experiences in their 
host countries. Studies of globalisation have been silent on the connections 
between migration and built environments. On the one hand, it is suggested 
that the unprecedented movement of people in a globalising world will put 
particular emphasis on cities (in ways that they seek to attract particular 
types of people); and on the other hand, it is argued that such movement has 
led to a death of 'home' as a fixed place. Can cities be understood as dense 
agglomerations of built forms, which are also 'home' to those who live 
there? If so, what does the death of 'home' in a globalising world mean for 
the future of place, of built forms, and of cities?

In this call for papers, we would like to invite a range of 
interdisciplinary explorations from academics and practitioners alike, who 
can offer new perspectives and new insights, explore alternative theoretical 
models, and offer proposals that construct new meanings of 'home', 
migration, and the city in a globalising world. For this special issue, we 
lay particular emphasis on globalising cities of the South that are 
undergoing rapid social, cultural, and economic changes and can no longer be 
seen simply as the 'lands of origin' of migrants but increasingly as 
destinations. Similarly, there are those elite transnationals in the global 
South, whose mobilities challenge migration as a linear movement, and whose 
presence is increasingly felt in cities through the rise in luxury housing. 
On the other hand, the recent expansion of the European Union has meant the 
increased presence of post-socialist subjects in the global North, which has 
led to changes in the geographies and identities of public space in Northern 
cities. We want to ask how the everyday lives and subjectivities of such 
migrant subjects are represented in the cities through built forms. How are 
places and built forms re-appropriated, re-negotiated, and transgressed 
through such diverse forms of mobility? How does mobility produce 
spatialised struggles for migrant identities in cities? What are the various 
ways that built forms and spatial practices become new markers of a 
globalising world?

We are interested in fostering dialogue between academics and practitioners 
and in spatialising the notion of home and migration in both the North and 
the South. Our goal is to contribute to a new articulation of theory, 
practice, and ethics that help us better understand and deal with the 
conditions of globalisation and mobility through an examination of place, 
built forms, and spatial practice in cities across the world. The full 
length of the manuscripts is 4000 words. The Special Issue guest editor is 
Dr Ayona Datta, Lecturer, London School of Economics, UK. Please submit a 
1000 word abstract and a 150 word author bio by 31st July 2007 in the first 
instance by email to a.datta2 at lse.ac.uk.

Open House International is a refereed scholarly journal concerned with 
housing, design, and development in the built environment. It is interested 
in articles on theories, tools, and practices with special emphasis on the 
local scale. Since 2006, Open House International has been selected for 
coverage in Thomson's ISI Citation index products- The Social Science 
Citation Index, The Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Social Scisearch, 
Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences, Current Contents/Arts & 
Humanities and Journal Citation Reports / Social Sciences Edition.

Dr Ayona Datta
Department of Sociology
London School of Economics
London WC2A 2AE
Email: a.datta2 at lse.ac.uk
Visit the website at http://www.openhouse-int.com 



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