[URBANTH-L] ESF Conference: The Right to the City: New Challenges, New Issues (Sweden)

[Angela Jancius]

ESF Research Conferences

THE RIGHT TO THE CITY: NEW CHALLENGES, NEW ISSUES

Dates:  11-15 October 2008
Location: Klosterhotel, Vadstena, Sweden

Preliminary Programme: As it has been largely documented, modern states are 
facing political rescaling processes in which the roles and functions of the 
different levels of government are evolving. Thus city-regions are becoming 
central economic and political territories in which a new division of labour 
is occurring between the states and the local authorities. This tendency has 
been particularly analysed by the economic literature but also by geography, 
sociology and political science. At the same time, there is a large 
literature on the general tendency towards the pluralization of urban 
decision systems in different institutional, cultural, political and 
economic contexts. To say it briefly, these processes (i.e. political 
rescaling and participative democracy at local level) generate a new "right 
to the city": the capacity to influence the agendas of urban public 
institutions by using "appropriate" demands based on the formulation of 
rights recognized as legitimate by urban institutions. The on-going process 
of the constitution of an "urban citizenship" involves a set of social 
demands which are, by definition, contradictory in that sense that the 
"right to the city" must be linked to the social groups and classes using it 
in order to organize themselves, to generate collective identity and 
collective action. The work program of the Conference addresses a number of 
empirical subjects, all vectors of a "right to the city". Its objective is 
to compare the effects of these dynamics on the content of urban policies 
and on the transformation of citizenship regimes.

ESF Research Conferences provide the opportunity for the world's leading 
scientists and other participants, including young researchers, to meet 
informally for discussions at the highest level on the most recent 
developments in their fields of research. They act as a catalyst for 
creating new synergistic contacts throughout Europe and the rest of the 
world. This conference will be of interest to academic and policy 
researchers in the field of higher education and to researchers in other 
relevant social science fields, e.g. science policy, regional development, 
governance, social equity.

The conference will take place at Vadstena Klosterhotel, located in a lovely 
natural setting on the shores of beautiful lake Vättern, offering 
comfortable accommodation in a historic environment. During the Middle Ages, 
Vadstena was the location of a catholic monastery for monks and nuns of the 
Birgittine order and nowadays the conference center and hotel is largely 
located in the same medieval buildings that were once the monastery.
For more details about the sciencific content of this conference, please 
download the additional document here: 
http://www.esf.org/fileadmin/be_user/activities/research_conferences/Docs_NEW/2008/2008-264add.pdf.

Preliminary Programme PDF (339 KB) Last Updated 18-January-2008
http://www.esf.org/fileadmin/be_user/activities/research_conferences/Docs_NEW/2008/2008-264pp.pdf

Conference Flyer PDF (324 KB) Last Updated 11-April-2008
http://www.esf.org/fileadmin/be_user/activities/research_conferences/Docs_NEW/2008/264_Flyer.pdf

To apply, fill in an Application Form.
http://www2.esf.org/asp/esfrcaf.asp?confcode=264&meetno=1

Closing date for application (as well as for abstract submission): 6 June 
2008

Conference Fees: EUR 730 conference, meals and twin OR double room; EUR 520 
non-resident: conference, meals (no room).

ESF Contact:
Ms. AnneBlondeel-Oman
Email: http://www.esf.org/contact/contacts-email-form/cid/161799.html
Phone: +32 (0)2 533 2024
Fax: +32 (0)2 538 8486
Please quote 08-264 in any correspondence.