Final Call for Papers *2013 SASE Conference, Milan, Italy* > *June 27-29, 2013 - University of Milan* > * * > > *Cities in crisis: The urban political economy of the global recession > [conference stream]* > > > > Organizers: > > Manuel Aalbers, University of Leuven, Belgium, m.b.aalb...@gmail.com > > Ugo Rossi, University of Turin, Italy, ugo.ro...@unito.it > > > > The credit crunch of 2007-08 emanating from the subprime mortgage crisis > in US cities and the subsequent global recession have demonstrated how > urban economies are at the heart of the functioning and the contradictions > of contemporary capitalism in a context of hegemonic yet inherently > variegated neoliberalism. Almost half a decade into the global economic > crisis, social scientists concerned with urban issues look at the crisis as > a structural condition with which contemporary cities and regions have to > deal rather than merely an episodic conjuncture. > > > > At the city level, the crisis has an ambivalent function. On the one hand, > it acts as a disciplining force, accelerating the evolutionary process > within local economies as well as rationalizing the ways in which cities > are being governed. On the other hand, the crisis reinvigorates the > capitalist rationality intrinsic to the urban process, by pushing > politico-economic elites to valorize cities as spaces of economic > experimentation through a variety of governance and accumulation > strategies. Cities are therefore both epicentres and victims of the > global crisis as well as places that appear to have the potential to offer > solutions to the structural problems affecting capitalist economies. We > suggest that these processes are best studied from a renewed political > economy perspective on urban re/development and governance. Yet, the urban > political economy lens not only offers a perspective from which to study > cities, it also offers a rich empirical context from which to study > contemporary capitalism. > > > > This mini-conference looks for contributions addressing the following > thematic strands: > > - Cities and late neoliberalism: we understand ‘late > neoliberalism’ as a form of neoliberalism permeated by a multidimensional > condition of crisis: crises of legitimation (discursive-moral), > accumulation (economic-capitalist), governance (political-administrative). > How is coping with these multiple crises reshaping the urban experience > across the globe? How does this help us rethink the way in which > neoliberalism is commonly understood? > > - Cities and the austerity-growth dialectic: in times of crisis, > municipal governments are requested to implement austerity measures, but > are also expected to devise strategies of economic regeneration. How do > urban politico-economic elites deal with this antinomy? What are the > adaptation mechanisms, governance structures and institutional capacities > being deployed in this context? > > - Cities and financialization: the financialization of home, > infrastructure and urban re/development more widely speaking were > distinctive features of the expansionary era of neoliberalism. > Foreclosures, repossessions and ghost residential spaces as well as > overleveraged local governments have then characterized the landscapes of > cities after the credit crunch. How are local governments, urban residents > and the housing sector responding to the disastrous failures of > financialization? > > - Cities and alternative models: cities can be spaces of > despair, but also spaces of hope in which grassroots experiments may mature > and eventually transcend the local context. If it is true that challenges > to hegemonic models rise from alternative models at the local scale, what > role can and do specific cities and communities play in such alternative > models? How do city residents and local governments try to work outside the > box of late neoliberalism? > > > Please visit the SASE website for practical instructions: > https://sase.org/2013---milan/mini-conferences_fr_158.html > > More infor: > https://sase.org/2013---milan/sase-25th-annual-conference-theme_fr_144.html > > > *Deadline for submissions is January 14, 2013. * > > >
-- Manuel B. Aalbers, Ph.D. University of Amsterdam Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130 1018 VZ Amsterdam The Netherlands http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.b.aalbers/ http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y_y-xAkAAAAJ&hl (includes PDFs) Released April 2012: Subprime Cities: The Political Economy of Mortgage Markets http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1444337777.html
