Apologies for cross-posting.
Second Call for Papers
Association of American Geographers
Los Angeles 9 – 13 April
“Socialist and post-Socialist Urbanisms: Critical Reflections; Comparative
Perspectives”
Douglas Young, York University Toronto
Lisa Drummond, York University Toronto
Urban life in the 21st century has been shaped in quite significant ways
by the thoughts, practices, ideologies and social organization of the 20th
century. We seek papers that focus on the urban legacies of 20th century
socialism and explore their impact on urban policy, spatial form and
everyday life in the 21st. With the neoliberal model of city-building
appearing to be in crisis mode and new approaches to urban issues urgently
needed, we consider the possibility that a critical reassessment of the
legacies of socialist models could provide valuable lessons for urban
policy makers and citizens alike.
Actually existing socialism has taken many forms ranging from
social democracy to repressive state socialism. The common thread of
the ‘social’ that runs through them all is a commitment to the modernist
idea of universal progress, a desire to create a socially de-
differentiated society, and a heightened degree of state intervention in
processes of city-building and urban governance. We seek papers that
explore urban areas representing some of those variations of socialisms as
well as variations in their fates. These could be cities that are
socialist today, cities in countries that are transitioning to market
socialism, post-socialist cities, and cities in neo-liberalizing former
social democracies.
We particularly welcome papers that will contribute to the
development of comparative perspectives (for example, Asia and Europe) if
not within individual papers then from the sum of papers on the panel as a
whole.
Papers could explore a wide range of topics including urban
planning, housing, social policy, community development, local politics,
economic restructuring and political ecology.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Douglas Young
(dog...@yorku.ca) and Lisa Drummond (drummond @yorku.ca) by 8 October.