The Transnationality of Cities

The Transnationality of Cities

Organizer
Graduiertenkolleg „Transnational Spaces", Lehrstuhl für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeographie, European University Viadrina
Venue
Europa-Universität Viadrina; Große Scharrnstrasse 59, Frankfurt (Oder)
Location
Frankfurt/Oder
Country
Germany
From - Until
03.12.2009 - 05.12.2009
Deadline
27.11.2009
By
Kathrin Wildner

Cities are appropriate sites for an examination of the spatial dimension of transnationality. This is where global processes are concentrated, localized and become transformed and materialize in physical space. In most recent studies on transnationality categories of space are acknowledged in basic terms like 'bifocality' and 'here and there', they are generally examined focussing on social networks, but not with regard to the (material, social or discursive) constitution of space.

The conference focuses on the manifestation of transnationality in cities, on the physical transformation of spaces as arenas for transnational actors and transborder activities, on social spaces where social and economic networks intertwine or on narrative and discursive spaces created by cultural production or the media. The significance of migration, global economies as well as everyday practices for current urban transformation processes is emphasized. Urban space is not a setting for transnational practices but a constituent force of transnationality in all its guises.

How are urban spaces affected, transformed, connected by transnational processes - on a different scale – and created anew?
How do transnational activities – actors, institutions, economic networks – relate to and manifest themselves in urban space?
In what ways do transnational flows of knowledge and political concepts, global power relations and the interconnectedness of political actors affect models of urban governance?

The questions posed at this “transdisciplinary” conference focus - both on a theoretical and on a methodological level - on the significance of transnational flows for the production of urban space. The panels include a variety of perspectives, focussing on flows of ideas, discourses and objects and their local manifestations.

PANELS
Transnational Urban Spaces – Cultural Repertoires and Everyday Practices
One of the focal points of diaspora and migration research is the study of the construction of social networks and of ascriptions of identity, characterized by multiple layers of social and economic relationships that transcend geographic, cultural and political boundaries. Transnational spaces and practices point to an inherent mobility, a simultaneity of locations, a large variety of repertoires and identities maintained and devised to make local and (at the same time) transborder activities possible. In cities, cultural repertoires and everyday practices manifest themselves in physical spaces created by social networks, by urban planning projects and (informal) architectures, but also mediated in images or narratives.
This panel deals with questions of links between transnational networks and local (sub)cultural phenomena and the constitution of urban spaces. In particular, we intend to take a closer look on migrant communities’ cultural (e.g. religious and artistic) modes of action, on cultural repertoires expressed in urban planning processes and their increasingly important role in debates about the production of (new) urban spaces.

Urban Governance Models
On the one hand, a number of increasingly influential political concepts regard cities as competitive commercial enterprises and attempt to structure them accordingly. This seems to have led to the emergence of structurally similar modes of urban governance both in cities of the ‘North’ and the ‘South’. Cooperative urban governance models put an increasing emphasis on the growth of the creative/culture industry and tourism, creating globally similar marketing strategies, large-scale events and types of space that adhere to the parameters of ‘musealization’ and event-oriented commercialization. Sociopolitical progams designed as intervention instruments for marginalized neighbourhoods seem to be based more and more on globally applied best practice concepts as well. On the other hand social organizations and movements opposed to these political concepts increasingly operate on a transnational scale as well.
This conference panel is dedicated to urban politics. Its objective is the investigation of transnational political institutions and networks, movements and flows of knowledge with regard to the city. We will examine the connections between transnational structures, urban power configurations and urban politics. The panel will examine the questions of how these forms of governance come into being, how they become globally dominating blueprints, what impact they have on space in individual cities and which transnational actors and power structures shape them.

Localizing Global Value Chains in Global/Globalizing Cities
Another issue this conference focuses on are transnational economic networks, which call into question a conception of space that uses territorial nation states as its reference point. Global city research, although it does investigate globally linked city regions as anchor points of economic globalization processes, focuses on global service companies and hence neglects the role of the industrial sector that also organizes global production networks and value chains.
Consequently, this panel will discuss the concept of global value chains, which, taking its cue from Wallerstein´s world system theory (2004), interprets globalized production as a series of cross-border transactions between company units. Our main focus will be the analysis of global value chains with regard to the uneven geographic distribution of their locations and the power imbalances among actors, as well as the examination of local nodes as territorial manifestations of transnational production chains. In what ways are metropolitan regions connected to the nodes of global value chains (both in the ‘North’ and the ‘South’) and interlinked among each other? And in what ways is it possible to analyze the role of goods and commodities within transnational economic networks specifically with regard to the embedding of commodity circulation and global material culture into everyday local contexts?

Programm

Thursday, 3.12.2009, 6.00pm – 8.30pm
Welcome European University Viadrina

Keynotes on Transnationalism
Prof. Dr. Hans Harms, London/Berlin
Cities of the South in the Context of Transnational Urbanism and International Development Policies

Prof. Dr. John Eade, Roehampton University, London
The Return of the Local? Transnationalism, Translocalism and Religion in the Global City

Friday, 3.12.2009

9.30am – 1.00pm
Transnational Urban Spaces – Cultural Repertoires and Everyday Practices
Moderation: Dr. Kathrin Wildner, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder

Dr. Martijn Oosterbaan, University of Utrecht
Transnational Brazilian Evangelism and Media

Dr. Kerstin Pinther, University of Frankfurt/Main
Architectures of Migration, the Art of Transnational Spaces

Prof. Dr. Faranak Miraftab, University of Illinois, Urban Champaign
Emergent Transnational Spaces: Meat, Sweat and Global (re)Production in the Heartland

Dr. Clara Irazabal, Columbia University, New York
Transnational Planning: Reconfiguring Spaces and Institutions

2.30pm – 6.00pm
Urban Governance Models
Moderation: Dr. Stephan Lanz, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder

Prof. Dr. Katharyne Mitchell, University of Washington, Seattle
From Moody´s to Compstat: Why Neoliberal Urban Governance Lives On

Dr. Richard Pithouse, Durban, South Africa
Let’s Keep it Real (The Anti-Politics of Most Attempts at Global Solidarity)

Prof. Dr. Roger Keil, York University, Toronto
Transnational Urban Political Ecology: Health, Environment and Infrastructure in the Unbounded City

Prof. Dr. Marcelo Lopes de Souza, University of Rio de Janeiro
Challenging Oppression and Control in a Globalised World: Insurgent Spatial Practices, ‚Militant Particularism’ and Multiscalarity

Evening Program
Crossing the Bridge – Transnational Walk in Frankfurt/Oder (Germany) and Slubice (Poland)

Saturday, 5.12.2009

9.30am – 12.30am
Localizing Global Value Chains in Global/Globalizing Cities
Moderation: Prof. Dr. Stefan Krätke, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder

Michael Hoyler, Loughborough University, Leicestershire
Spaces and Networks of Musical Creativity and Music Production in the City

Dr. Sandra Alarcón González, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City
Tianguis Global – Transnational Connections between Mexico City and Los Angeles

Prof. Dr. Christof Parnreiter, University of Hamburg
Global City Formation, Real Estate Economy and the Transnationalization of Urban Spaces

1.00pm – 3.00pm
Final Discussion: The Transnationality of Cities
Moderated overarching discussion with representatives from all panels and as special guests (Prof. Dr. Margit Mayer, Free University of Berlin and Prof. Dr. Schiffauer, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder)

Contact (announcement)

Lehrstuhl für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeographie
Europa-Universität Viadrina

Große Scharrnstrasse 59
D-15230 Frankfurt (Oder)

njaeger@euv-frankfurt-o.de

http://www.kuwi.euv-frankfurt-o.de/de/lehrstuhl/vs/wisogeo
Editors Information
Published on
27.10.2009
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