Congresos, Conferencias y Seminarios Internacionales

Post Ex Sub Dis: Fragmentations of the City
An international conference organized by GUST (Ghent Urban Studies Team) Brussels,
October 19-21, 2000

Supported by
Brussels, Cultural Capital of Europe 2000
Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (Belgium)
American Embassy, Brussels
Belgian-Luxembourg American Studies Association (BLASA)
Faculty of Letters, Ghent University
English Department & Department of Architecture and Urban Planning,
Ghent University

Statement of Purpose:
This international conference on urban fragmentation brings together urban planners and theorists, architects, writers, and researchers in urban studies and related academic disciplines to discuss the relationship between urban fragmentation as a spatial, architectural, and social phenomenon and its representation in literature, film, and the arts. The conference will not only confront cultural, literary, and architectural practices with academic research but will also provoke a stimulating debate between American and European perspectives on the recent evolution of the contemporary city. Part of its purpose will be to test the relevance of influential American paradigms to the study of similar changes in the European urban landscape.

The conference language will be English.

Panels:
SPRAWL
What was traditionally perceived as a unified, hierarchical structure is now routinely seen as an amorphous space, in which the physical and/or symbolic city center has been replaced with the 'no-place' of the sprawl. What changes have contributed to the creation of this new urban space? How have material changes affected the social and cultural spheres in the contemporary metropolis?

LIVING APART TOGETHER
Ethnic, economic, and sexual differences have often been translated into spatial isolation, whether voluntary (community formation, neighborhoods, gated communities) or involuntary (ghettos). Do spatial and social polarizations increasingly overlap? What are the material and social consequences of spatial confinement for the city?

PRIVATE/PUBLIC
The privatization, militarization, commercialization, or even complete 'erasure' of public space(s) have led many to wonder whether the public sphere is being dissolved completely or is simply adjusting to the needs and demands of a more heterogeneous population. How does the city (as public space by definition) figure in this equation?

CORE
Have traditional city centers truly 'disappeared' or have they been replaced by 'new' centers? What do these new centers look like? Do we still need physical and/or symbolic centers? What is their function on a global scale, especially in relation to the so-called periphery?

DIVERSITY
The multicultural city is a fact, but has this increasing heterogeneity led to social fragmentation or to the formation of new identities and communities? Has the city, perhaps one of our best collective projects, become compartmentalized to the extent that it is now merely a collective of powerless locales, or do we need to redefine the city as such? Is it possible to construct a common voice, to re-establish a sense of unity within this very diverse landscape? Do we need to?

Speakers:

AARON BETSKY
Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Author of Building Sex: Men, Women, Architecture, and the Construction of Sexuality; Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire; and (with Erik Adigard) Architecture Must Burn: Manifestoes for the Future of Architecture.

SOPHIE BODY-GENDROT
Political Science & American Studies, Sorbonne & Institut d'Etudes Polytechniques, Paris
Author of Ville et violence: L'irruption de nouveaux acteurs; Les Villes americaines: Politiques urbaines; and Villes face =E0 l'insecurite. Editor in chief of Revue francaise d'etudes americaines.

STEFANO BOERI
Architect & Urban Planner, Milan; University of Genoa & Politecnico di Milano
Projects include urban plans and architectural designs for the ports of Genoa, Mytilene, Triest, and Naples, and for various abandoned industrial areas in Italy. Author (with Arturo Lanzani and Edoardo Marini) of Il territorio che cambia: Ambienti, paesaggi e immagini della regione milanese and (with Gabriele Basilico) Italy: Cross Sections of a Country.

M. CHRISTINE BOYER
School of Architecture, Princeton University
Author of Dreaming the Rational City: The Myth of American City Planning; The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments; and Cybercities: Visual Perception in the Age of Electronic Communication.

LIZABETH COHEN
Department of History, Harvard University
Author of Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939 and A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (forthcoming). Co-editor of The American Pageant: A History of the Republic.

ROSALYN DEUTSCHE
Art Historian & Critic, New York
Author of Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics. Contributor to various exhibition catalogues, including Krzysztof Wodiczko - New York City Tableaux: Tompkins Square: The Homeless Vehicle Project.

PAUL GILROY
Department of Sociology, Yale University
Author of The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness; "There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack": The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation; Small Acts: Thoughts on the Politics of Black Cultures; and Against Race: Imagining Political Culture beyond the Color Line.

HANS KOLLHOFF
Architect, Berlin; ETH Zurich
Projects include several apartment blocks in Berlin and on the KNSM Island in Amsterdam, block of offices and shops Hofgarten-Friedrichstrasse, and Daimler-Benz office tower at the Potsdamer Platz. Author of Die verstadterte Landschaft and editor of Uber Tektonik in der Baukunst.

REM KOOLHAAS (participation to be confirmed)
Architect & Urban Planner, Rotterdam; Harvard University
Projects include EuraLille, Kunsthal in Rotterdam, Universal office building in L.A., library in Seattle, and music center in Porto. Author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan and Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large.

BRUNO LATOUR
Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation, Ecole des Mines de Paris
Author of Nous n'avons jamais ete modernes - essai d'anthropologie symetrique; Paris ville invisible (with Emilie Hermant); Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies; and Politiques de la nature: Comment faire entrer les sciences en democratie.

BHARATI MUKHERJEE
Novelist; University of California, Berkeley
Author of The Middleman and Other Stories; Wife; The Tiger's Daughter; The Holder of the World; Leave It to Me; Jasmine; and (with Clark Blaise) Days and Nights in Calcutta. Editor (with Roger Rosenblatt and
Jane Smiley) of Consuming Desires: Consumption, Culture, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

BRUCE ROBBINS
Department of Comparative Literature, Rutgers University
Author of Secular Vocations: Intellectuals, Professionalism, Culture and Feeling Global: Internationalism in Distress. Editor of Intellectuals: Aesthetics, Politics, Academics and The Phantom Public Sphere.

LUC SANTE
Writer, New York
Author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York; Evidence; and The Factory of Facts. Book critic for New York magazine, senior contributor to Slate, frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books.

WILLIAM SHARPE
Department of American Studies, Barnard College/Columbia University, New York
Author of Unreal Cities: Urban Figuration in Wordsworth, Baudelaire, Whitman, Eliot, and Williams. Editor (with Leonard Wallock) of Visions of the Modern City: Essays in History, Art, and Literature. Co-editor of The Longman Anthology of British Literature.

EDWARD W. SOJA
School of Public Policy and Social Research, UCLA
Author of Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory; Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places; and Postmetropolis: Studies of Cities and Regions. Editor (with Allen J. Scott) of The City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century.

MARK WIGLEY
School of Architecture, Princeton University
Author of The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida's Haunt; White Walls, Designer Dresses: The Fashioning of Modern Architecture; and Constant's New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire.

Venue:
BBL (National Headquarters)
Avenue Marnixlaan 24
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Architect: Gordon Bunshaft of S.O.M., 1965

The conference starts on Thursday, Oct. 19, at 2:00 p.m. and ends on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 6:00 p.m. It is part of a series of events organized by NeTHCA, K.U.Leuven, Ghent University & Brussels 2000.
Further details will be posted on the conference homepage.

For information on hotel accommodations, please contact http://www.brussels-hotels.com

REGISTRATION FORM

Please print out and return by fax (+32-(0)9-264-4184 or 4185) or regular mail to:
Ghent Urban Studies Team (GUST)
C/o Prof. Dr. K. Versluys
Ghent University
Rozier 44
9000 Ghent
Belgium

To ensure the privacy of your credit card data, we advise against registering b y e-mail.

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Full conference fee (includes coffee breaks & abstracts; one euro is the approx imate equivalent of one U.S. dollar):

=2E.. x 1.500 BEF (37 EUR)
=2E.. x 500 BEF (13 EUR) for students

Registration for buffet lunch on Friday: ... x 600 BEF (15 EUR)
Registration for conference dinner on Friday: ... x 2000 BEF (50 EUR)
Registration for buffet lunch on Saturday: ... x 600 BEF (15 EUR)

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Payment can be made
- - by direct bank transfer:
Account name: Universiteitsvermogen - 9000 Gent
Bank: ASLK, Wolvengracht 48, 1000 Brussel
Account number: 001-1950612-18
Swift code: CGAKBEBB
Mention: P9042 City Conference + your name
All bank expenses to be defrayed by participants.
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Ghent Urban Studies Team (GUST)
C/o Prof. K. Versluys
Ghent University
Rozier 44
9000 Ghent
Belgium
Phone: +32-9-264-3697 (or 3691 or 3793)
Fax: +32-9-264-4184
Email: geertrui.vetters@rug.ac.be
Visit the Conference website at http://www.ghent-urban-studies.com