CSG UAntwerpen
Established in 2003, the Centre for Urban History at the University of Antwerp (CSG) examines urbanised societies from the Middle Ages to the present.
Situated in the heart of the old, urbanized core of the Southern Netherlands and later Belgium, the Centre for Urban History analyses patterns of urbanization and what urban living does to people and the broader environment.
Supervisors: Ilja Van Damme (Director of CSG)
Situated in the heart of the old, urbanized core of the Southern Netherlands and later Belgium, the Centre for Urban History analyses patterns of urbanization and what urban living does to people and the broader environment.
Supervisors: Ilja Van Damme (Director of CSG)
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While productive activities dominated the urban economic landscape in most of the pre-industrial period, modern (European) cities experienced a long term economic shift towards consumption, leisure, tourism, services and cultural industries from roughly the eighteenth century on. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the increasing dominance of non-productive activities in cities resulted in a rift between working and living and working and leisure, an increasing need for transport, spatial segregation, gentrification, etcetera. Today, urban policy makers and planners as well as other local urban stakeholders increasingly call for a return of physical production in the city. Proceeding from a preoccupation with sustainability and the short circuit economy, a more social economy and better labour market participation, they specifically point at the importance of such small-scale activities as craftsmanship and handwork, recycling and repairing, and urban farming and local food processing. The problem is that such a return is difficult to plan and steer, because it is contingent on many economic, geographic and infrastructural conditions.
Ideally, urban historians should be able to help out and provide insight, but they often fail to do so because they haven’t addressed these conditions head on. The shift towards consumption, leisure, services and cultural production is all too often seen as a natural process, resulting from changing consumer preferences (and the need for shops), technological evolutions (resulting in the concentration of productive activities in manufactories) or simply the penetration of Smithian economies of scale and agglomeration. Other such factors as infrastructure and architecture, transport systems, planning, and regulations and policy making have not been systematically addressed – and an integrated approach is altogether lacking. Our session therefore presents case studies in which the economic transformations in individual cities and urban districts are addressed with an eye at multi-causality, historical contingency and the broader issue of governmentality. Conceptually, we start from an approach in which such classic economic factors as consumer preferences, relative prices and the spatial distribution of capital are confronted with the city as a hybrid socio-technical and material-cultural assemblage in which economic transformations are deeply entangled with infrastructural, social, political, and cultural dimensions.
Session content: The past few decades have seen a wealth of publications on maps, city views, and other imagery related to the appearance of early modern cities. Historians of art, architecture and urban history have all addressed the significance of such imagery. Yet these studies have yet to fully account for the role of foreigners as producers and consumers of these images. With the global turn and increasing focus on such subjects as immigration, identity, and mobility, there is a renewed need to return to such urban imagery with new questions. Radical demographic, economic, and structural changes transformed cities across Europe in the early modern period. Depictions of these cities-including Antwerp, Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon, London, Rome, and Venice-became increasingly common and topical. Produced in a range of media and intended to perform an array of functions, these images both represented elements of cities and actively helped shape urban identities. While often making claims to objective accuracy, these images were necessarily conditioned by the circumstances of and individuals involved in their production. Who commissioned these images and to what ends? Who designed and executed them, and on the basis of what tools, experiences and knowledge? Who marketed them, how broadly and to whom? What was the relationship of these individuals to the city in question? In particular, were any of them immigrants? Travelers? Pilgrims? If so, how did their own status as outsiders in relation to the city shape their visual choices in imaging it? For example, did foreigners bring a perceptible critical distance to their representations of urban spaces? Do they engage in ways different from their local colleagues in the perpetuation or challenging of the urban image a city's leaders might seek to project? How do political circumstances of certain commissions relate to questions of immigration and foreignness?
Met het jaarcongres willen we niet alleen een staat opmaken van deugd en ondeugd in de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlanden, maar ook inzicht verkrijgen in de complexe werking tussen norm en praktijk. Moraal was zelden of nooit statisch, maar werd op een bijzonder persoonlijke wijze toegeëigend, geaccommodeerd of gecontesteerd. Daarnaast wil het congres nieuw licht werpen op de verschillende moral communities. Naargelang van iemands sociale positie, gender, leeftijd, herkomst, religie en andere eigenschappen konden waardenpatronen immers fel van elkaar verschillen. Op het congres willen we dus zoveel mogelijk opvattingen over deugd en ondeugd in de Lage Landen aan bod laten komen en bediscussiëren.
We nodigen iedereen die een bijdrage wil leveren aan het congres, graag uit om een kort abstract (maximaal 300 woorden) en CV (max. 100 woorden) in te dienen voor 1 april 2019. Eveneens welkom zijn voorstellen voor een complete sessie. Op het congres bedraagt de maximale spreektijd 20 minuten. Abstracts inleveren bij gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be
The “Call for Sessions” is open since 1 December 2018 (and closes on 28 February 2019). The “Call for Papers” starts on 1 June 2019
We hope to meet you in Antwerp!
Peter Stabel
On behalf of the European Association of Urban History and the local organizing committee Antwerp 2020,
Contact:
Ilja.vandamme@uantwerpen.be; ruth.mcmanus@dcu.ie; Michiel.Dehaene@ugent.be
Call for chapters:
If the following abstract appeals to you and if you would like to participate in the ensuing book project, please forward an abstract (max. 400 words) and short CV to the above addresses before 14 February 2019. Selected authors will be invited to present preliminary chapters at a conference held at the University of Antwerp on 11-12 April 2019. Transport costs and lodgings will be refunded upon agreement.
Location: Workshop at University of Antwerp – Centre for Urban History & Urban Studies Institute
Date: 11-12 April 2019
Abstract:
This book has the ambition of spatially decentering debates on cultural and creative production. We specifically question what history has to teach us about looking at ‘suburban nowheres’ (plural!), places not-commonly associated in urban theory with notions like innovation, culture and creativity. In particular, we invite authors to question cultural and creative production taking place ‘off-center’, in so-called ‘non-urban’, ‘interurban’ or ‘suburban’ places. These so-called ‘suburban nowheres’ appear as places in-between ‘city’ and ‘countryside’ or in-between ‘culture’ and ‘nature’: devoid of precisely those qualitative characteristics (aesthetics, cultural excitement, innovative ‘spillovers’, etc.) that supposedly make both city and nature life inspiring for cultural and creative production. Thus, ‘suburban nowheres’ are often seen as ‘sub-standard’ places or urban peripheral areas in limbo: zones where the ‘reinvigorating’ qualities of rural life have come to a halt, and the ‘exciting’ carousel of urban life has still to begin.
We welcome chapters addressing cultural and creative production in history related to four broad domains of inquiry. In opposition to the narrow economic emphasis associated with the work of Florida and others, the subject of the book can be defined as relating to: 1) artistic expression (literature, visual arts, performing arts, and so on); 2) craftsmanship (applied arts, including book publishing, winegrowing, grooming horses, etc.); 3) industrial inventiveness (product and process innovation through science, technology, etc.); and 4) everyday and vernacular creativity (club life, societies, DIY, gardening, and the like).
The question now arises as to how cultural and creative production taking place in ‘suburban nowheres’ needs to be qualified. Participants can construct their research around the following set of questions (not limited):
1- Conditions and location: When, why and under which conditions have ‘suburban nowheres’ been favored as locations of cultural and creative production?
2- Expressions and perceptions: How and in what forms is cultural and creative production in ‘suburban nowheres’ expressed, and why? And how is it perceived and commented upon, and by whom?
3- Power and relationships: What type of power relations are embedded in cultural and creative production in ‘suburban nowheres’? What is in particular the relationship with a dominant and governing urban core and urban commentariat?
We welcome proposals which offer a wider comparative and/or long-term historical perspective on these questions. Non-European case studies are particularly welcome.
While productive activities dominated the urban economic landscape in most of the pre-industrial period, modern (European) cities experienced a long term economic shift towards consumption, leisure, tourism, services and cultural industries from roughly the eighteenth century on. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the increasing dominance of non-productive activities in cities resulted in a rift between working and living and working and leisure, an increasing need for transport, spatial segregation, gentrification, etcetera. Today, urban policy makers and planners as well as other local urban stakeholders increasingly call for a return of physical production in the city. Proceeding from a preoccupation with sustainability and the short circuit economy, a more social economy and better labour market participation, they specifically point at the importance of such small-scale activities as craftsmanship and handwork, recycling and repairing, and urban farming and local food processing. The problem is that such a return is difficult to plan and steer, because it is contingent on many economic, geographic and infrastructural conditions.
Ideally, urban historians should be able to help out and provide insight, but they often fail to do so because they haven’t addressed these conditions head on. The shift towards consumption, leisure, services and cultural production is all too often seen as a natural process, resulting from changing consumer preferences (and the need for shops), technological evolutions (resulting in the concentration of productive activities in manufactories) or simply the penetration of Smithian economies of scale and agglomeration. Other such factors as infrastructure and architecture, transport systems, planning, and regulations and policy making have not been systematically addressed – and an integrated approach is altogether lacking. Our session therefore presents case studies in which the economic transformations in individual cities and urban districts are addressed with an eye at multi-causality, historical contingency and the broader issue of governmentality. Conceptually, we start from an approach in which such classic economic factors as consumer preferences, relative prices and the spatial distribution of capital are confronted with the city as a hybrid socio-technical and material-cultural assemblage in which economic transformations are deeply entangled with infrastructural, social, political, and cultural dimensions.
Session content: The past few decades have seen a wealth of publications on maps, city views, and other imagery related to the appearance of early modern cities. Historians of art, architecture and urban history have all addressed the significance of such imagery. Yet these studies have yet to fully account for the role of foreigners as producers and consumers of these images. With the global turn and increasing focus on such subjects as immigration, identity, and mobility, there is a renewed need to return to such urban imagery with new questions. Radical demographic, economic, and structural changes transformed cities across Europe in the early modern period. Depictions of these cities-including Antwerp, Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon, London, Rome, and Venice-became increasingly common and topical. Produced in a range of media and intended to perform an array of functions, these images both represented elements of cities and actively helped shape urban identities. While often making claims to objective accuracy, these images were necessarily conditioned by the circumstances of and individuals involved in their production. Who commissioned these images and to what ends? Who designed and executed them, and on the basis of what tools, experiences and knowledge? Who marketed them, how broadly and to whom? What was the relationship of these individuals to the city in question? In particular, were any of them immigrants? Travelers? Pilgrims? If so, how did their own status as outsiders in relation to the city shape their visual choices in imaging it? For example, did foreigners bring a perceptible critical distance to their representations of urban spaces? Do they engage in ways different from their local colleagues in the perpetuation or challenging of the urban image a city's leaders might seek to project? How do political circumstances of certain commissions relate to questions of immigration and foreignness?
Met het jaarcongres willen we niet alleen een staat opmaken van deugd en ondeugd in de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlanden, maar ook inzicht verkrijgen in de complexe werking tussen norm en praktijk. Moraal was zelden of nooit statisch, maar werd op een bijzonder persoonlijke wijze toegeëigend, geaccommodeerd of gecontesteerd. Daarnaast wil het congres nieuw licht werpen op de verschillende moral communities. Naargelang van iemands sociale positie, gender, leeftijd, herkomst, religie en andere eigenschappen konden waardenpatronen immers fel van elkaar verschillen. Op het congres willen we dus zoveel mogelijk opvattingen over deugd en ondeugd in de Lage Landen aan bod laten komen en bediscussiëren.
We nodigen iedereen die een bijdrage wil leveren aan het congres, graag uit om een kort abstract (maximaal 300 woorden) en CV (max. 100 woorden) in te dienen voor 1 april 2019. Eveneens welkom zijn voorstellen voor een complete sessie. Op het congres bedraagt de maximale spreektijd 20 minuten. Abstracts inleveren bij gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be
The “Call for Sessions” is open since 1 December 2018 (and closes on 28 February 2019). The “Call for Papers” starts on 1 June 2019
We hope to meet you in Antwerp!
Peter Stabel
On behalf of the European Association of Urban History and the local organizing committee Antwerp 2020,
Contact:
Ilja.vandamme@uantwerpen.be; ruth.mcmanus@dcu.ie; Michiel.Dehaene@ugent.be
Call for chapters:
If the following abstract appeals to you and if you would like to participate in the ensuing book project, please forward an abstract (max. 400 words) and short CV to the above addresses before 14 February 2019. Selected authors will be invited to present preliminary chapters at a conference held at the University of Antwerp on 11-12 April 2019. Transport costs and lodgings will be refunded upon agreement.
Location: Workshop at University of Antwerp – Centre for Urban History & Urban Studies Institute
Date: 11-12 April 2019
Abstract:
This book has the ambition of spatially decentering debates on cultural and creative production. We specifically question what history has to teach us about looking at ‘suburban nowheres’ (plural!), places not-commonly associated in urban theory with notions like innovation, culture and creativity. In particular, we invite authors to question cultural and creative production taking place ‘off-center’, in so-called ‘non-urban’, ‘interurban’ or ‘suburban’ places. These so-called ‘suburban nowheres’ appear as places in-between ‘city’ and ‘countryside’ or in-between ‘culture’ and ‘nature’: devoid of precisely those qualitative characteristics (aesthetics, cultural excitement, innovative ‘spillovers’, etc.) that supposedly make both city and nature life inspiring for cultural and creative production. Thus, ‘suburban nowheres’ are often seen as ‘sub-standard’ places or urban peripheral areas in limbo: zones where the ‘reinvigorating’ qualities of rural life have come to a halt, and the ‘exciting’ carousel of urban life has still to begin.
We welcome chapters addressing cultural and creative production in history related to four broad domains of inquiry. In opposition to the narrow economic emphasis associated with the work of Florida and others, the subject of the book can be defined as relating to: 1) artistic expression (literature, visual arts, performing arts, and so on); 2) craftsmanship (applied arts, including book publishing, winegrowing, grooming horses, etc.); 3) industrial inventiveness (product and process innovation through science, technology, etc.); and 4) everyday and vernacular creativity (club life, societies, DIY, gardening, and the like).
The question now arises as to how cultural and creative production taking place in ‘suburban nowheres’ needs to be qualified. Participants can construct their research around the following set of questions (not limited):
1- Conditions and location: When, why and under which conditions have ‘suburban nowheres’ been favored as locations of cultural and creative production?
2- Expressions and perceptions: How and in what forms is cultural and creative production in ‘suburban nowheres’ expressed, and why? And how is it perceived and commented upon, and by whom?
3- Power and relationships: What type of power relations are embedded in cultural and creative production in ‘suburban nowheres’? What is in particular the relationship with a dominant and governing urban core and urban commentariat?
We welcome proposals which offer a wider comparative and/or long-term historical perspective on these questions. Non-European case studies are particularly welcome.