Panels and Thematic Fields

Please note: The list of topics and thematic fields will finally be determined by the range of submitted papers.

1) Cities as Micro-landscapes

Cities can be regarded as agglomerations of micro-landscapes (Franzen/Krebs 2006) which are experienced while moving around the city and being part of it. Such landscapes often exist only temporarily, often they are formed by ad-hoc situations bringing together bodies, sounds, movements and thus they create unique experiences. Instead of only looking at stable buildings, the concept of micro-landscapes invites to also look at ephemeral landscapes such as parades or spontaneous concerts on the streets, street art, artists, political events etc. How do New Orleans and Innsbruck function as micro-landscapes? What are the spatial elements that constitute the cities, how does moving around function and what ephemeral experiences do these cities create for their inhabitants? Does this lead to conflicts over space? Papers in this section can investigate the various forms of ephemeral micro-landscapes in both cities.

2) In-between-towns (Zwischenstädte, Sieverts 1997)

This panel explicitly asks for the relationship between the city and its surroundings. Where do these cities end and where do they begin? How is wilderness integrated into the city creating forms of life? How is nature transported into the city and how does the city culturally transform the surrounding nature? This panel could address questions concerning tourism, tourism as an urban economic strategy, sports, agriculture but also urban planning in the town and especially the relationship between green zones and buildings, between urbanization and suburbanization and its consequences.

3) City landscapes as images of the city / Stadtlandschaften als Silhouetten (City-Branding, Löw 2008)

How do the two cities create an image of themselves and what are the elements of this city-branding? How did this historically change over time? What are the vital elements of the image the city projects on itself? Culture, nature, “city of celebrations and parties”? What will/can/should the future of the city look like? This panel addresses papers dealing with city-branding in a broad sense, including also how the city is seen from the outside as well as by the citiziens that live there.

4) The historical reading of cities / Die historische Lesart von Stadträumen

Cities have been created and shaped by history that has contributed different layers of buildings and urban structures over time. This panel addresses papers that explicitly deal with the history of both cities, either looking at certain periods or analyzing the evolution of particular urban structures over a longer historical period. Moreover, papers can address the question on what historical eras are remembered in the city, how this becomes visible and visualized in today’s urban outline, mainly in sight-seeing spots but also in museums. Do the cities cherish a certain time period as fundamental to their identities? How does this influence todays urban culture, artists and the like?

5) Cities as social and semantic spaces /Städte als soziale und semantische Räume

How is the city socially composed and what meanings are attributed to the city as space by different social groups living there? How does the city work as a communicative space creating inclusions and exclusions both inside the city but also vis-à-vis its surroundings? How does the city deal with challenges like poverty, homelessness, crime, drugs, youth gangs, etc.? This panel also welcomes papers that deal with the questions of local and regional identity, milieu analysis, and how this is linked to the two cities. Focus should be given to processes of multicultural exchange between different ethnic and cultural groups and how they create the city as a social and semantic space.

6) The city as material reality

Papers in this panel should consider the city as material reality and deal with the material aspects of urban planning. This includes the architectural outlining of the city, its buildings, parks, roads and how the city communicates with the surrounding nature, including traffic problems etc. The panel could also address such pressing questions as gentrification and the question of where can we live in the city. Is it still affordable to live there (the broad question of affordable housing)? Who can afford it and who can’t anymore? What can and should be done? How is space shaped by the material aspects of housing and working in the city as well as by moving around there? How are public services organized? How are public places used and who decides on the use?

7) City and environment / Stadt und Umwelt: environmental challenges

Both cities that stand at the core of this conference are situated in particular environments that have always provided challenges for people living there and they continue to challenge urban planners and engineers on how to keep the cities safe and functioning, yet also protect their unique environments. This panel addresses papers that deal with environmental challenges in a broad sense: sustainability, energy policy, public transportation, the concept of a “Smart City”, the use of public places etc. are just some pressuring topics. We welcome papers from geologists, biologists, metereologists, engineers and others who discuss the pressing environmental challenges for both cities and how urban planning should react to them.

8) Cities as political entities

Papers in this panel should deal with the political aspects of local city politics. Also included in this panel are papers on neighborhood policies, party and electoral politics, the connection between globalization and local city politics as well as political agenda setting in the two cities.