International research conference
Planning/Conflict
CALL FOR PAPERS

Cities and citizenship in times of crisis

Lisbon, Portugal
DEADLINE: 15.06.2013
AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group
ICS-UL | Universidade de Lisboa
CIES-IUL | Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

Second international research conference of the AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group, hosted by the Instituto de Ciências Sociais - Universidade de Lisboa (ICS-UL) in partnership with the Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CIES-IUL) and sponsored by the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP).

CONFERENCE THEME
Issues of representation, democracy and social cohesion and the potential conflict between competition-oriented and cohesion-oriented policies at the urban and regional level are all the more relevant today, when Europe is undergoing a severe economic crisis.
The conference will try to explore these issues, by developing a reflection on planning conflicts. In particular, it will focus on crucial aspects of contemporary urban politics:
• the multi-scalarity of urban phenomena and policies;
• their relational, cultural and discursive nature;
• the spatial dimension of social mobilization;
• the growing pressure for deliberative democracy exercises;
• the limits to existent institutional structures and practices for decision-making, representation and conflict resolution.

CONFERENCE AIM
This conference aims at bringing together different perspectives on conflicts around urban planned developments, with a focus on the role planning practices may play both in defining/framing and in possibly solving/reframing conflicts.
The conference aims at rethinking planning/conflicts through a multidisciplinary perspective; above all, it raises the question about the role of planning theory and practices in acting upon conflict themselves, and in respect to broader issues of democratic legitimacy.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Enrico Gualini | TU Berlin
Hendrik Wagenaar | University of Sheffield
Walter Nicholls | University of Amsterdam
Francesco Lo Piccolo | University of Palermo
Lia Vasconcelos | Universidade Nova of Lisbon

CALL FOR PAPERS
• 15th of June | Deadline for the submission of abstracts
• 30th of June | Notification of acceptance
• 1st of September | Deadline for the submission of full papers

The conference invites contributions focusing on:
• Changing features of urban development policies and their impacts on local societies and communities;
• Changing nature of urban planning practices and their influence on public opinion formation, including forms of protest and social mobilization in opposition to planned developments;
• Effectiveness and legitimacy of established planning practices in responding to protest and social mobilization and in dealing with possibly resulting conflicts;
• Transformative potential that may be entailed in reflexively addressing protest and social mobilization and in dealing with conflicts;
• Potential integrative and innovative contribution of political agonism and social conflict to the democratization of urban policy and planning.