The Right To The City: New Challenges, New Issues

[i]ESF-LiU Conference[/i] 11-15 October 2008 Klosterhotel, Vadstena, Sweden As it has been largely documented, modern states are facing political rescaling processes in which the roles and functions of the different levels of government are evolving. Thus city-regions are becoming central economic and political territories in which a new division of labour is occurring between the states and the local authorities. This tendency has been particularly analysed by the economic literature but also by geography, sociology and political science. At the same time, there is a large literature on the general tendency towards the pluralization of urban decision systems in different institutional, cultural, political and economic contexts. To say it briefly, these processes (i.e. political rescaling and participative democracy at local level) generate a new “right to the city”: the capacity to influence the agendas of urban public institutions by using “appropriate” demands based on the formulation of rights recognized as legitimate by urban institutions. The on-going process of the constitution of an “urban citizenship” involves a set of social demands which are, by definition, contradictory in that sense that the “right to the city” must be linked to the social groups and classes using it in order to organize themselves, to generate collective identity and collective action. The work program of the Conference addresses a number of empirical subjects, all vectors of a “right to the city”. Its objective is to compare the effects of these dynamics on the content of urban policies and on the transformation of citizenship regimes. ESF Research Conferences provide the opportunity for the world's leading scientists and other participants, including young researchers, to meet informally for discussions at the highest level on the most recent developments in their fields of research. They act as a catalyst for creating new synergistic contacts throughout Europe and the rest of the world. This conference will be of interest to academic and policy researchers in the field of higher education and to researchers in other relevant social science fields, e.g. science policy, regional development, governance, social equity. The conference will take place at Vadstena Klosterhotel, located in a lovely natural setting on the shores of beautiful lake Vättern, offering comfortable accommodation in a historic environment. During the Middle Ages, Vadstena was the location of a catholic monastery for monks and nuns of the Birgittine order and nowadays the conference center and hotel is largely located in the same medieval buildings that were once the monastery. For more information visit the official site: http://www.esf.org/index.php?id=4624