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Professor Peter McKiernan (University of St Andrews)
Dr Martin Kornberger (University of Technology, Sydney)
Professor Fabrizio Panozzo (Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia)
| BACKGROUND AND CALL FOR PAPERS |
The 21st century will be the first truly urban century. In 2003, 48% of the world population lived in cities growing to 52% in 2007. This is the first time in recorded history that more people live in urban rather than rural areas. In Europe, cities are home to 80% of the population and most of the social and environmental challenges. Urban dwellers face overcrowding and related problems: traffic, congestion, pollution, waste, and the effects of these on health and the quality of life. But cities are also incubators for new ideas: the urban scene inspires fresh economic solutions (competitiveness, knowledge generation, employment, etc.), environmental action (against pollution, waste, urban sprawl, dereliction, etc.), and social responses (combating exclusion and slum formation, building green spaces, etc.). The acceleration of urbanisation has strengthened the weight of large cities, or metropolitan regions which tend to concentrate an important part of their national economic activities. In fact, cities are now being seen as intrinsic to any strategy aimed competitiveness and sustainable development (OECD, 2006). Cities see themselves increasingly as actors in a market in which the ability to attract strategic resources is crucial.
Responding to the intellectual challenges emerging from such “new urbanism”, our proposed EIASM Workshop invites scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds including management, organization studies, urban planning, geography, design, architecture and others to participate in interdisciplinary fashion. Also, we welcome practitioners and representatives from cities, metropolitan regions, local governments who are, or have been, involved in deliberate attempt to manage the city in order to increase its competitiveness, attractivess and quality of life. Building on theories that have explored possible ways of conceptualising and organising cities (e.g., Czarniawaska 2000; 2002), we will focus on contributions that shed light on one or more of the following questions:
• Rationality: in how far are European cities constituted though a variety of different rationalities? How can this polyphony be harnessed to drive renewal?
• Knowledge: what disciplinary areas do we have to include in management and organization theory in order to develop more profound and meaningful theories of city management? What is the application of traditional renewal and change theory to city domains?
• Power and Politics: how can we map the city as a political arena? What are their dark sides? How is the city a space of critical resistance? How far is power productive in cities and gives rise to renaissance and renewal?
• Strategies: how can we manage our urban environments in a sustainable and innovative way? What future scenarios can we envisage for our cities?
• Practice: what are the practical implications of management theory in the context of cities? In how far can we positively contribute to the development of cities and practice an engaged and responsible scholarship?
• Creativity: how do creative economies, creative industries and cultural quarters affect renewal and growth (Florida 2005)? How do they affect the way we think of organisation and society?
We are looking for theoretically innovative and / or empirically interesting papers that are inspired by these research questions. Importantly, we are seeking contributions from diverse fields of scholarships as well as input from practitioners and representatives of (local) governments. In doing so, we want to ensure a truly interdisciplinary discussion that will open up new possibilities to govern our cities. As Sudjic (1992) put it:
“The city is a complex organism, never entirely comfortable, always a place with its dark corners and suffering. But it is precisely that edge of danger and instability that makes the city such an extraordinarily powerful force … it is in its role as an engine for change that the city is most alive.” (Sudjic, 1992: 32).
Those who are interested in presenting a paper should submit an EXTENDED ABSTRACT (2-3 pages)
by
September 5, 2009
To be acceptable, proposals MUST only be submitted through this website !!!
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT
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