apologies for cross postings
REMINDER - there is still time to send an abstract for this one day
session (Thursday 4th Jan) at the 2001 RGS-IBG.
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CALL FOR PAPERS
RGS-IBG Annual conference - Plymouth UK, 2-5 January 2001
One day session organised by Urban Geography Research Group of the
RGS-IBG
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THE CITY AND RATIONALITY
Recent writings have brought into question many issues concerning the
city, rationality and forms of urban unconscious. Some critics have
cast rationality as a claim to a view from above; rationality represses
desire; rationality is alienation. What Simmel called 'urban
rationality' supports indifferent forms of social interaction in
cities. Rational planning and administration are forces of domination
that ignore difference and embodiment. Rationality is the physical and
psychological 'grid' that is imposed on the labyrinth of the
unconscious and the practices of everyday life in the city. In
contrast, it is argued that the city has much to do with other forces
that cannot be confined by the logic of the rational: in dreams, the
uncanny, memories and in expressive 'happenings' and performances. At
the same time, other critics are reclaiming certain forms of the
rational. This includes the communicative rationality of Habermas's
public realm; in ideas of reflexive and deliberative rationality; an
din identifying the specificities of rationality in the times and
spaces of the city.
It seems like a good time to re-examine some of the borderlands between
the rational/non-rational and the conscious/unconscious forces that
shape, and are shaped by, the city. Key themes in this session may
include:
* the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious in
the city (bodies and minds; waking and sleeping; the planned
and the unplanned; purposes and perfomances; the urban uncanny)
* orientation in the city (the grid and the labyrinth; intention
and extension; the view from above and the view from below or
within; visuality and the other senses)
* new forms of rationality in the city (reflexive, deliberative,
situated and partial)
Abstracts (200 words) should be sent by post or email to Gary Bridge or
David Pinder by 31st May 2000.
Co-convenors
Gary Bridge David Pinder
Centre for Urban Studies Department of Geography
School for Policy Studies Queen Mary & Westfield College
University of Bristol University of London
8 Priory Rd Mile End Rd
Bristol London
BS8 1TZ E1 4NS
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