Please respond directly to the session organisers.
_______________________________________________________________________________
RGS-IBG 2005: 31st August - 2nd September 2005, London
UGRG Session: 'Good' Cities for Everyday Life
Convenors:
Dr Helen Jarvis
Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle
[log in to unmask]
Professor Jean Hillier
Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Newcastle
[log in to unmask]
A key aim of this session is to differentiate between a 'good' city for
everyday life and that which is superficially 'successful' or
'competitive' in the manner presented in the regeneration literature and
popular lists of 'most liveable' cities. This pulls human welfare
issues out of the margins of the urban quality of life agenda and
positions them centre stage. The session provides a timely opportunity
to focus on the frequently neglected, but arguably powerful, influence
of non-financial as well as financial variables on social well-being.
This everyday life approach pays close attention to hidden, typically
mundane, local contexts of urbanization: where people are trading
lengthy journeys to work for 'good' school catchments, eating 'fast
food' to save time cooking 'healthy' meals, trading proximity to quality
day care for an NHS dentist, juggling evening deliveries of pizza and
speed (as the choice drug of stamina).
This highlights a second key aim of this session which is to foster
meaningful dialogue between debates about time-use or 'work-life
balance' (popularly identified with 'the speeding up of daily life') and
those concerning the design, function and liveability, or marketability,
of cities. This framework highlights fundamental tensions, between the
impact of neoliberal governance, and a rolling back of the state, on
aspects of urban daily life, for instance, and the way the globalization
of production typically imposes a 'localization' of social reproduction,
with attendant consequences for household livelihood. In short, this
session attends to the way unequal access to a whole range of resources,
beyond those recognized by the partial measures of economic GDP,
mediates 'on the ground' access to the 'good' city.
Issues addressed could include:
* struggles at different scales (individual, household,
neighbourhood etc) over balancing aspects of daily life-work;
* the implications of spatial juxtaposition of different,
overlapping local and translocal meshes of the habitual with the demands
of policy-makers for international recognition for competitiveness and
liveability;
* fractal cultures and fractal economies (Amin, 2004) which
constitute the urban;
* tensions between economic competitiveness in global markets and
social well-being;
* renewed emphasis on 'quality of life'
If you are interested in participating in this session, please submit a
title and short abstract (must not exceed 200 words) to either of the
organizers by 21 January 2005.
Dr. Helen Jarvis
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
University of Newcastle
Daysh Building
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Tel. +44(0)191 222 6969
Fax. +44(0)191 222 5421
Working Families Project website:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/geps/research/geography/Uk-US/index.htm
_______________________________________________________
[log in to unmask]
An urban geography discussion and announcement forum
List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM
Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group
UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.org.uk
|