Call for Chapter Proposals:

Emerging Identities in the Future of Places: 
Neo-cultures, Place Multi-mediation and Intersubjectivities

How is the development of future places in cities shape new place-based identities, defined by the intertwined and entangled nature of socio-cultural, technical and spatial practices of people?. Comprehending the resultant complexities of place-related identity demands the need to identify new directions that evolve progressively by embracing a renewed understanding of identity. The proposed book aims to facilitate an interdisciplinary approach towards unravelling emerging place- related identities that are caught in a labyrinth created by contemporary urban spatialities. By keeping place as the main frame of enquiry, we seek to comprehend the ephemeral nature of ongoing spatial negotiations within the ecology of urban and media practices. We are interested in examining the intertwined and interrelated concepts of culture, place and identity amidst the technology pervaded urban living that is enabling new forms of place-related identities to emerge. The chapters should reflect on the three themes of ‘Placing Media’, ‘Spatial Representation’, and ‘Identity interrogation’. 

In ‘Placing Media’ we seek to explore how numerous forms of media practices and technologies (mobile phones, smart screens, screen projections, etc) adapted and used in the context of our everyday life has brought with them debates and discussions over their socio-spatial and cultural implications in our urban context. Placing Media, investigates these implications of media for rethinking the relationship among users, spaces, information, as well as interfaces and the impact which these reconfigurations have upon culture, place experience and identity. Discourses and debates over socio-cultural and epistemological implications of media practices have begun to attract attention, since it provides new platforms for communication, engagement and making sense of urban environments.

With media entering the scene at the very moment of perceiving and experiencing places, memories, become de-situated, belonging to shared domains of representation in which individual experiences diffuse, overlap and merge into acts of collective experience of different cultures . In ‘Spatial representation’ we aim to explore the role and nature of contemporary spatial representation in the fluctuating intersubjective terrain nascent with the pervasiveness of media. New forms of representations through citizens lens have emerged from open-ended city-building video games such as SimCity, Cities:Skylines and as well as practitioner-based representations of proposed changes to places - using City Information Modelling (CIM) and other virtual tools for promoting new development / regeneration. The chapters will investigate the how these new spatial representations offer different matrices for neo-cultural identity performances and manifestations.

In ‘Identity Interrogation’, we aim to explore how new forms of contemporary spatiality interact with neo-cultures to open up new trajectories for understanding emerging (personal and group) identities in cities. For instance, given the accelerating pace of life, and more frequent changes of citizen locations, personal and social relations defined and experienced more through virtual co-implacements, higher levels of home-working and individual startups – are technology and media platforms steering a paradigm shift in our relational existence and experience in places? The multi-dimensional and multi-layered nature of place-based community relationships in contemporary urban contexts also makes identity negotiating / reconstituting into a restless activity often marked by discordant and/or agreeable spatial complexities. By embracing the notions of complex people-place relationships in  cities evolving as a result of  developing  mediating technologies, the chapters strives to examines how these technologies challenge the ways in which planning, designing and place-related identities can be understood, perceived, engaged and constructed in the contemporary urban contexts and the potential future of places..

Target Audience
The book will be of interest to academic (researcher, teacher, students) audiences seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the identity and city in the context of emerging sociotechnical geographies. The main fields include: sociology, media studies, history, psychology, cultural studies, human geography, urban design and planning, architecture, and anthropology. It will also be useful to a number of professionals involved in planning, designing and transforming cities, including: design practitioners, policy makers, urban planners and designers, and architects. The book will be particularly relevant for undergraduate, Masters and PhD students who are engaging in socio-technical analysis of urban practices in cities.

If you are interested in contributing to the book, please send us an abstract of 300-500 words outlining the proposed paper and containing your main argument(s), your main conceptual and theoretical approaches results (if applicable)and key references, the research themes the proposal fits in. Please also include authors name, current affiliation, and e-mail address 

Please, submit proposals as in Word or pdf format document to [log in to unmask]  and [log in to unmask] . 

Submission deadlines and guidelines:
 
1 Nov 2017       An abstract of up to 300 words is to be submitted to the editors by email.
15 Jan 2018      Editors will select chapters on the basis of the following criteria: relevance to the theme and goal of the book, originality of the contribution, theoretical rigour and wealth of the empirical material. All authors of submitted abstracts will be informed about the editorial decision via email.
31 May 2018    First draft of all chapters is to be submitted to the editors by email. Chapters need to be 6000-8000 words in length and written in English. Authors of chapters are responsible for the language and style editing. The guidelines for the editing style, references and bibliography will be sent to authors of selected chapters with the editorial decision.
1 Aug 2018    Feedback and comments of the 1st review of chapters will be emailed by editors to authors of all chapters. 
30 Sep 2018     Second draft of all chapters is to be submitted to the editors by email.
15 Nov 2018   Feedback and comments of the 2nd review of chapters will be emailed by editors to authors of all chapters. 
24 Dec 2018     Final editing of chapters and book submission.
Jun/July 2019   Book publication.

Enquiries
Please, contact Lakshmi Priya Rajendran ([log in to unmask] ) and/or NezHapi Dellé Odeleye ([log in to unmask] ) if you have any inquiries about the book project


Thank you

Dr.Lakshmi Priya Rajendran
Senior Research Fellow in Future Cities
Department of Engineering and Built Environment
Faculty of Science and Technology
Anglia Ruskin University
Chelmsford Campus
Bishop hall Lane
Essex
CM1 1SQ

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