Please submit your paper proposal (theme and short description ca.500-750 words) to the following address ([log in to unmask] and/or [log in to unmask]) not later then 1 February 2009. Call for papers "Alternative Culture(s) and Urban Space" This conference, organized in cooperation with the International Alternative Culture Center (IACC/NAKKA, Hungary) and the Laboratory of Critical Urbanism (EHU, Lithuania) will be held 2-3 April 2009 in Budapest, Hungary. The conference seeks to take alternative culture in a wide sense to invite a broad series of reflections on the way in which culture or cultures impact on the space of cities or on the ways in which city-space is used. We understand alternative culture as that produced by all sorts of cultural producers: from artists, musicians and event organizers to bar-owners, drinkers, dancers, informal traders, dog-owners, the homeless, etc. In addition, we understand alternative cultures as including cultures neglected by the dominant national and media discourses: that perhaps of the Jewish community disappeared from much of Eastern Europe or of the migrants and/or exiles living and trading in various markets in the region in constantly changing configurations, or of sexual, gendered and class minorities. What can we learn from considering the space of the cities in our region from the perspective of these alternative cultures? A major focus of our interest is on the possibilities of culture for creating alternative spaces in an era when culture itself has become a major part of the economies of contemporary cities. This is particularly intriguing in relation to the cities of the post-communist zone, given that the whole region is often connoted as itself being somehow alternative. However, we are also interested in the way alternative spaces function differently in changing historical periods: for instance, the cartography, meaning and social impact of alternative spaces in communist society might be very different from that of contemporary societies, or alternative spaces might work differently in Baku than in Prague. In addition, culture has been and is increasingly used by urban researchers as both a tool and end-product of research: urban researchers often hope their work can itself propose an alternative; more community orientated urban culture in opposition to the prevailing norms. We therefore envisage our seminar as moving towards a reflection as to what strategies, both artistic and academic, can be used in the post-communist region to impact on and explore the alternative production and uses of space given the socio-economic configurations of capitalism in which we function. Organizers: Benjamin Cope [log in to unmask] Balazs Bodo [log in to unmask] Olga Zaslavskaya [log in to unmask] Please submit your paper proposal (theme and short description ca.500-750 words) to the following address ([log in to unmask] and/or [log in to unmask]) not later then 1 February 2009.