Dear all,
This forthcoming workshop on publics
may be of interest to some on the list. Please pass on to anyone you think may
be interested.
Best wishes
Liza
Creating Publics
The Publics Research Programme at The
Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance at The Open University, with
the
This workshop brings together an international and
interdisciplinary group of scholars from politics and public policy, sociology,
information studies, cultural geography, planning and media studies to discuss
some of the contemporary objects, ideas, spaces, and activities of public
creation and creativity. Reflecting on a diversity of topics, including social
activism, community archives, arts practices, public services, social media, democratic
design, dissent and ‘the commons’, presenters address problems of
publics and publicness in relation to institutions, mediation, spatialities,
power, engagement and social transformation.
The panels move beyond notions of ‘the public’
understood as a pre-existing entity or population, building on emerging
discourses of publics as summoned, assembled, and convened. By beginning with a
concept of ‘publics’ and publicness as constituted in social
practices, the workshop questions, critically and creatively, what
‘public’ might mean today.
If you wish to attend,
please contact Sarah Batt ([log in to unmask])
to register. For further information, please contact Nick Mahony
([log in to unmask]).
Programme outline:
DAY 1
10.00 Arrival and coffee
10:30 Welcome and introduction by John Clarke (The Open
University) and Liza Griffin (
11:00-12:30 Panel 1: Remembering Publics (chaired
by Janet Newman)
Clive Barnett, The Open University, ‘Emergent
Publics’
Andrew Flinn,
Susan Pell,
12:30- 2:00 Lunch
2:00-3.30 Panel 2: Mediating Publics (chaired
by Clive Barnett)
Annabel Kiernan,
Alison Rooke,
John Allen, The Open University, ‘Pragmatism and
Power: Spatial Experiments with Publics’
3.30-4.00 Tea
4.00- 5.30 Panel 3: Troubling Publics (chaired
by Liza Griffin)
Ellen Stewart,
John Michael Roberts,
Farida Vis,
5:30 End of day 1
DAY 2
9.30-10.00 Coffee
10.00-11.30 Panel 4: Re-making public
places Chaired by Nick Mahony
Michael Shepherd, Ian Grimstead, Glenn Davidson and
Richard Owen,
Gabrielle Hosein, The University of the West Indies, ‘Politics
in Public Life in
Penny Koutrolikou, UCL
Bartlett, ‘Between Public and Private: “Commons” and “Collective”
Arenas’
11.30-12.00 Coffee
12.00-1.30 Panel 5: Creative publics Chaired
by Susan Pell
Janet Newman, The Open University, ‘Public
making as creative labour’
Nick Mahony, The Open University, ‘Public creativity
and public resources: constituting and engaging with contemporary practice’
1.30 Lunch and close.
NB: Lunch and refreshments will be
provided to all those who register to attend. We regret that neither travel or
accommodation expenses are available.
The Creating Publics workshop has been organised with the
assistance and generous support of the Governance and
Sustainability research group at the Department of Politics and International
Relations at The University of Westminster.
The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.