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Urban Research-Based Action Network (URBAN) Open Meeting
Friday April 12, 2013 1:00 – 2:00 PM
American Association of Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting,
Los Angeles 2013
Westin, Laguna Parlor 3004
A group of scholars and activists, with the support of SAGE Publications, have been working this past year to create URBAN, a diverse network of activist scholars who are working with community groups. The main purpose of the network is to contribute to the advancement of this kind of engaged scholarship within our universities, as well as fostering interdisciplinary and collaborative research. For geographers, URBAN offers a chance for us to connect to each other as well as across disciplinary and policy boundaries to activist scholars working in community organizing and development, education, public health, urban and environmental planning, housing and the right to the city, and other areas.
Through URBAN we intend to build an infrastructure to advance this kind of research as well as local nodes. So far, the network has nodes in Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin and NYC, and we are hoping to expand it to other places. For those of you who might be interested, we will be holding a meeting at the AAG conference on Friday April 12, 2013 1:00 – 2:00 PM in Westin Bonaventure, Laguna Parlor 3004. At our AAG meeting we would like to explore how URBAN could be most useful for activist/engaged/public sociologists, what arenas of exchange it might make sense to create (an online space, a journal, convenings, etc.), and what interest people have in participating in different ways.
We hope to build upon previous and current work and create a more permanent, ongoing network within geography and across disciplines that is focused on collaborative research with communities, variously defined, to create new knowledge relevant to addressing pressing social justice issues.
Although it is not necessary to rsvp, we would appreciate letting us know if you plan to attend, or want to join an email list for future announcements even if you cannot attend the AAG meeting. Please rsvp to Einat Manoff [log in to unmask]
You can find a copy of the concept paper laying out the main ideas behind URBAN at: http://web.mit.edu/colab/pdf/work/URBAN_concept_paper_2-0.pdf
And the more recent URBAN newsletter for Spring 2013.
We look forward to seeing you at AAG and hope you can help us spread the word.
Best regards,
Your AAG URBAN co-hosts