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--- Apologies to those not in London or not PhD students --- Dear all, The next colloquia takes place on Thursday (20th June) from 4.30pm to 6.30pm in room G07 of the Pearson Building, University College London. We will be joined by Katherine Robinson* (LSE) who is giving a talk based on her doctoral research. Katherine's abstract is included at the end of this email. As this is our last colloquia of 2012/13, we will be starting to think about what we might want to do for 2013/14. So if you would like to be involved in any way in organising activities, or have ideas to put forward please do come along. We will have the discussions in room G07 after Katherine's presentation, over wine, so it will be very informal and open. If you can't make the meeting, but would like to get involved, do drop an email to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. We'll also be meeting again in September to continue the discussion. Map of the location: http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-the-department/contacts-location/downloadable-maps/ucl-map-highlighting-pearson-building-and-26-bedford-way If you are unfamiliar with Stadtkolloquium (its format, aims, etc), more information is available at the website http://www.stadtkolloquium.co.uk/. We look forward to seeing you! Tauri Tuvikene and Amil Mohanan (on behalf of Stadtkolloquium) P.S. Please circulate this announcement among interested research students. ABSTRACT “Culture, in a place like this?” : edgy places Katherine Robinson, 3rd year PhD Student at Sociology, LSE In this paper I introduce ideas around the notion of peripherality, which is a of the core theme in my PhD project. I outline how understandings of the city neighbourhoods where I did fieldwork in two public libraries, ideas of peripherality operate on both a spatial level but also, and importantly, on a discursive level I argue that peripherality conveyed in ideas of ‘the city’s edge’, are in fact more complex and nuanced, having different implications in different cities. I go on to discuss the politics of place – how ideas of peripherality constitute daily practise in certain places, and how, while peripherality is undoubtedly conveyed through spatial location in the city, peripherality is simultaneously experienced in a discursive form. I illustrate these ideas through relating an experience during fieldwork in the district of Berlin-Wedding. I discuss how a library event showcasing a book about local brothers turned international football superstars, Jérôme, Kevin-Prince and George Boateng, ideas of peripherality are brought sharply into focus, in both the curation of the event and in the way it played out. Aware of its location in a ‘troubled’ neighbourhood, the library attempted to neutralise its portrayal as being part of the so-called ‘ghetto’ out of which these young men ‘made it’, while aware of the strategic importance of holding high profile events which play to particular locatory implications in making the library more visible as a ‘relevant’ cultural and social space ‘in a place like this’. * Katherine is a third year PhD student on LSE’s Cities Programme, which is based in the Sociology department. Her work is an ethnography of two urban public libraries in London and Berlin, through which she discusses ideas of place and contemporary urban multiculture.