Hi there,

Not strictly geography, but as I know there are a lot of urban scholars on the list I thought I'd share this call. We'd certainly be happy with papers from all related disciplines. Deadline January 14th.

CfP: Cities of the forking paths: intercommunal (dis)harmony and the rhythms of everyday life

Panel Discussant: Eviatar Zerubavel

SIEF2015, Zagreb, 21-25 June 2015

Global cities are variously represented as utopian multiethnic, interreligious celebrations of cosmopolitan difference, or conversely as dark hives of ethnic and class conflict. Against this split narrative, smaller cities that exhibit ethnic or religious tensions are often portrayed as lacking, provincial or backwards. In light of recent developments -- including the supposed demise of multiculturalism in Europe's cities, the rise of urban Hindu nationalism in India and a surge of violence in towns across the Middle East -- we seek to complicate narratives of communal disharmony with a specific focus on those semi-peripheral smaller cities that are often overlooked by urban scholars.

Thinking through these ideas rhythmically (temporally and spatially) allows ethnographers and historians to explore the everyday realities of how community is performed and circulated in smaller cities. It is our contention that inhabitants of plural cities exhibit creative marginality in the face of contrived coexistence, that the heteronomous spaces and times of cities produce contradictory logics that undermine ethnonationalist state goals, and that the mundane cycles of everyday life can destabilise seemingly hegemonic projects.

We welcome contributions from a range of geographic settings, historical periods and methodological approaches that address the problem of alterity and its discontents in unsettled urban times and spaces.

Conveners: Ian M. Cook (Central European University) & Daniel Monterescu (Central European University)

Discussant: Eviatar Zerubavel (Rutgers University)

Deadline January 14th 2015

Propose a paper here:
http://nomadit.co.uk/sief/sief2015/panels.php5?PanelID=3507

Informal questions or queries to panel conveners:
Ian Cook [log in to unmask]
Daniel Monterescu [log in to unmask]

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