Final call, apologies for cross-posting

Session: ‘Creative placemaking and beyond’

Session convenors:

• Cara Courage, University of Brighton and urban arts and placemaking practitioner.
• Anita McKeown, NCAD, Dublin and Itinerant Artist and researcher.

The arts-driven placemaking sector has reached a moment in both maturity and diversity where it demands a critique and deeper understanding of practice. This session will expand on discussions at RGS2014 on the role of arts in place and co-production, specifically focusing on notions of creative placemaking (Markusen & Gadwa 2010) and socially-engaged placemaking practices and their potential vis-à-vis the Anthropocene and citizens activity taking the initiative in effecting their lived spacetime (McCormack 2013).

The RSA report ‘A New Agenda on Climate Change (2013) indicates that indicates that ‘about two thirds of the [UK] population intellectually accept the reality of anthropogenic climate change, but ‘deny’ some or all of the commensurate feelings, responsibility and agency that are necessary to deal with it’ (2013:3). If Creative Placemaking is to contribute to places-in-the-making (Silberberg, 2013) and encourage citizen-led agency new conceptual frameworks and practical methodologies will be required to advocating transdisciplinary, resilient processes and new models of theory and practice. There is a vital need for theorists to be in dialogue with practitioners so this session is seeking abstracts from both constituencies, with papers spanning theory and practice and examples of where the two intersect in the academy or in the field.

Positioned within the broader context of Planetary Urbanisation and the Age of the Anthropocene the session will focus on socially practiced, co-produced and citizen-led placemakings.  Initiated in response to a bottom-up need or desire rather than a top-down imposition, and where the artist(s) and participants work in a team of ‘urban creatives’ (Klanten and Hübner 2010, though the convenors recognise that not all practices will be urban-located) a critical assessment of creative placemaking and of community driven placemaking (Hou and Rios 2003) and social design across all settlement types is considered.

This session invites conceptual, empirical, methodological papers addressing the theme. Papers might address, but are not limited to:

• Challenges to the concepts of creative placemaking and citizen-driven placemaking
• Examples of translating theory and practice
• The role of the individual and the artist/practitioner and other professionals in an ‘opensource’ placemaking
• Performing and un-Performing place
• Challenging the masterplan and the role of holistic design the role of equity in development and regeneration.
• Systemic approaches to Creative Placemaking - Dealing with complexity.
• The role of administrations and policy development effected by grassroots placemakings
• The personal is political – behavioural related interventions of placemaking beyond party political agendas.
• Approaches to education and training; formal and informal in support of creative and social practice placemaking
• Developments in evaluation methods; qualitative or quantitative rubrics, matrices.

The session convenors are seeking submissions of an academic biog and an abstract of no more than 250 words, based on a 15 minute presentation/5 minute Q+A format (see RGS2015 information http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm). However, the convenors are keen to maximise the potential for discussion between speakers and audience and the opportunity for inter-sector and discipline discussion that this session allows; this on selection, the convenors may suggest an alternative presentation format. Respondents to this call are welcome to suggest alternative presentation options (outside of the submission word count).

Timeline:

• Deadline for submission of abstracts: 26^th January 2015
• Responses from session convenors by: 9^th February 2015 (those selected are expected to cover all their own costs).
• The session convenors will communicate the RGS response as soon as informed by the organisers after the RGS 20^th February deadline.

Abstracts should be sent to both convenors:

• Cara Courage: [log in to unmask]
• Anita McKeown [log in to unmask]

Cara Courage FRSA

t: +44 (0)7900 312 233

e: [log in to unmask]

w: www.caracourage.net

tw: https://twitter.com/caracourage

ig: http://instagram.com/caracourage

fl: https://www.flickr.com/photos/caralfcourage/

Arts placemaking PhD / Threshold / Look Up / EDGEcondition

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