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This is the last week to send an abstract to our session.

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Call for papers : EUGEO 2015, 30/08 – 02/09, Budapest


*Session title: "Whose right to the city?"*

Convened by: Antonin Margier (University of Lille 1) & Lucas Melgaço (Vrije
Universiteit Brussel)

At a time when people are reclaiming access to public spaces (the Occupy
Movement, for example), we see that the presence of all citizens in public
spaces is not taken for granted. Various authors have focused on the
emergent punitive regulation of public spaces that affects the homeless
(Smith, 1996; Mitchell, 1997), street vendors (Crossa, 2009), prostitutes
(Hubbard, 2004) and youth (Malone, 2002). Moreover, the idea of being a
citizen has made way for that of being a consumer, as pointed out by Santos
(1987). In order to explain and contest the disputed place of low-income
people and minorities in public spaces, Lefebvre’s concept “right to the
city” (1968) has been used, abused, and acquired different meanings in the
literature and in everyday discussions (Souza, 2010). It has become a
slogan for politicians and is considered as a positive virtue in urbanism.
But when residents of a neighbourhood reclaim their “right to the city”, it
can be in conflict with the right of the homeless to stay in those public
spaces. Making the city more democratic and equal for everyone can result
in the exclusion of different groups. The implementation of the “right to
the city” can lead to conflicts, and reveals that, depending on the groups,
there are different visions of what is the “right to the city”.

We welcome submissions that apply or discuss the validity of the concept of
the right to the city and we particularly encourage papers on, yet not
limited to, the following themes:

- Social movements and protests;
- Privatization and private uses of public spaces (including privatization
of security);
- The use of public spaces by youth;
- Homelessness and other social and ethnic minorities;
- Mobility (for example the conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and
drivers);
- Informal uses of public spaces (street vendors, artists, musicians,
graffiti makers);
- Prostitution and sex-workers;
- Gender and conflicts in public space;
- Segregation and gentrification;
- Policing and surveillance of public spaces;
- Consumerism and the right to the city;

References:
Crossa, Veronica. 2009. « Resisting the entrepreneurial city: Street
vendor's struggle in Mexico city's historic center », International journal
of urban and regional research, Vol 33, No 1, pp. 43-63
Hubbard, Phil. 2004. « Cleansing the Metropolis: Sex Work and the Politics
of Zero Tolerance », Urban Studies, Vol 41, No 9.
Lefebvre, Henri. 1968. Le Droit à la ville, Paris: Anthropos.
Malone, Karen, « Street life: youth, culture and competing uses of public
space », Environment and urbanization, Vol 14, No 2, 2002, pp. 157-168.
Mitchell, Don. 1997. «The Annihilation of Space by Law: The Roots and
implications of Anti-homeless laws in the United States », Antipode vol 29,
no 3, p. 303-335.
Santos, M. 1987. O Espaço do Cidadão. São Paulo: Nobel.
Smith, Neil. 1996. The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the
Revanchist City, Routledge.
Souza, Marcelo Lopes de. 2010. Which right to which city? In defence of
political-strategic clarity. Interface: a journal for and about social
movements, 2 (1): 315 – 333

Submission procedure:

Please send your abstracts (max 250 words) to Antonin Margier (
[log in to unmask]) and Lucas Melgaço ([log in to unmask])
by January 31st 2015. We will notify contributors of acceptance by March
1st 2015. All accepted contributors will need to register for the
conference by June 30th 2015: http://eugeo2015.com/my-account/login
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All general information on the conference: http://eugeo2015.com/
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Lucas Melgaço

Post-doctoral researcher and lecturer
Faculty of Law and Criminology
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
[log in to unmask]
http://www.vub.ac.be/LSTS/members/melgaco/