URBAN HISTORY GROUPCONFERENCE, GLASGOW 

29-30TH MARCH 2001

KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND THE CITY SINCE 1700

Proposals for papers invited
The main theme of the 2001 Urban History Group Conference in Glasgow 
focuses on the relationships between knowledge, power and the city.  
Knowledge in all its forms - technical, scientific, commercial, social, 
cultural and creative - was a means to power and leverage.  The 
concentration of these different forms of knowledge in urban area 
contributed both directly and indirectly to the way towns and cities 
developed and, no less significantly, the urban dimension informed the 
way that knowledge was itself acquired and used.  Issues also to be 
considered at the conference include the construction of knowledge and 
its subversion by those without access to knowledge, and, the role of 
urban history itself in constructing knowledge about cities.  


Themes will include:

1. The city as a site for the production of knowledge
As large, dense concentrations of people and activities, cities are 
sites for the production of specific forms of knowledge.  To what extent 
are such forms qualitatively different from those found in different 
types of places?  How does the nature of place interact with the forms 
and types of knowledge? Do different types of cities generate different 
forms of knowledge e.g. capital cities; second cities; port cities; 
university cities ets, and if so what difference does it make?

2. Creative cities
Why are some cities more "innovative" or "creative" than others?  What 
fosters creativity and innovation in specific places and what stifles 
creativity in others?  Why do technological developments develop in 
certain places and why does their adoption, and thus urban impact differ 
from place to place?  The specialist knowledge of scientist and engineer 
have informed policy in the past, but how objective was their 
contribution, how did it affect the way the city developed?  

3. Constructing Urban Histories
How do urban historians construct histories of places?  How are such 
histories used; what is the role of history in today's city? What is the 
role of different types of media in portraying the historical contexts 
of cities? In other words, how and why do we (and others) create urban 
histories and for whom?  

4.Frameworks for Knowledge
What are the relationships between the frameworks for the collection of 
information and the nature of knowledge about cities? How are such 
frameworks e.g. administrative boundaries, information gathering 
agencies constructed and what can they tell us about the legitimization 
of power structures in society more generally?  How were such frameworks 
subverted? How were respective knowledges of "the other" created in 
colonial cities?  


5. Forms of Knowledge
As places in which individual knowledge of individuals is reduced, what 
other forms of knowledge are developed?  To what extent does abstract, 
rational knowledge supercede local and "irrational" forms? How does this 
relate to the creation of bureaucratic means of knowledge management? To 
what extent does the textual replace the visual as the primary means for 
the dissemination of information? How are city images "constructed" and 
in what forms guide books, films, radio programmes etc


Please send a 1 page abstract to any one of the following by 1 December 
2000:
David Green		[log in to unmask]
Simon Gunn		[log in to unmask]
Richard Rodger	[log in to unmask]


Sally M. Horrocks (Dr)
Department of Economic and Social History, University of Leicester,
Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
tel 0116 252 5070/ 2588   fax 0116 252 5081   email [log in to unmask]


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