CALL FOR PAPERS
Reply to: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Urban History Conference homepage: http://www.eauh2000.tu-berlin.de
"European Cities: Networks and Crossroads"
Fifth International Conference on Urban History, Berlin
31.08.-02.09.2000
Specialist Session:' Culture, Space and the City: Simmel at the
Crossroads of Modernity' Conveners: Dr Dorothy Rowe and Dr Janet
Stewart
Taking David Frisby's initial discussion of Georg Simmel's analysis
of social space, the city and modernity (Frisby, 1992) as its point
of departure, this session will explore the unique contribution made
to a cultural history of urban modernity during the Imperial era.
Simmel's analysis of the metropolis doesn't focus on the city as the
national centre and place of political decision-making; instead, it
is concerned with the city as the place where a new kind of
consciousness and a new rhythm of 'sensual-intellectual life'
emerged (Korff, 1987). The focal point of a culture of things,
Simmel viewed the metropolis as a vast nexus in which both social
networks and indefinite collectivities such as crowds are located. In
his formal, aesthetic and social analysis of urban modernity,
Simmel's aim was to reveal the forms of social interaction
characteristic of the metropolis.
This session seeks proposals from papers that will focus on mapping
aspects of Simmel's thought onto wider cultural phenomena of the
period, exploring interactions between Simmel and the social networks
through which he circulated. The central European contexts of Berlin,
Prague and Vienna and the patterns of sociability located in the
metropoles will be considered as pivotal to the functioning of cross-
cultural influences and the dissemination of ideas in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Proposals (hard copy and e-mail if possible) should reach both of the
session chairs by 1st October 1999. For further details please
contact:
Dr Dorothy Rowe
Department of Art
Froebel College
Roehampton Institute London
Roehampton Lane
London SW15 5PJ
UK
Tel: 0181 392 3388 or e-mail : [log in to unmask]
and
Dr Janet Stewart
Department of German
University of Aberdeen
Taylor Building
Aberdeen AB24 3UB
UK
Tel: 01224 272488 or e-mail: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|