- por Jorge Gobbi
The Rise of Heterotopias. On Public Space and the Architecture of the Everyday in a Post-Civil Society
Conference date: May 26-28, 2005
Location: Leuven, Belgium
Date Proposals Due: December 1, 2004
This call for papers aims to provoke contributions focusing on the significance of public space today, in view of, on the one hand, recent discourses that lament the ‘loss of public space’ (Sorkin) and, on the other, contrasting opinions that advocate new forms of public space located in private spaces for collective use (shopping malls or sports centers) or in alternative spaces such as wastelands or parking lots (Crawford). Whereas there are serious voices warning of the alarming developments in society at large, which seem to threaten the basic assumptions on which democracy and the welfare state are founded, others tend to take a more optimistic position in accepting the challenge to design for new programs in the realm of leisure, sports, shopping or transportation.
The concept of the heterotopia – a notion introduced by Michel Foucault in the late sixties, however very conspicuously underdeveloped in his own work – takes on a new urgency and relevance in light of contemporary developments and the ensuing debate on public space. The concept of heterotopia seems to offer the opportunity to both recapitulate and redirect the ongoing debate on : The rise of the network society: place and non-place / The reinvention of the everyday: the ordinary and the extra-ordinary / The privatization of public space: oikos – agora / The post-civil society: the camp as paradigm.
We would especially welcome papers exploring some of following (hetero)topoi: The museum – the theme park / Squares and terraces / Parks / The airport/the terminal / The fortress / The camp
For the full text of this abstract consult our website: [url=www.asro.kuleuven.ac.be/heterotopia]Asro[/url]
Please send abstracts before October 1st, 2004 to:
[email]heterotopia@asro.kuleuven.ac.be[/email]
This conference is jointly organized by:
OSA – Onderzoeksgroep
Stedenbouw en Architectuur,
KULeuven, Belgium
Capaciteitsgroep Stedenbouw,
TU-Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Timetable:
Submission of abstracts: 1 October 2004
Notification of acceptance: 15 November 2004
Submission of full papers: 1 March 2005
Colloquium: 26-28 May 2005
For further information please contact:
Hilde Heynen
OSA – Onderzoeksgroep Stedenbouw en Architectuur
Departement ASRO, KULeuven
Kasteelpark Arenberg 1
3001 Leuven, Belgium
[email]Hilde.heynen@asro.kuleuven.ac.be[/email]