8th Urban Space and Social Life: Theory and Practice
Theme: Transforming Urbanity: People and Cities on the Move
Call for Papers, Photos for Exhibition, and Photo Essays (see submission instructions below)
Submission Due on March 31st
Date: June 9 – June 12, 2017
Location: Kuala Lumpur and Penang (George Town Heritage, UNESCO), Malaysia
Co-organizers: Malaysia Tao Academy;
Center on Migration and Mobility, the Chinese University of Hong Kong;
World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (WHITRAP), Shanghai;
Institute of Active Aging, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The United Nations reports that 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. The rise of urban settlement is expected to increase sharply in the upcoming decades. Furthermore, Asia and Africa will experience 90 per cent of that increase. How prepared are cities for significant population growth? Cites are facing unprecedented challenges as social spaces, too, with the increases in ethnic, cultural, and religious diversities. For example, the influx of refugees into Europe from North Africa and the Middle East has added another layer of the complexity to urban life. What is happening to those who remain home? A global trend toward increased human mobility and its consequences demand full attention from policy makers, academics, and practitioners. They must increasingly address issues of resettlement, settlement, community building, and integration within what some call a borderless world. Nonetheless, governments and societies often operate within boundaries and must negotiate the arrival of immigrants (including refugees), and citizens. How do we maintain and create traditions and heritages in light of the influx of new arrivals? Space defined both physically and socially plays an import_ant role in delineating responses to this development.
This conference seeks to illuminate and explore research and expression_s of human mobility especially as related to cultural and social aspects. Papers pertaining to human mobility, refugee assistance, heritage formation and preservation (i.e., of both new and existing residents), social cohesion, borderlands issues, historical transformation and maintenance of social space, new community formation and other topics on transnational mobility(ies) would find a welcome audience at this conference. Papers need not follow a particular methodological orthodoxy and may focus on one or more regions of the world.
In addition to formal papers, our conference welcomes collections of photos and photo essays exploring the topics noted above. Those presentations should be in a digitized form to promote viewing and discussion as part of our conference panels (see submission details below.)
This unique conference will be hosted in two cities, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. The registration fee includes transportation from Kuala Lumpur to Penang and site visits in Kuala Lumpur and its vicinity to include Putrajaya. During the transit to Penang, we will visit Taiping. The second half of the conference will take place in George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One official dinners will be included as part of the registration fee. Incidentals, additional meals, airfare to Malaysia, airport transport, and accommodations are the responsibility of the participant. A list of moderately priced group rate accommodations will be provided shortly.
Please forward the Call for Papers to any department, faculty member, practitioners, students, and friend who may find this of interest. Send any question to Prof. Ho Hon Leung at hohon.leung@4c5mstudio.org [1] or urbanspace2017@4c5mstudio.org [2]. Learn more about 4C5M Studio at http://www.4c5mstudio.org/ [3]
Conference website: http://www.4c5mstudio.org/conference/conference-paper-and-photo-essay-at-kuala-lumpur-and-penang-malaysia-june09-12-2017/ [4]
Abstract Submission: http://www.4c5mstudio.org/submission/en/submission.php [5]
Photo essay submission:
Photo Essay
Photo essay should be in the format of a poster no bigger than 44” x 36” in size. Submit the poster in digital format to urbanspace2017@4c5mstudio.org [2]. The presenter is responsible for bringing a printed copy to the conference for display.
Single Photo Submission
For the photo exhibition, an individual can submit up to 3 photos in digital format that depicts the lives of (im)migrants. The best 15 photos will be printed out for the exhibition. Provide a caption of no more than 20 words for each photo along with your name and affiliation. Send your submission to urbanspace2017@4c5mstudio.org [2].
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