5. In-between Urban Practices: Innovating Cities in the Age of Fear
Chairpersons: Doc Soc Sc Tuula Teräväinen, Post Doc researcher, Department of Historical and Geographical Studies/Environmental Policy, University of Eastern Finland
Dr Aleksandra Stupar, Associate Professor, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urbanism (Head of Department), Serbia
TYÖRYHMÄSESSIO I / SESSION I: Torstai / Thursday 13:30-15:00
- Aleksandra Stupar: Fear (not)? The survival guide to urban reality
2. Susanna Myllylä: Liminal urbanism in the era of urban renewal – youth poverty in Addis Ababa
3. Germán A. Quimbayo Ruiz: Political Ecologies of Urbanization: Lessons from Latin America
TYÖRYHMÄSESSIO II / SESSION II: Torstai / Thursday 15:30-17:00
1. Olli Hakanen: New architecture of mobility/Discussion
2. Sevket Emek Ataman: The Curious Case of the ‘Grand’ Mosque in Helsinki
3. Tuula Teräväinen: Sociotechnical imaginaries in and between red and green urban bioeconomies
Työryhmäkuvaus / Session Description:
”Exposed to unavoidable natural forces and shaken by drastic economical or social corrective processes, cities have always been indicators of civilization ups and downs. Nowadays, the accumulated problems of our time (e.g. aging population, global warming, hyper-urbanization, economic turbulences and fast-shifting political landscapes) trigger a number of theoretical speculations and visions, as a response to multiplying fears, environmental risks, contextual uncertainties and increasing global anxiety.
Considering the contemporary limbo which surrounds our transitional epoch, the session focuses on the relationship between cities, civilisation fears and innovativeness, addressing different contemporary urban phenomena instigated by internal and external threats. Manifested in urban space as ‘in-between’ urban ecologies, they influence new spatial typologies, unconventional approaches and their amalgamation with urban hardware and software. Shaping the desired futures, they are also driven by the ideas of sustainable transition, resilience, green economy, social equity, security.
The session welcomes papers discussing innovative responses to growing fears manifested in urban space, both theoretically or empirically. Critical views, cross-disciplinary considerations, new conceptual openings and comparative approaches are especially encouraged. The papers should present and evaluate the examples of recent urban practices (new spatial patterns, environmental awareness, public strategies, (in)formal processes, activism, technological upgrading etc.), directly and/or indirectly instigated by the effects of New Fear – demographic fear, dromophobia, economic fear, xenophobia, agoraphobia/political fear and the fear of terrorism (De Cauter’s, 2004).”