Landscapes of Global Urbanism: Power, Marginality, and Creativity
グローバル・アーバニズムの展望 ――権力・周縁性・創造性のランドスケープ――
December 17－20, 2008, International House of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
国際文化会館（東京都港区六本木）

ねらい　Rationale:
After decades under the influence of globalization, neo-liberalism, and the rapid expansion of informational technology, where do we stand today? This conference will focus on the consequences, both critical and creative, of such dominant and ascendant social trends on urban and regional life and space. First, we will consider hidden frames of global urban landscapes in their social, spatial, political and imaginary forms. What is manifested and what is unseen under vibrant and conflicting urban scene? Diverse questions such as hegemony, inequality, violence, governance, tolerance, and creativity can be asked of any place and space. Second, we want to ask about possible futures of current global urbanism. Now, in globalizing cities over the world, are we experiencing different paths toward more convergent forms of the city, or are we facing with parallel changes into more divergent urban worlds? This question concerns identity, goals, theory, and methodology of urban and regional studies. The meeting will push towards new theoretical agenda for the future studies. Located at dynamic Asian contexts, Tokyo, which has experienced a profound change in the past two decades, will offer a rich body of sights and stories to inform and inspire our conversations.

Examples
Session
Reclaiming the Street: Urban Social Movements and New Approaches to
Public Space in Cities in Asia
Heide Jaeger (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) heide.jaeger@gmx.net

At a time when privatization and de-regulation are becoming global trends and concerns grow about global geographies suppressing public urban life, we are in
need to reconsider how to approach the increasing disjuncture between global
urbanism and vernacular public space, which we can especially observe in mega
cities in Asia. Accordingly, this session aims to 1) understand how global urban
trends are affecting the everyday urban life and manifestation of local urban
places, as streets and alleys; 2) clarify the process how boundaries between
public and private urban places are re-conceptualized and 3) how the emergence
of new social movements or hybrid subcultures can be understood when studying
the diverse ways people (re-) occupy or (re-) interpret local urban places
throughout cities in Asia. Thus, this session invites papers that explore through
different means and methods cases, which reflect on the changing public urban
life and local places of Asia.

Session
Searching for Common Ground: Intraurban Borderlands from a Global Perspective
Deljana Iossifova (Tokyo Institute of Technology, JAPAN) diossifova@googlemail.com and Tatsuro Sakano (Tokyo Institute of Technology) tsakano@soc.titech.ac.jp

Borderlands are entities acting towards both the division and the fusion of the different. They exist in every city as a source of friction. They are essential for those present within and along them when it comes to ‘bonding’ and the formation of hybrid (or multiple) identities within the urban context. This session seeks to explore the manifold aspects incorporated within the notion of intraurban borderlands ? be they spatial, social, temporal, or cultural ? including, but not limited to, those between old and new, modern and traditional, rich and poor, planned and organic, formal and informal, permanent and temporary, local and migrant. Helping to position ‘borderlands’ within different geographical settings, their differences and commonalities, papers will be concerned with the ways in which intraurban borderlands emerge, are being established, tolerated, accepted, or eradicated.

Call for Papers
Please send the title and abstract of your paper to session organizer(s) and ISA-RC21 Tokyo Conference Organizing committee (rc21-tokyo@mbe.nifty.com)

by May 15, 2008

The abstract of your paper should be limited to 150 words and include your name, affiliation and email address.