Call for Papers: Contemporary Amman and the Right to the City (30 June, Amman)

Call for Papers: Contemporary Amman and the Right to the City (30 June, Amman)

Call for Papers: Contemporary Amman and the Right to the City (30 June, Amman)

By : Jadaliyya Reports

Call for Papers: International Conference
Contemporary Amman and the Right to the City 
November 3-4 2018 | Amman, Jordan

Organized by Ifpo Amman, Columbia GSAPP’s Studio-X Amman, and Columbia Global Centers | Amman

Please submit your abstracts (up to 350 words) by June 30th to info@ammanconference2018.com

Abstracts must tackle one of the following conference themes:

  1. Urban Policies and Governance
  2. Social Fabric and Urban Practices
  3. Living in Amman: Housing, Access, and Speculative Growth


Download a pdf version of the open call here
.

For more information, please visit: www.ammanconference2018.com/

Conference Brief:


A city of four million inhabitants today, Amman’s expansion has become disproportionate to its urban history. Amman has experienced an impressive urban growth over the past fifty years, driven by forced migration and market laws. Developing from a small rural settlement at the end of the 19th century, Amman evolved into a regional crossroad at the end of the 20th century, and has become today a symbol for the consolidation of Hashemite rule, and as a result, the site of its contestation. Amman’s exceptional position among other regional capitals and its recent urban history has forced its inhabitants to create narratives concerning the city’s foundation, invent urban traditions, and negotiate ways of socialization.

As housing and upgrading policies have slowed down, and plans to develop a robust public transport system remain underdeveloped, Amman’s residents are struggling on a daily basis to circulate, house themselves and their families, study, work and relax. Public participation is regularly discussed in the media and public sphere, and residents are looking for ways to mend the gap between their aspirations for Amman, and the reality of living conditions in the city. In the 21st century, Amman has become an intellectual, diplomatic and economic center in the region. Those changes have had a large impact on the everyday life of its inhabitants, on the composition of the population of the city and on its regional and international perception and influence.

This conference seeks to present three interrelated themes through which the right to the city can be understood, articulated or negotiated. These themes include Urban Policies and Governance; Social Fabric and Urban Practices; and Living in Amman: Housing, Access, and Speculative Growth.

Organizing Committee: Myriam Ababsa (Ifpo), Nora Akawi (Columbia University GSAPP / Studio-X Amman / Columbia Global Centers | Amman), Jawad Dukhgan (Studio-X Amman / Columbia Global Centers | Amman), Nadine Fattaleh (Studio-X Amman / Columbia Global Centers | Amman), Falestin Naïli (Ifpo), Norig Neveu (CNRS / IREMAM)

Conference Themes:
 

  1. Urban Policies and Governance 

In a city which has known a development as rapid as Amman, the evolution of urban policies and structures of urban governance is of major importance. Tracing the origins of the municipality from the late Ottoman period until today, this panel will focus on structures of decision-making in the urban context. Urban policies and governance will be examined against the economic and political dynamics from which they arose while paying attention to both individual and collective actors involved.  

Some topics to address could include:

  • Political actors in debates around urban policies: How do politicians, mayors, municipal engineers, international donors, foreign experts, NGOs, and civil society organizations influence and negotiate urban decision-making in Amman?
  • Origins, continuities, or genealogies of urban policy regulations: How have practices evolved from Ottoman to Mandate to Modern Amman.
  • Evolution of public participation and civil society organizations: How can/do the inhabitants of Amman voice, contest, challenge or influence urban policies? Which civic practices have proved most productive? What is the role of regional and international solidarity in local struggles for urban social justice?

    2. Social Fabric and Urban Practices

The second axis of this conference focuses on the social fabric of Amman and the definition of a sense of common belonging to a pluralist urban community. Inhabitants of Amman are constructing an urban identity based on their spatial and social imaginations. The investigation will engage with the ways in which urban narratives of Amman, developed by specific communities, neighborhoods or demographics of the population, inscribe themselves in the the physical, social and discursive fabric of the city.

Some topics to address could include:

  • Social dynamics of the city beyond categories of citizenship and national belonging; how can citizens and refugees co-create the fabric of the city?
  • The architectural and social typologies of districts, neighborhoods, and urban camps, and their relevance to urban social dynamics.
  • What does it mean to be from Amman for groups sharing the same age group, political affiliation, gender, common kin, religion, or ethnic group?
  • Defining an inclusive history of the city. How is the urban heritage of Amman defined?

    3. Living in Amman: Housing, Access, and Speculative Growth

Speculative growth enhanced by neoliberal governance, foreign direct investment and political turmoil has affected the distribution of wealth as well as access to resources and opportunities across the city. Questions of accessibility, inclusion, opportunity and equality are re-evaluated in this moment of Amman’s position within the regional and global sphere. This panel will focus on the current context of urban planning policies as they relate to the provision of essential services to residents including housing, water, electricity, transportation, education and social services.

Some topics to address could include:

  • What is the effect of neoliberal economic policies on the urban fabric of the city?
  • How have policies regarding housing, transportation, or education in the city evolved?
  • How has the organization of humanitarian aid affected inhabitants, both refugee and host communities?

 

 

دعوة لتقديم مقالات لمؤتمر دولي:
 عمان المعاصرة والحق في المدينة
 ٣-٤ تشرين الثاني ٢٠١٨، عمان | الأردن

 بتنظيم من: المعهد الفرنسي للشرق الأدنى، استديو-اكس عمان، ومركز جامعة كولومبيا الشرق أوسطي للأبحاث

يرجى إرسال الخلاصات (٣٥٠ كلمة بحد أقصى) قبل ٣٠ حزيران إلى عنوان البريد الإلكتروني التالي: info@ammanconference2018.com

على المقالات المقدمة أن تتناول واحداً من مواضيع المؤتمر التالية:

  1. السياسات الحضرية والحوكمة
  2. النسيج الاجتماعي والممارسات الحضرية
  3. العيش في عمّان: السكن والمواصلات والنمو التخميني

حملنسخةPDFمننصالدعوةلتقديمالأوراقالبحثيةمنهنا.

للمزيد من المعلومات، الرجاء زيارة: www.ammanconference2018.com

مذكرة المؤتمر


لم يعد توسُّع عمّان التي يقطنها أربعة ملايين نسمة متناسباً مع تاريخها الحَضَريْ، فلقد شَهِدت عمّان نمواً حضرياً مُدهشاً على مدى السنوات الخمسين الماضية، مدفوعاً بالهجرة القسرية وقوانين السوق. تطورت عمّان من مستعمرة ريفية صغيرة في نهاية القرن التاسع عشر، وتحولت إلى معبر إقليمي في نهاية القرن العشرين، وأصبحت اليوم رمزاً لترسّخ الحكم الهاشمي، ونتيجة لذلك، موضع نزاع. وقد قام موضع عمّان الاستثنائي بين العواصم الإقليمية الأخرى وتاريخها الحضاري الأخير بإجبار سُكّانِها على خلق سرديّات تخص تاريخ تأسيس المدينة وابتكار التقاليد الحضرية والتفاوض على سبل التفاعل والاندماج.

ومع تباطؤ سياسات الإسكان والتطوير، وتأخر خُطط تطوير نظام فعّال للنقل العام، يكافح سُكّان عمّان يومياً للتنقل عبر المدينة والسكن  والدراسة والعمل والرّاحة. ومع ذلك، تُناقش المشاركة العامة بانتظام في وسائل الإعلام والأماكن العامة، ويبحث السكان عن سبل لسد الفجوة ما بين تطلعاتهم إلى عمّان وواقع الظروف المعيشية في المدينة. أصبحت عمّان في القرن الحادي والعشرين مركز فكري ودبلوماسي واقتصادي للمنطقة، وكان لهذه التغيرات أثر كبير على تركيبة سكّان المدينة وحياتهم اليومية وعلى تصورها وتأثيرها على الصعيدين الإقليمي والدولي.

يهدف المؤتمر إلى مناقشة فكرة الحق في المدينة من خلال التطرق إلى ثلاثة مواضيع مترابطة يمكن من خلالها التعمق في هذا المفهوم والتطرق لكيفية توضيحه والتعبير عنه والفاوض عليه. تشمل المواضيع المقترحة السياسات الحضرية والحوكمة؛ النسيج الاجتماعي والممارسات الحضرية؛ والسكن والاندماج.

لجنة التنظيم: مريم عبابسة (Ifpo) ، نورة عكّاوي (جامعة كولومبيا GSAPP/ستوديو-X عمّان/مركز جامعة كولومبيا الشرق أوسطي للأبحاث) ، جواد دخقان (ستوديو-X عمّان/مركز جامعة كولومبيا الشرق أوسطي للأبحاث)، نادين فتالة (ستوديو X عمّان/مركز جامعة كولومبيا الشرق أوسطي للأبحاث) ، فلسطين نايلي (Ifpo) ، نوريغ نوفو (CNRS/IREMAM)

مواضيع المؤتمر


1- السياسات الحضرية والحوكمة 

يتّسم تطور السياسات الحضرية وهياكل إدارتها في مدينة شهدت تطوراً سريعاً مثل عمّان بأهمية كبرى. سيركز هذا الحوار الذي يتتبع أصول البلدية من الفترة العثمانية المُتأخرة حتى اليوم على هياكل صُنع القرار في السياق الحضري. وسيتم النظر في السياسات الحضرية والحكم في ضوء الديناميات الاقتصادية والسياسية التي نشأت عنها مع إيلاء اهتمام بالجهات الفاعلة الفردية والجماعية المَعنِيّة.

سيتم تناول المواضيع التالية:

  • الجهات السياسية الفاعلة في النقاشات حول السياسات الحضرية: كيف يؤثر الساسة وعمداء المدن ومهندسو البلديات والمانحون الدوليون والخبراء الأجانب والمنظمات غير الحكومية ومنظمات المجتمع المدني في عملية صنع القرار الحضري في عمان؟
  • أصول أنظمة السياسات الحضرية واستمراريتها وتاريخها: كيف تطورت هذه الممارسات مع تطور عمّان منذ العهد العثماني مروراً بعهد الولاية وصولاً إلى العصر الحديث؟
  • تطور المشاركة العامة ومنظمات المجتمع المدني: كيف يمكن لسكان عمّان التعبير والاحتجاج والتحدي والتأثير على السياسات الحضرية؟ ما هي الممارسات المدنية التي أثبتت أنها أكثر فعالية؟ ما هو دور التضامن الإقليمي والدولي في النضالات المحلية من أجل العدالة الاجتماعية الحضرية؟

 

٢- النسيج الاجتماعي والممارسات الحضرية

يركز المحور الثاني لهذا المؤتمر على النسيج الاجتماعي لعمّان وتعريف الشعور بالانتماء المشترك إلى المجتمع الحضري المتنوع. ويقوم سكان عمّان ببناء هوية حضرية تستند إلى مخيلتهم المكانية والاجتماعية. سيتم البحث في الطرق التي تقوم بها السرديات  الحضرية لعمّان التي وضعتها مجتمعات محلية أو ديموغرافيات سكانية معينة بإدماج أنفسها في النسيج المادي والاجتماعي للمدينة. 

سيتم تناول المواضيع التالية:

  • الديناميات الاجتماعية للمدينة بما يتجاوز فئات المواطنة والانتماء الوطني ومساهمة اللاجئين والمواطنين في خلق المدينة سوياً
  • الأنماط المعمارية والاجتماعية للمناطق والأحياء والمخيمات الحضرية وأهميتها بالنسبة للديناميات الاجتماعية الحضرية
  • ماذا تعني الهوية العمّانية لمجموعات تجمعهم الفئة العمرية أو الانتماء السياسي أو النوع الجنسي أو القرابة أو الديانة أو العرق؟
  • تعريف تاريخ شامل للمدينة: كيف يتم تعريف التراث الحضري في عمّان؟

 

٣- العيش في عمّان: السكن والمواصلات والنمو التخميني

أثّر النمو التخميني الذي تعززه السياسات النيويبرالية والاستثمار الأجنبي المباشر والاضطرابات السياسية على توزيع الثروة وفرص الوصول إلى الموارد والخدمات عبر المدينة. ستركز هذه الندوة على مناقشة الوضع الحالي لسياسات التخطيط الحضري في ظل الظروف الإقليمية والعالمية وتأثيرها على توفير الخدمات الأساسية للمقيمين، بما في ذلك السكن والمياه والكهرباء والنقل والتعليم والخدمات الاجتماعية. 

سيتم تناول المواضيع التالية

  •  ما هو أثر السياسات الاقتصادية النيوليبرالية على النسيج الحضري للمدينة؟
  •  كيف تطورت السياسات المتعلقة بالسكن والنقل والتعليم في المدينة؟
  •  كيف أثرت منظمات المعونة الإنسانية على السكان، اللاجئين والمجتمعات المضيفة؟
 

 

 

 

Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412