Deadline for Submissions: April 1, 2019
City and Nation: Changing Relations, New Perspectives in Urban and Cultural Studies
University of Bristol
13-14 June 2019
The relationship between city and nation has been subject to change in recent decades, following devolution of powers world-wide and the growing freedom of cities to build, brand and promote themselves, independent of the nation-state. Scholarship in the field of urban studies has focused primarily on the political, social and economic implications of the changing relationship between city and nation. It has also emphasised the potential of ‘world cities’ to displace the hegemony of the nation-state in the context of an increasingly globalised political order (Massey, 2007; Curtis 2014; Clark and Moonen 2016). Rather less attention has been paid to sub-national inflections of the changing relationship between city and nation and to the role played by cultural practice and production in articulating, negotiating and reshaping understandings of both city and nation.
This conference aims to bring together scholars working in the fields of urban studies and cultural studies (broadly conceived) to explore how cultural factors, practices and productions influence or are affected by the changing relationship between city and nation. It seeks to extend the scholarship on city, nation and culture beyond cities traditionally aligned with the nation-state by encouraging papers on cites often excluded from discourses relating to national culture. It further asks how cultural practices and production shape understandings of the relationship between city and nation; how national identities and discourses play out in the context of distinct urban contexts – how they are negotiated, refracted, challenged or made concrete in the microcosm of the city, its cultural practices and its cultural representation; how practices of identity-building and the branding of cities relate to wider national identities and cultural imaginaries; and what the changing relationship between city and nation reveals about the nation-state, its workings and its discourses. Theoretical tools for understanding emerging relations between city and nation and new methodologies for the study of the same are particularly welcome. These will be complemented by case studies dedicated to distinct city-nation contexts.
Keynote speakers will include Professor Karen Till, Maynooth University
Relevant topics might include:
– theoretical approaches to city-nation relations
– methodological concerns and innovations
– city and nation at the nexus of cultural and urban studies
– case studies of distinct urban contexts and cultural practices
– urban cultures and practices of resistance
– cultural representations of changing city-nation relations
– historical considerations relevant to the contemporary context
– distinctive urban cultures and their relationship with nation-state discourses
– cultural practices and products addressing issues of local, national and transnational significance
– world cities at the nexus of national and translational culture
Abstracts for 20-minute presentations should be c. 250-300 words in length and accompanied by a brief biographical note. The deadline for submissions is 1 April 2019. Accepted papers will be confirmed by 30 April 2019. Please send to r.s.glynn@bris.ac.uk