The Common City Conference
Uppsala 11 – 13 September, 2024
How is the common city of the future to be produced, created, built and imagined? How are different forms of urban commoning experienced worldwide? What obstacles and struggles should we expect in creating and fostering the urban commons? What are the key facilitating conditions, forms of organising and possible institutions for maintaining the urban commons? How can we define the common city in ways that help overcome capitalist urban and social relations? To what extent are the struggles for the right to the city, and for housing and urban justice at the core of urban commoning?
This conference gather scholars and activists who are concerned about the above questions. It is promoted by the cooperation project between Uppsala University (Sweden) and the UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil) that has been developed since 2019, on the one hand, and The Housing & Urban Justice Project based at IBF, on the other.
The conference focuses on three stands:
- Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
- Activist research: methodological reflexivity and practical experiences
- Housing and Urban (In)Justice in Global North & South contexts
Programme
DAY 1: Wednesday 11th of September
9:00 – 10:00 Welcome mingle (IBF, Trädgårdsgatan 18)
10:00 – 12:00 Parallel sessions
Panel 1: Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
Room: 11:129, Blåsenhus
Chair: Maria Wallstam
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Burcu Değerli Çifçi, Adile Arslan Avar | Beimenbetov Serik | (Re-)claiming the right to the city: urban activism in Central Asia |
Stephanie Guirand | Burcu Değerli Çifçi, Adile Arslan Avar | Examining Gezi Park by Driving on Lefebvre's Trilogy of Space |
Julian Brash | Stephanie Guirand | Housing, Policing, and Crises: Putting Personal Crises and Response into The Housing Crisis |
Beimenbetov Serik | Julian Brash | The Biopolitical Commons: Lessons from the High Line |
Panel 2: Activist research: methodological reflexivity and practical experiences
Room: 12:020, Blåsenhus
Chair: Miguel A. Martínez
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Tabea Latocha | Peter Bescherer, Josephine Garitz | Organising for Solidarity? Reflections on activist research in neighbourhood struggles in Germany |
Luca Sára Bródy, Anna Ratecka | Tabea Latocha | Grappling with housing de/financialization ›beyond the academy‹ - Experiences from Germany |
Nikola A. Venkov-Rose | Luca Sára Bródy, Anna Ratecka | The kitchen-work of collaborative research: Recipes for emancipatory practices |
Peter Bescherer, Josephine Garitz | Nikola A. Venkov-Rose | An academic paper as public anthropology: From supporting grassroots activists of a racialised community to publication. (On municipal waste collection and racial oppression in Bulgaria) |
Panel 3: Housing and Urban (In)Justice in Global North & South contexts
Room: 12:129, Blåsenhus
Chair: Ilhan Kellecioglu
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Felix A Lopez Roman | Alefiyah Murtuza Merchant | Spatial Tactics of Agency: Cultures of Repair, Reappropriation and Reuse in Bombay/ Mumbai Chawls |
Khushboo Jain | Felix A Lopez Roman | From the Communal to the Personal Property: Politics of Dwelling, Decollectivization, and Housing in Puerto Rico |
Søren Christensen, Kirsten Simonsen, Eldina Jaganjac, Aske Tybirk | Khushboo Jain | Beyond the normative: Home-making on the streets of Delhi |
Alefiyah Murtuza Merchant | Søren Christensen, Kirsten Simonsen, Eldina Jaganjac, Aske Tybirk | Domicide in a Danish neighbourhood |
12:00 – 13:15 Lunch (Blåsenhus: Feiroz restaurant)
13:15 – 15:30 Keynote speakers: Don Mitchell & Dominika Polanska
Room: Gunnar Johansson-salen, 14:K120, Blåsenhus
Chair: Clarissa Campos
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break
16:00 – 18:00 Parallel sessions
Panel 1: Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
Room: 11:129, Blåsenhus
Chair: Anton Ösgård
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Isadora Marchi de Almeida | Sara Nikolić | Practice of commoning or preserving privileges: local activism in New Belgrade LHEs |
Vasiliki Fragkaki | Isadora Marchi de Almeida | Urban Sport Spaces in São Paulo: Between Commodification and Community Appropriation |
Dan Rosenblum
| Vasiliki Fragkaki | Collective well-being through Body, Space and Time – Restorative modes of eco-socio-spatial practices of conviviality |
Sara Nikolić
| Dan Rosenblum | Rupture in the suburbs: Neighborhood struggles, memory, and justice during Minneapolis' Uprising |
Panel 2: Activist research: methodological reflexivity and practical experiences
Room: 12:020, Blåsenhus
Chair: Miguel A. Martínez
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Ozlem Celik
| Gregory D. Squires | Wins, Losses, and Lessons of Engaged Social Justice Research: How Academic Institutions Nurture and Undermine Collaborative Community-Based Scholarship |
John Andersen, Aske Tybirk Kvist | Ozlem Celik | A Dialectical Approach to Activist Research: Insights from Urban Movements in Istanbul |
Gregory D. Squires | John Andersen, Aske Tybirk Kvist | Empowering urban communities through activist research and long term engagement - Cases from Roskilde University |
Panel 3: Housing and Urban (In)Justice in Global North & South contexts
Room: 12:129, Blåsenhus
Chair: Irene Molina
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Nikolaos Vrantsis | Oldouz Nejadibabadaei | Problematizing Ideas of Urban Segregation: Tracing Spatial Justice in Swedish ‘Vulnerable Areas’ |
Miguel Montalva Barba | Nikolaos Vrantsis | All that is solid melts into steel |
Tannen Neil Lincon and Daniya Shah | Miguel Montalva Barba | Whiteness and Displacement: The Generational Killing of the Social |
Oldouz Nejadibabadaei | Tannen Neil Lincon and Daniya Shah | Unpacking Housing and Urban (In)Justice: A Study of Ghettoization and Service Delivery in Urban India - A Case Study of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. |
DAY 2: Thursday 12th of September
9:00 – 11:00 Parallel sessions
Panel 1: Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
Room: 12:128, Blåsenhus
Chair: Maria Wallstam
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Burcu Yigit Turan | Enrico Gualini and Emil Widmer | Commoning as urban governance experiment: emergent commons-oriented neo-municipal platforms in Berlin |
Anton Ösgård | Burcu Yigit Turan | Erasure of Commoning and Racialization in Malmö's Post-Industrial Landscapes through "Socially Sustainable Urban Development" |
Andrej Holm | Anton Ösgård | Financing social movement housing in Sweden |
Enrico Gualini | Andrej Holm | Disappointed hopes: The complexity of cooperation between the movement and the government in Berlin |
Panel 2: Activist research: methodological reflexivity and practical experiences
Room: IBF, Seminar room
Chair: Francesca Ru
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Federico Smania | Ilhan Kellecioglu | Participatory Action Research in Housing Activism; an episodic impact of contentious politics |
Céline Drieskens | Federico Smania | «Sabotage and subversion» of Milan-Cortina 2026: a militant research in the anti-Olympic movement |
Ilhan Kellecioglu | Céline Drieskens | Au Foyer des Résistances: Remembering and amplifying the collective struggle for housing |
Panel 3: Housing and Urban (In)Justice in Global North & South contexts
Room: 12:130, Blåsenhus
Chair: Nikolaos Vrantsis
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Chiara Valli | Sarah Klosterkamp | Dismantling Urban Displacement and Social Inequalities by Court Cases of German Districts courts |
Meryem Kucuk | Chiara Valli | Including debt. Contradictory class locations in Sweden's debt-sustained housing market |
Rebecca Cavicchia; Roberta Cucca | Meryem Kucuk | Understanding the Problematic of 'Class Eviction and Displacement' Emerging with Urban Transformation |
Sarah Klosterkamp | Rebecca Cavicchia; Roberta Cucca | Urban densification and residential segregation. The rhetoric of the socially inclusive city in the case of Oslo |
11:15 – 13:00 Social Centres as Cultural Venues: Elof Hellström
Room: Gunnar Johansson-salen, 14: K120, Blåsenhus
Chair: Miguel A. Martínez
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch (Blåsenhus: Feiroz restaurant)
14:00 – 16:00 Parallel sessions
Panel 1: Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
Room: 13:029, Blåsenhus
Chair: Anton Ösgård
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Maria Minić | Ana Santamarina & Lazaros Karaliotas | Housing Struggles Challenging Racial Capitalism: The Politics of the No Evictions Network in Glasgow |
Diana Zacca Thomaz | Maria Minić | Collaborative tactics of inhabiting in Belgrade: commoning against the neoliberal housing system |
Åse Richards | Diana Zacca Thomaz | Refusing “evictability”: CASA lessons from two decades of tenant organizing in the South Bronx |
Ana Santamarina & Lazaros Karaliotas | Åse Richards | Place Destruction: Residents resistance to the resetting of their common yards in Gränby, Uppsala. |
Panel 2: Activist research: methodological reflexivity and practical experiences
Room: 21:136, Blåsenhus
Chair: Clarissa Campos
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Tuomo Alhojärvi | Elina Sutela | “What gets measured, gets fixed” – Why activist research should engage with the politics of data and measuring of urban housing affordability |
Mae de Monchy
| Tuomo Alhojärvi
| Postcapitalist Mapping: Negotiating Problem Spaces within Cartography as Commons |
Elina Sutela
| Mae de Monchy
| Mapping Housing Insecurity: A Reflection on Institutional Engagement |
Panel 3: Housing and Urban (In)Justice in Global North & South contexts
Room: 21:240, Blåsenhus
Chair: Nikolaos Vrantsis
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Jennie Gustafsson | Daisy Charlesworth, Mika Hyötyläinen, and Johanna Lilius | When your landlord is your labour union: The changing roles of labour unions and building cooperatives in transforming the Finnish ‘social’ rental sector |
Nicolina Ewards Öberg | Jennie Gustafsson | From the Balance Sheet to the Cash Flow: Maintaining Rental Housing as an Asset |
Defne Kadioglu | Nicolina Ewards Öberg | A continued state of exception: The ‘refugee crises’ and residual implications of Swedish local housing policy responses |
Daisy Charlesworth, Mika Hyötyläinen, and Johanna Lilius | Defne Kadioglu | From Social to Financial Risk: Understanding Urban Social Impact Investing through Sweden’s ‘Vulnerable Neighborhoods’ |
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 – 18:30 Keynote speakers: Irene Molina & Rita Velloso (Blåsenhus)
Room: Eva Netzelius-salen 10: K102, Blåsenhus
Chair: Maren Boersma
DAY 3: Friday September 13th
10:00 – 12:00 Parallel sessions
Panel 1: Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
Room: 12:128, Blåsenhus
Chair: Clarissa Campos
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Paola Sartoretto and Ekaterina Kalinina | Josep Maria Caroz Armayanos | Navigating Precarious Housing in the Age of Commodification, Financialization and Rentierism: Understanding Tenure and Regional Inequalities in Spain. |
Corinna Burkhart
| Paola Sartoretto and Ekaterina Kalinina
| Networked solidarity in urban settings - communication and resistance to contemporary challenges |
Srestha Chatterjee
| Corinna Burkhart
| Commoners by accident? – Open workshops as commoning practices in the context of the neoliberal Nordic welfare state |
Josep Maria Caroz Armayanos | Srestha Chatterjee
| Activism is more than active negotiation – strategies from India to in reclaiming Right to the City |
Panel 2: Activist research: methodological reflexivity and practical experiences
Room: IBF, Seminar room
Chair: Francesca Ru
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Öncül Kırlangıç Işıl
| Owusu Boampong | Co-creation of alternative livelihoods amidst dumpsite closure: Experiences of the struggles and opportunities for Kpone landfill waste pickers in Accra, Ghana |
Owusu Boampong
| Carolina Maria Soares Lima | Artistic and aesthetic utopias of the common city: representations and imaginations of the (im)possible in Belo Horizonte - MG |
Carolina Maria Soares Lima
| Öncül Kırlangıç Işıl | Turkey's Post-Earthquake Housing Injustice and Reinvention of Common Space: Lessons from Düzce Hope Homes |
Panel 3: Housing and Urban (In)Justice in Global North & South contexts
Room: 12:228, Blåsenhus
Chair: Mika Hyötyläinen
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Khamis Ali & Koskinen Anna | Yağmur Aşçı, Adile Arslan Avar | A Urban Commoning Unfolding As a Struggle for The Right to The City: The Case of The Roman Community in Ege Neighborhood, İzmir |
Özge Ekinci, Adile Arslan Avar | Khamis Ali & Koskinen Anna | The Negative Impact of Tourism on the Social Fabric of Stone Town Heritage Site – A Beholders’ Perspective |
Martina Tazzara | Özge Ekinci, Adile Arslan Avar | Urban-Rural Dichotomy in Relation to Rural Gentrification: A Lefebvrian Perspective |
Yağmur Aşçı, Adile Arslan Avar | Martina Tazzara | Public transport implementation: a policy-making process for or against poverty? Between Germany and Italy: a comparative study. |
12:00 – 13:15 Lunch (Blåsenhus: Feiroz restaurant)
13:15 – 16:00 Presentation of the Handbook on Urban Sociology
Room: Gunnar Johansson-salen, 14: K120, Blåsenhus
Chair: Irene Molina
Presenters: Andrej Holm; Özlem Celik; Clarissa Campos; Miguel Montalva Barba; Mika J T Hyötyläinen; Luca Brody; Defne Kadioglu; Maren Boersma; Miguel A. Martínez.
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 – 18:00 Closing session
Panel 1: Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
Room: IBF, Seminar room
Chair: Irene Molina
Discussant(s) | Presenter(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
Jeff Maskovsky | Sena Çınar | Gendered Performances in Urban Public Spaces: A Spatial Analysis of Ankara-Ulus, Turkey |
Sonja Dragović | Jeff Maskovsky | Commoning the Urban Commons: Lessons from AIDS Activism in Philadelphia |
Sena Çınar
| Sonja Dragović | Beyond Building: The Role of Socially Engaged Architectural Practices in Contesting Neoliberal Urbanism in Croatia and Portugal |
18:00 – 19:30 Farewell mingle (IBF, Trädgårdsgatan 18)
Urban struggles for the right to the city and urban commons
We are interested in the analysis of grassroots struggles and social movements challenging the increasing commodification and authoritarian governance of urban spaces. The proliferation of neoliberal policies, the increasing gentrification of neighbourhoods, the commercialisation and privatization of housing stocks and public space, the displacement, home evictions, criminalisation and marginalisation faced by urban communities, are some of the targets of movements who, at the same time, claim the right to the city for the oppressed and help construct urban commons. We welcome international comparisons of such and other urban contestations. Submitted papers and presentations are expected to provide critical assessments and thick accounts of the movements' features, structures, praxis and outcomes. A special focus on the theoretical frameworks, the specific contexts related to the case-studies, and the research findings is equally encouraged. In particular, we aim at advancing our understanding of the relationship between contentious politics (the conflicts between movements and their opponents) and the structural conditions (capitalist dynamics, intersectional/ reproductive structures, urban development, political opportunities, discursive/cultural struggles about hegemony, etc.) that constrain these conflicts.
Activist research: methodological reflexivity and practical experiences
Participatory, activist and militant approaches to develop socially engaged and critical scholarship in urban studies are currently more thriving and legitimised than ever. At the same time, they face cancellation from conventional and mainstream approaches (and political pundits alike). On the other hand, less radical and critically engaged approaches such as citizen and co-produced science do not necessarily lead to question the underlying hierarchies and inequalities that academic work can reproduce. Finally, residents, inhabitants, community organisers and activists may prefer more conventional and external forms of scientific knowledge than the promised ones by participatory-action research. In these sessions we expect to discuss new insights and experiences related to the relationship between grassroots activism and urban scholarship. Both reflective papers on methodological issues and critical appraisals of previous experiences are welcome. A specific focus on the labour and finances involved in such processes, time-space dimensions, risks of epistemic extractivism, achieved outcomes, collaborative methods, popular scientific education, and artivism/socially-engaged art, to name a few, can inspire the expected submissions.
Housing and Urban (In)Justice in Global North & South contexts
In this block, we are welcoming papers on social inequalities, marginalisation and oppressions that are especially manifested across urban settings, although not limited to them. In particular, we welcome papers addressing class, gender, ethnic/race, citizenship, ability and other dimensions of social cleavages that are expressed in residential conditions, housing inequalities, urban planning and the appropriation of spaces in towns, cities and large metropolitan areas. The scope and scale of land dispossession, displacement and exclusion from adequate housing and essential urban goods and services are multifarious nowadays. The roots of these phenomena are mostly located in power relations which, in turn, shape specific policies, political camps and grassroots social movements. They affect very different territories in the Global North and South, although there are also flows of people, commodities, information and capital that cross national boundaries under very unequal conditions framed by local, regional and global processes of accumulation by dispossession. The financialisation of capitalism adds gendered and racialised dimensions to an acute affordability housing crisis signed by privatisations, state disinvestment, skyrocketing energy costs, home evictions, homelessness, the loss of the commons and the formation of a new housing precariat. The exploitation of a racialized surplus work force, especially in, but not only the housing construction sector, is embedded in structural economic injustice. The current and accelerated environmental catastrophes, pandemics such as the Covid-19 and others, the rise of far-right political parties and governments, and ongoing devastating wars are important issues to address in the field of housing and urban inequalities.
Contact
For any inquiries, please contact Ilhan Kellecioglu ilhan.kellecioglu@ibf.uu.se or Mika Hyötyläinen mika.hyotylainen@ibf.uu.se