University Of Coimbra

Mapping Culture: Communities, Sites, and Stories

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Mapping Culture: Communities, Sites and Stories
May 28-30, 2014
Coimbra, Portugal

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The Centre for Social Studies (Centro de Estudos Sociais – CES), a State Associate Laboratory at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, is calling for the submission of papers and panel/workshop proposals from academics, researchers, public administrators, architects, planners and artists for an international conference and symposium. The CES is committed to questions of public interest, including those involving relationships between scientific knowledge and citizens’ participation.

Cultural Mapping – A general definition:

Cultural mapping involves a community identifying and documenting local cultural resources. Through this research cultural elements are recorded – the tangibles like galleries, craft industries, distinctive landmarks, local events and industries, as well as the intangibles like memories, personal histories, attitudes and values. After researching the elements that make a community unique, cultural mapping involves initiating a range of community activities or projects, to record, conserve and use these elements. …The most fundamental goal of cultural mapping is to help communities recognize, celebrate, and support cultural diversity for economic, social and regional development. An emerging interdisciplinary field Cultural mapping reflects the spatial turn taken in many related areas of research, including cultural and artistic studies, architecture and urban design, geography, sociology, cultural policy and planning. Traditional approaches to cultural mapping emphasize the centrality of community engagement, and the process of mapping often reveals many unexpected resources and builds new cross-community connections.

Internationally, cultural mapping has come to be closely associated with professional cultural planning practices, but its recent adoption within a variety of disciplinary areas means that ‘traditional’ approaches are being re-thought and expanded, with cultural mapping practices adopting new methodologies, perspectives and objectives as they evolve.

This event is intended to explore both conventional and alternative approaches to mapping cultures and communities in an international context. Presenters will discuss and illustrate innovative ways to encourage artistic intervention and public participation in cultural mapping. They will also address the challenges posed by such artistic practices and community involvement in various phases of the research process, from gathering and interpreting data to modes of presenting ‘findings’ to interest groups from different sectors – the local public as well as specialists in the arts, research, public administration and planning.

Two key dimensions of current research with implications for artistic, architectural and planning practices are:

(a) the participatory and community engagement aspect, especially in the context of accessible mobile digital technologies

(b) mapping the intangibilities of a place (e.g., stories, histories, etc.) that provide a “sense of place” and identity to specific locales, and the ways in which those meanings and values may be grounded in embodied experiences.

These two aspects will be highlighted in the conference presentations and symposium workshops, bridging interests of both researchers and practitioners.

EVENT COMPONENTS

• Keynote lectures

• Plenary panel sessions with discussions among researchers, artists/creators, and local

planners/municipal representatives

• Interactive workshop sessions (Symposium)

• Associated artistic presentations to complement event themes

KEY THEMES

• Cultural mapping as an agent of community engagement

• Cultural mapping as a tool of local policy development

• Cultural mapping processes and methodologies

• Multimedia mapping tools – recording interpretations and cultural uses of public space

• Artistic approaches to cultural mapping

• The artist-researcher in interdisciplinary inquiry

• Understanding architecture and urban space through mapping

Sub-Themes

Particular panel sessions can be organized for sub-themes such as:

• ‘Making visible’ eco-cultural knowledge and practices through mapping

• Political underpinnings of cultural mapping – Lessons and corrections

• Mapping as activist art

Symposium – Linking research and practice

Collaborative research with communities can help us better understand its role in their cultural and social development. But how to create or recreate such an experience? The Symposium elements will address how multidisciplinary research perspectives can be applied to local development practice. Workshops will be used to explore the possible contributions of cultural mapping approaches to different communities at a local level, and the role for academia.

• What type of ‘cultural map’ is required, and what methodological tools have proven to be valuable?

• How can academic knowledge be effectively applied to solving issues at the community level?

• How much of this information is more than what we see, that is, ‘cultural mapping’ for the intangible or unseen?

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

We invite proposals for individual paper/project presentations, thematic panel sessions and workshops. The primary language of the event will be English, but proposals for presentations in Portuguese are also welcome. (We will try to arrange for ‘informal’ translation support for Portuguese-language sessions, as possible.)

SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL (online at the CES website: www.ces.uc.pt)

Required information:

 Name of primary author

 Email of primary author

 Names of other authors (if applicable)

 Position/title of primary author

 Organization/institution

 Department

 City

 Country

 Is this presentation part of a proposed panel? Y/N

 If yes, title of panel

 Title of presentation

 Abstract (250 words)

 Key theme(s) of presentation (from the list of themes above)

 Brief bio of presenter(s), including position/role of each (e.g., researcher, professor, architect, doctoral student, artist, town planner, etc.) (max. 250 words)

Panel Proposals

If you are proposing a panel, please submit the proposed paper of each panel participant separately, using the submission form, to provide full information for each paper and participant. Be sure to enter the title of the proposed panel in the assigned field.

Abstracts will be published in the conference program in English and Portuguese.

Full Papers

Selected papers will be compiled and posted online (in a password protected folder), and all conference registrants will receive an email with the URL and password for access prior to the conference.

We are planning to publish selected papers in a journal, following the conference.

TIMELINE

  • Launch – Conference website, online submission form at www.ces.uc.pt January 15, 2014
  • Launch – Registration February 1, 2014
  • Submission Deadline – using online submission form at www.ces.uc.pt February 14, 2014
  • Selection decisions communicated to authors March 1, 2014
  • Early Registration closes April 15, 2014
  • Completed Papers Deadline – email to: MappingCulture@ces.uc.pt May 15, 2014
  • Conference Presentation in Coimbra May 28-30, 2014

PROJECT PARTNERS and COLLABORATORS (so far)

Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES) / Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Colégio das Artes, University of Coimbra
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Thompson Rivers University, Canada

QUESTIONS? Please contact Dr. Nancy Duxbury: duxbury@ces.uc.pt

REFERENCES

Clark, Sutherland & Young (1995). Keynote speech, Cultural Mapping Symposium and Workshop, Australia.

McLucas, Clifford (no date), There are ten things that I can say about these deep maps. Available: http://documents.stanford.edu/MichaelShanks/51.

Scherf, Kathleen (2013), The Multiplicity of Place; or, Deep Contexts Require Deep Maps, with an Example. Paper presented at World Social Science Forum, October 13, 2013.

Shanks, Michael; Pearson, Mike (2001), Theatre/Archaeology. New York: Routledge.

Stewart, Sue (2007). Cultural Mapping Toolkit. Vancouver: 2010 Legacies Now and Creative City

Network of Canada. Available: http://www.creativecity.ca/database/files/library/cultural_mapping_toolkit.pdf

Call for Papers: Beyond the Creative City

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Special Issue: Beyond the Creative City
Portugal

The “Cities, Cultures, and Architecture Research Group” of the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra is going to publish a special journal issue called “Beyond the Creative City” in December 2012. Therefore it calls for papers on the topic of urban development and its effect on local cultures and heritage. Creative city investments and initiatives play an important role in this field, but they get into the focus of heavy critique. Thus the editors search for alternative approaches to urban futures, with a sustainable environment, society and economy and attention payed to inclusion and social equity, to make it short: approaches with a higher cultural sensivity.

The call for papers is not only directed to architects and cultural politicians, but also aims at researchers from the fields of sociology,  anthropology, arts, cultural studies, as well as other disciplines confronted with urban space. Possible topics for investigation are:

urban lifestyles and means of resistance, socioeconomic conditions and empowerment of residents through artistic/cultural initiatives, the impacts of tourism and ‘creative city’ initiatives on cities over the last decade, affirmations of cultural expressions, and the democratic governance of cities.
Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais (RCCS) publishes the results of advanced research in all fields of social and human sciences in four issues per year. As Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais is a peer-reviewed journal, all submitted works are graded by three reviewers, and ranked in terms of quality for this special issue. 6-8 articles will be chosen for publication as well as  4-5 book reviews.

The submission deadline for articles is 31 March 2012. Articles can be sent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish to the following email address: rccs [at] ces [dot] uc [dot] pt

For more information please visit: http://www.ces.uc.pt/rccs/index.php or download the Call for Papers as PDF file here: CFP Beyond the Creative City

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Culture and Sustainable Communities

This post comes to you from Cultura21

NEW PUBLICATION: Special Double Issue of Culture and Local Governance on “Culture and Sustainable Communities”

http://oa.uottawa.ca/journals/clg-cgl

Vol. 3, No. 1-2

Guest editors: Nancy Duxbury, Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra, Portugal; M. Sharon Jeannotte, Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa, Canada

The wide-spread shift to a sustainability paradigm for city planning makes this an important point in time to explore the integration of cultural considerations into broader sustainability policy and planning initiatives and the alignment of cultural planning with community sustainability approaches and goals. The diverse articles in this special issue of Culture and Local Governance highlight the value of a ‘wide lens’ in understanding how culture and sustainability fit together in a variety of settings. The articles examine the subject from multiple perspectives, providing insights and examples from Europe (Catalonia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Germany), North America (Canada), South America (Brazil), Oceania (Australia), and Africa (South Africa). The special issue is intended to provide food for thought and, perhaps, guidance for the many communities throughout the world who are currently grappling with the challenge of integrating culture into community sustainability planning.

This post is also available in: French

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)

– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)

– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)

– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Call For Papers for Special Issue on Culture and Sustainable Communities

Culture and Local Governance / Culture et Gouvernance Locale
Deadline for submission of papers: May 1, 2010

Guest Editors: Nancy Duxbury (Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, Portugal) and M. Sharon Jeannotte (Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa, Canada)

In the face of growing environmental and economic urgencies, issues of sustainability and resiliency are moving to the forefront of planning, policy, and programs in cities and communities of all sizes. City planning paradigms are mutating from a focus on building ‘creative cities’ to that of achieving ‘sustainable cities.’ Internationally, this shift is evident among local governments adopting sustainability goals for towns, cities, and regions; creating sustainable community plans; and implementing community projects related to ‘sustainable development.’ Yet cultural considerations, while recognized in urban and community planning contexts, are not integrated into sustainability planning in a widespread way.

Where are cultural considerations in this new paradigm/framework? How might culture be incorporated and situated within sustainability planning and related initiatives? How should cultural planning adapt to this increasingly dominant paradigm and context?

Potential contributors are invited to submit an article (maximum 5,000 words) by May 1, 2010 to Nancy Duxbury at duxbury@ces.uc.pt.

Details: www.ces.uc.pt/cesfct/nd/CFP_Culture_and_Local_Governance.pdf

Nancy Duxbury, PhD
Researcher
Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES) | Centre for Social Studies
Associate Laboratory, School of Economics
University of Coimbra
Coimbra, Portugal
duxbury@ces.uc.pt