Dear all,
We are inviting you to the RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group online conference, “Urban Borders, Boundaries and Liminality,” on 6 February 2025.
The conference’s theme is relevant to current global social, cultural, political, economic, and technological changes, which have simultaneously led to the erosion and enactment of borders and boundaries.
On the one hand, borders and boundaries, seen as naturally occurring in all cultures and across time and space, are increasingly contested, leading to liminality and transgression. Recent examples are those between man and woman, nature and culture, wild and tame, and human and non-human.
On the other hand, we see more measures taken to enact old borders and create new ones. A recent example was the borders erected during the COVID-19 pandemic or measures taken against refugees, escaping from political conflicts, climate change or other ecological disasters, shaking different geographies of our planet.
The city is at the centre of these challenges: from our homes to public spaces and gated developments, the city has been shaped by various borders and boundaries. Also, the city has experienced challenges leading to liminal spaces which do not belong to either side, such as urban edges and protest camps where different forms of liminality can co-exist, even if shortly.
By showcasing empirical studies across different urban geographies, this conference aims to understand the relationship between borders, boundaries, liminality, and the city. It also aims to bring together urban geographers and scholars from other disciplines working on the subject. The speakers are from different disciplines and countries and adopt diverse methods.
The conference will be free of charge and held via Zoom. To register for the event, please complete the form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdvz-2pkg_7ZgG-Rj5-tUw6o8e3Kj8dCgAsjqsFOiGYJ4NoUQ/viewform
You will get the ZOOM link and other information via email nearer the date.
You can also follow the UGRG website (https://ugrg.co.uk/) and Twitter (https://x.com/UGRGRGS) for updates about the conference.
You can find the conference programme below.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with Basak Tanulku via tanulkub@gmail.com
Basak Tanulku and Simone Pekelsma
The Programme (all times in GMT/UTC+0)
The Date: 6 February 2025
10.15: Welcome by David Adams, UGRG Chair and Lecturer in Urban Planning,
Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham
10.30: Opening presentation:
Chair:
Dr. Calvin Chung, UGRG Events and Conferences Coordinator and
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Resource Management,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Basak Tanulku, UGRG Secretary and Independent scholar, Turkey: “Borders, boundaries, liminality and the city”
11.00: The City and Borders
Chair:
Dr. Calvin Chung, UGRG Events and Conferences Coordinator and
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Resource Management,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Greta Werner, University of Sydney, Australia: “Discursive boundaries and increasing liminality between public and private housing in Australia”
- Abhinaya Ramesh, K J Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce, India: “The ‘casteised borders’ and Dalit women in Mumbai”
- Ana Peraica, Atelier Peraica /Danube University, Croatia: “Ghetto, photographs from outside and inside”
- Francesco Zuccolo, University of Padua, Italy: “Performing tourist-inhabitant symbolic boundaries: the aperitivo hour in Venice as a case study”
12.45-13.00: Break
13.00: The City and Liminality
Chair: Dr. David Adams, UGRG Chair and Lecturer in Urban Planning,
Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham
- Sam Rume, University College Cork, Ireland: “Liminality in urban change: From structure to infrastructure”
- Alice Buoli, DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, Italy: “Nicosia’s everyday urban borderscapes: The Green Line as an inhabited thickness”
- Vittorio Talone, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil “Situational delimitation of borders: The effects of ‘urban violence’ and distrust in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”
- Luiz E. Abreu, University of Brasilia, Brazil: “Childhoods on the move: an ethnography of a Brazilian school bus”
15.00-15.15: Break
15.15: Gated Communities: Conflicting Approaches and Results
Chair: Dr. Basak Tanulku, UGRG Secretary and Independent Scholar, Istanbul, Turkey
Karla Barrantes Chaves, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
and
Simone Pekelsma, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
16.00
Discussion & Networking
Abstracts and Short Bios of the Speakers
