Planning stems from multi-actor, interactive and negotiating processes (Crosta 1998, Forester 1982), which take place through discursivepractices and are strongly conditioned by the distribution of power. In these processes, the planner is invested with a dual role, at oncetechnical and political, and has to mediate between the interests and demands of different groups and stakeholders. Cross-contamination of urban planning/design and anthropological urban approaches makes it possible to reduce the distortions arising from the unequal distribution of power and information by leveraging the cultural and symbolic factors of space production. Anthropological urbanism serves the cause of spatial justice and ethically responsible planning (Cranz 2016, Bech-Danielsen, Landsverk 2022).
The possibility of affecting planning decisions is limited to a small part of social groups, which is why, even in pluralist and democraticsocieties, de facto pockets of (both social and spatial) exclusion from the res publica arise. This is even more true in a society such as ours, characterized as it is by strong migration flows, growing inequality (Piketty), and increasing poverty. Symmetrically, the basically oligarchic control of major communication channels tends to generate eccentric, distorted, and at times ideological representations ofthese spaces of exclusion, from social housing neighborhoods, to so-called non-places, to arrival cities and camps for migrants andrefugees, to suburbs in general. This raises, on the one hand, the issue of extending representation and transmitting demands on the part ofovershadowed groups and territories and, on the other, that of re-centering both spatially and socially those representations which are distant and distorted. Anthropological readings of space act both on the factual and symbolic dimensions of space production, in line with Lefebvre’s spatial theory. The potentialities of narrative (literary, filmic, artistic, performative, etc.) to re-think urban inequalities in light of migration and multiculturalism can also help inform a more anthropologicalapproach towards planning. By re-centering representations of socio-spatial ensembles, these readings allow for symbolic compensation in situations of stigma and symbolic violence (Bourdieu), and come into direct play in processes of discursive and multi-stakeholder definition of urban policies, contributing to the factual solution of the aforementioned representational deficit.
This issue of CONTESTI aims to take stock of the debate and promote theoretical reflection on the interdisciplinary contaminationbetween urban planning and urban anthropology, and to illustrate some recent design and planning experiences marked by these kinds of approaches. Possible topics to be covered, non-exclusively, may include the following:
- Urban anthropology and the discursive construction of urban policies
- Anthropological urbanism, stigma and symbolic justice
- Urbanism and anthropology of non-places, public housing estates, Arrival cities and camps for migrants and refugees, and the suburbs
- Visual anthropology and planning
- Anthropological urbanism and social conflict
- Open source urbanism and hybrid physical/virtual spaces of engagement
INFO
The call is open until September 30, 2024
To submit your full paper, please go to our submission platform: https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/contesti/about/submissions
Registration and login as Author with the CONTESTI system is required to submit and follow the submission process online. Later, theaccount is necessary for following the status of your submission.
The proposals have to be unpublished and written in Italian, English, French or Spanish; the article length has to be between 4000 and 7.000words, including spaces, title, authors, abstract, keywords, captions and references.
Please pay attention on how to ensure a Double Blind Review when submit your paper.
The proposals can include a maximum of 10 pictures with good definition (at least 300 dpi/inch and 25 cm the smallest side) free from publishing obligations or accompanied with the specific permission.
The selected papers will be published in the thematic section of the 2|2024 issue of CONTESTI.
Download the CALL FOR PAPERS: ENG
