You are invited to:
CONFLICT IN CITIES AND THE CONTESTED STATE
BRIEFING PAPERS LAUNCH
AND PANEL DISCUSSION
Exhibition: Capturing Urban Conflicts
8 November 2012, 6:30pm
The Great Hall, Kings College, London, Strand Campus
Reception to follow the panel discussion
Places are limited; please rsvp: Jenny Mallindine jm628@cam.ac.uk.
For nearly ten years, 'Conflict in Cities and the Contested State' has been a leader in research on divided cities as key sites in territorial conflicts over state and national identities, cultures and borders. On 8 November a series of briefing papers developed from this research will be launched with a panel discussion by the project investigators, Wendy Pullan, James, Anderson, Mick Dumper and Liam O’Dowd, and chaired by Professor Michael Kerr of the Centre for Divided Societies, King’s College. The briefing papers are a concise presentation of key findings of Conflict in Cities on cross-cutting themes that concern city and state, including: education, heritage, localism, regeneration, religion, security, infrastructures, shared space, and the urban everyday. The exhibition ‘Capturing Urban Conflicts’ will also be shown.
Conflict in Cities investigates how contested cities in Europe and the Middle East have been shaped by ethnic, religious and national conflicts, and conversely, how such cities can absorb, resist and potentially play a role in transforming the territorial conflicts which pervade and surround them. The project seeks to understand the cities as arenas of intensified ethno-national conflicts, particularly with respect to the role that architecture and the urban fabric play as a setting and background for everyday activities and events. Phenomena related to creating, maintaining, crossing, transcending or ignoring ethnic and territorial borders, both physical and symbolic, are central to the study.
This ESRC Large Grant Project focuses on two main research sites, Belfast and Jerusalem, two very distinctive cities - one firmly embedded in the West and one central to the Middle East - and both at different stages of national conflict and peace-building. To further develop the work, research is also carried out on Nicosia, Mostar, Vukovar, Berlin, Brussels, Beirut and Kirkuk. A team of researchers from three UK universities, Cambridge, Exeter and Queen’s Belfast, lead the multi-disciplinary initiative that includes: architecture, urban studies, politics, geography, heritage studies and sociology.
The launch is part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science. We look forward to seeing you.
Project leaders:
Principal Investigator:
Dr Wendy Pullan, Architecture, Cambridge
Co-Investigators:
Prof James Anderson, Geography, QUB
Prof Mick Dumper, Politics, Exeter
Prof Liam O’Dowd, Sociology, QUB
Researchers:
Dr Britt Baillie, Architecture, Cambridge
Anita Bakshi, Architecture, Cambridge
Dr Milena Komarova, Sociology, QUB
Lefkos Kyriacou, Architecture, Cambridge
Dr Craig Larkin, Politics, Exeter
Dr Martina McKnight, Sociology, QUB