[Tlc] Centre for Khmer Studies Initiating Urban Studies

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Dr. Penny Edwards calls our attention to the call for papers
attached and below for the:

Living Capital:
Sustaining Diversity in Southeast Asian Cities 
A Centre for Khmer Studies Initiating Urban Studies in
Cambodia and Capacity Building in Higher Education Conference,
sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Institute for
Cultural Enterprise, New School University 

Phnom Penh, 10-11 January 2007

How can we identify, isolate and evaluate diversity in city
life?  What forms of human, cultural and social capital
contribute to the distinct identities of Southeast Asia’s
cities, and what strategies are available for sustaining such
diversity? What place is there for local livelihoods in the
changing life of Southeast Asian cities? How can cities
modernize without losing the aesthetic and creative value
added by diversity? How can we harness or deploy the
diversities of cities to stimulate economic growth, cultural
enterprise and livelihood opportunities? 
Internal migrations are changing the profile of urban
populations across Asia. Globalization and commercialisation
can be potent agents for change, but can also homogenize and
disguise the local specificities of cities. Economic growth is
essential to the vitality of cities, but without coeval
investment in educational facilities, is unlikely to generate
the diverse skills-base needed to give urban societies viable
futures.   Accelerated transnational flows of human resources
and investor capital are sponsoring the transformation of some
Asian cities in the images of key counterparts. In parts of
Asia, the colourful economy of micro-vendors adds a diversity
of consumer choice to city streets.  The mixture of old and
new buildings, as colonial pasts, consumer malls and the
monumental architecture of Independence mingle in city spaces,
can also enhance city vistas. 
 Creativity is a common twin of diversity: efforts to manage
and contain artistic and cultural expressions in designated
cultural zones can risk erasing the very randomness that
stimulates creativity. Unplanned real estate development can
erase past diversity of building uses, while beautification
schemes do not always succeed in creating the atmosphere and
magnetism associated with longstanding leisure spaces. The
zoning of business and leisure districts can push residential
areas to city peripheries, thus diluting the potent mix of
human diversity central to the dynamism and energy long
associated with the pull of cities.  
In addressing such issues, this conference aims to stimulate
debate on the strategies for sustaining human and cultural
capital in the city. We particularly encourage new reflections
on ways to mobilize and deploy the potential creativities
inherent in the multiple intersections of city spaces and
urban practices.  All papers that engage with these topics
with specific regard to contemporary Southeast Asia will be
considered. We welcome contributions from a range of
disciplines and interests, including sociologists,
anthropologists, architects, urban geographers, urban
planners, heritage experts, social economists, artists and
cultural historians.   

Abstracts of no more than 300 words, should be sent to
iucs at khmerstudies.org by 15 November.

confirmed papers and speakers include:


Davisi Boontharm
The University of Tokyo
Commercial Places as part of Urban Culture in Southeast Asian
cities

Yeoh Seng Guan
Monash University Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur: “Truly Malaysia, Truly Asia”?

Marco Kusumawijaya
Institute of Economic and Social Rights, Jakarta
Citizen’s Urban Movements in Indonesia: A Preliminary Mapping

Darko Radovic 
The University of Tokyo 
Western Methods, Eastern Cities—the value of culture shock
in international urban design 

AbdouMaliq Simone
Goldsmith College, University of London
Keynote Address

Nurwati Badaruzaman and A Ghafar Ahmad
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Developing a Creative City for the New Economy: Experiences from 
Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia,

John Hutnyk
Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of
London
City Planning—for people, institutions and industry

Céline Pierdet
L’Université de Paris 1, Sorbonne
 Maîitriser l’urbanisation des berges des cités fluviales
d’asie du sud-est

Nicolaus Mesterharm
International Academy at the Free University of Berlin
Excerpts from his new documentary and rare footage of 1960s
Phnom Penh

also featuring new research presentations by 
Sometheareach Din on informal settlements in Phnom Penh; Sok
Leang, Heng Chhun Oeurn, Chap Prem et al on the changing face
of Tonle Bassac; Sarunya Lormaneenopparat on the impact of
urban development on the cultural landscape of Koh Dach Island

CONFERENCE CONVENOR:
Penny Edwards
CONFERENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
Abdou-Maliq Simone, Kate Frieson, Chean Rithy Men, Paul Rabé
CONFERENCE CO-ORDINATOR:
Sok Leang, iucs at khmerstudies.org

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CKSLivingCapitalCallforPapers.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 43520 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/tlc/attachments/20061025/4061fd1e/CKSLivingCapitalCallforPapers-0001.doc