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Urbicide: The Killing of Cities?

An international and interdisciplinary academic workshop, 242!th

"o#ember

2$$!

%ponsored by the &olitics%tate%pace research gro'p, (epartment of

)eography, Uni#ersity of ('rham, U*K* and &+C: The &eace and Conflict

%t'dies &rogram, Colgate Uni#ersity, U*%*A

ocation: )-C, .est /'ilding, (epartment of )eography, Uni#ersity of

('rham, ('rham, UK*

-ationale

As the world has entered a decade within which the ma0ority of the

world1s pop'lation will li#e in 'rban areas, the 1right to the city1

for the world1s *! billion 'rbanites has ne#er been a more contested

political, social and geopolitical iss'e* As well as the more

familiar debates abo't migration, m'ltic'lt'ralism, and ine3'ality,

the 'nprecedented scale of global 'rbaniation is also directingintellect'al attention in the h'manities and social sciences to foc's

on the role of cities as dominant sites of destr'ction, #iolence,

ins'rgency and terrorism in the contemporary world* Three con#erging

areas of research can be identified here*

5irst, in both the )lobal "orth and )lobal %o'th, researchers

analying cities are starting to consider deliberate attempts at the

annihilation of cities as mi6ed physical, social and c'lt'ral spaces*

7ncreasing recognition is being gi#en to the eras're of 'rban places,

whether thro'gh massi#e capitalist spec'lation, the destr'cti#e

processes of planned 'rban restr'ct'ring 8associated partic'larly

with the 1megapro0ects1 associated with neoliberal regimes of 'rban

de#elopment9, statebacked warfare or terrorist #iolence*

%econd, the central symbolic role of 'rban sites as physical targets

of terrorist, co'nterterror and state terror campaigns is also

gaining increasing recognition within critical international politics

research* %'ch work is being moti#ated by the widespread realiation

that 1asymmetric1, ins'rgent, and networkbased political #iolence

can not be 'nderstood thro'gh traditional nationstate based

paradigms* 7n addition, in the post Cold .ar, western militaries are

caref'lly transforming their doctrine, e3'ipment and

technoscientific orientation so that the control and destr'ction of

'rban ins'rgencies in tightly b'ilt 'rban en#ironments so called

ilitary ;perations in Urban terrain 8;UT9 becomes their de facto

f'nction*

5inally, the emergence of cities as targets of ethnonationalist

#iolence 8as in the

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gaining widening co#erage in all three of the abo#e research strands,

there has, as yet, been no attempt to organie a crossc'tting and

m'ltiscaled workshop to bring together the di#erse research

comm'nities who are becoming increasingly interested in both the

political and policy #iolence targeting cities*

The ('rham 'rbicide workshop will do 0'st this* Using the

interdisciplinary orientation of ('rham )eography1s

&olitics%tate%pace gro'p, the workshop will seek to specify the

potential and limits of this emerging interdisciplinary concept,

emphasiing the similar logic that operates across the scale of

local, national and global* 7t will de#elop and p'blish a

gro'ndbreaking interdisciplinary dialog'e between key researchers in

geography, international politics, planning, sociology, architect're,

anthropology, history, and law, who are de#eloping research into the

role of cities as sites of both planningrelated and political

#iolence* And it will attempt to de#elop a c'ttingedge research

agenda into the nat're of 'rbicide that can be p'rs'ed f'rther by

both the crossdisciplinary and crossnational research networks that

will be established at the workshop*

The organiers wo'ld be partic'larly interested in papers that

address the following:

"eoliberal cities, 'rban planning, and annihilations of place

.ar as 'rbicide in the 2$th cent'ry

&lace annihilation and colonial power

Urbicide as war on collecti#e and architect'ral memory

&op'lar and media c'lt'res and representations of 'rban annihilation

Urbicide, terrorism and the 1war on terror1

ilitary shifts towards 1ilitary ;perations on Urban Terrain1

ilitary technoscience and the city

The relations between 'rbicide and other forms of political #iolence

The reconstr'ction and resilience of cities

;rganiation of the .orkshop

The emphasis of the 2day workshop will be on enco'raging

interdisciplinary interaction* To keep the e#ent to a small sie,

all the 2!$ or so participants will be re3'ired to make abstract

and paper s'bmissions* %peakers will ha#e

will be posted on a web site for participants to read before the

e#ent*

&ractical details regarding the #en'e, programme, costs, timetable,

accommodation and transport will be sent to e#eryone who has a paper

accepted to the e#ent* The charge for the e#ent will be nominal*/eca'se the b'dget for the e#ent is #ery limited, participants will

be e6pected to make their own transport and accommodation

arrangements 'sing f'll information pro#ided by the organiers*

%'bmission of Abstracts

&lease email abstracts of 2$$ words to all three of the organiers

by $ A&-7 2$$!:

(a#id*Campbelld***

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s*d*n*grahamd***

dmonkm***

&'blications

The best papers from the e#ent will be p'blished in a ma0or edited

book and, possibly, a 0o'rnal special iss'e

(aniel /ertrand onk

)eorge T* and yra .* Cooley Chair of &eace and Conflict %t'dies

(irector, &eace and Conflict %t'dies &rogram @&C;"

Colgate Uni#ersity

Bamilton, "