Urban Narratives

Thoughts on City Literature, Urban Studies and Planning

(Em)plotting planning at ISUF 2015 – City as Organism

Posted on 22.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

This week, Rome hosts the 22nd ISUF conference, with as title “City as Organism – New visions for urban life”. I’m not entirely sure what to expect from the wide range of interesting-looking papers that relate in broad terms to the issue of urban form and morphology – urban morphology as a separate field of study being somewhat of a mystery to me. But I’m very much looking forward to being inspired at La Sapienza by the conference’s academic input, as much as by that city that defies words as much as it inspired them. Reminds me of the fact that even the saints Jerome and Augustine confessed to have been “allured and teased by sensuous images of Rome” (Mumford 1961: 246).

I’ll be presenting my research on (em)plotting urban planning on Wednesday.

“Narrating Helsinkis Kalasatama – Narrative Plotting, Genre and Metaphor in Planning New Urban Morphologies”.

Full programme here.

My last experience of Rome was watching La Grande Bellezza – I wrote a small piece of the way it depicts the “vortex” of urban life here.

I’ll try to get hold of some novels (hopefully in English translation) by the Neapolitan author Raffaele La Capria, who acted as one of the inspirations for the figure of Jep Gambardella in La Grande Bellezza.

Narratives in Urban Planning: interview in Helsingin Sanomat

Posted on 18.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Today (18.9.), the Finnish major daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, featured a large article, including interview, about my research in Narratives in Urban Planning.

The article (in Finnish) can be found here. Link to another, free version of the article can be found here: http://www.hs.fi/ihmiset/a1442459770179

(source: Sirpa Räihä / HS)

Literary City and Marketing at Morning Coffee Sessions, Kaupunkiakatemia

Posted on 17.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Speaking tomorrow, Friday 18.9.2015, on the subject of literary perspectives on city marketing and branding (in Finnish).

Kaupunkiakatemian aamukahvit perjantaina 18.9.

My talk is part of a series of morning coffee sessions, organized by the Urban Academy / Kaupunkiakatemia.

The venue is Laituri, the Helsinki City Planning Department’s information and exhibition space on Narinkka Square, Helsinki.

Programme:

klo 8.15 Tervetulotoivotus ja teeman esittely

klo 8.30 Kuvat Helsingin matkailumarkkinoinnissa: tutkijatohtori Salla Jokela, Helsingin yliopisto

klo 9.00 Paikan mielenmaisemat – kaunokirjallisuudesta markkinointiin: tutkijatohtori Lieven Ameel, Helsingin yliopisto

klo 9.20 Kaupungin kommenttipuheenvuoro ja ajankohtaista kaupunkimarkkinoinnista: asiantuntija Tia Hallanoro, Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimarkkinointi

Kaupunkiakatemia on Helsingin yliopiston, Aalto-yliopiston ja Helsingin kaupungin uudenlainen yhteistyömuoto ja -verkosto, joka yhdistää monitieteisen tutkimuksen, opetuksen ja yhteiskunnallisen vaikuttavuuden kaupunkitutkimuksen alalla.

New Spatial Humanities

Posted on 14.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Fascinating series at Indiana University Press: The Spatial Humanities.

“The spatial humanities is a new interdisciplinary field resulting from the recent surge of scholarly interest in space. It prospects a ground upon which humanities scholars can collaborate with investigators engaged in scientific and quantitatively-oriented research. This spatial turn invites an initiative focused on geographic and conceptual space and is poised to exploit an assortment of technologies, especially in the area of the digital humanities. Framed by perspectives drawn from Geographic Information Science, and attentive to cutting-edge developments in data mining, the geo-semantic Web, and the visual display of cultural data, the agenda of the spatial humanities includes the pursuit of theory, methods, case studies, applied technology, broad narratives, persuasive strategies, and the bridging of research fields.”

Seems the “spatial turn” has not run out of steam, indeed.

The series fits in particularly well within the larger conglomeration of publications working with space and the humanities, such as Palgrave’s series on Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies and recently appeared journals such as Literary Geographies and Cultural Urban Studies. Exciting to be part of a dynamic and multidisciplinary field of study!

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Update: and just as I ponder the return of the spatial turn, I bump into this:

cfp for the “spatial turn/return” at the ACLA, Harvard, 17-20.3.2016.

“With the theme “Spatial Turn/Return,” we hope to explore space in its multiple, simultaneous, and plural manifestations–histories of practices and encounters of/with/in space and the theoretical and aesthetic articulations, disillusioned and empowering, that are constructed and mobilized around space. We also welcome papers that explore the many ways in which works of literature and popular culture reflect changing perceptions and definitions of space.”

The Urban Waterfront as Landscape of Endless Possibilities

Posted on 9.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Speaking 10 September at Laituri, Helsinki, about the urban waterfront as a landscape of endless possibilities – a liminal space in which past and future, known and unknown, city and nature, death and new beginnings combine.

My talk is part of my research project of Helsinki’s waterfront, its cultural identity in literature, and the narratives of the waterfront in urban planning.

My talk is part of a one-day seminar on “more life on the waterfront”, bringing a variety of approaches to the urban waterfront, linked to the exhibition Veteen piiretty viiva / Waterline.

The seminar’s program can be found here: seminar program.

Laituri is the Helsinki City Planning Department’s information and exhibition space on Narinkka Square, Helsinki.

Emplotment in Planning – Re-City, Tampere 3-4.9.2015

Posted on 3.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Today and tomorrow Re-City – the First International City Regeneration Congress – at Tampere, Finland.

I’ll be speaking on the subject of Emplotment in Planning in the context of Helsinki’s waterfront development – abstract below:

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Emplotting Urban Regeneration: Narrative Strategies in the case of Kalasatama, Helsinki

Recent decades have seen an increasing interest in the fundamentally narrative and rhetorical structure of urban planning. Urban districts take shape based on words as much as on concrete. Narrative elements such as rhetorical figures, storylines and plot structures are relevant not only for the way in which a particular planned area is presented to the general public or framed within local policy discourse, but also for the way in which larger visions of an urban future translate into concrete developments within the built environment.

This paper will examine the planning of Kalasatama (Helsinki), an ongoing case of urban regeneration, by applying methods and concepts from narrative and literary theory to the analysis of planning documents, marketing, and media narratives. A key concern will be the manner in which planning documents “emplot” a new area, both literally singling out an area within a geographical setting, and framing the development within a “plot”, a story with a specific dynamics and morality. Character, plot and metaphor will constitute the key narrative concepts. This paper will draw on the burgeoning field of narrative planning theory, with the specific aim to make concepts from narrative and literary theory more compatible with existing theoretical frameworks from planning theory.

Off to Tampere!

Posted on 1.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Excited to take up a new job at the University of Tampere, where I will hold a one-year position as university lecturer of comparative literature at the School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies (LTL).

Literary studies at Tampere has an ongoing interest in the study of narrative (broadly understood) and a research group specifically working with spatial thematics, which means I will be able to continue my ongoing work on narratives in spatial planning and urban literary studies.

Also very much looking forward to the possibilities of cooperation with the Tampere University of Technology (School of Architecture, in particular)!

Digital Humanities, and more Digital Humanities

Posted on 27.8.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Cfp for the Digital Humanities conference in Krakow, 2016:

Krakow, 12-16 July 2016

“The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) invites submission of abstracts for its annual conference, on any aspect of digital humanities.”

“The deadline for submitting poster, short paper, long paper, and multiple paper session proposals to the international Program Committee is midnight GMT, 1 November, 2015. Presenters will be notified of acceptance by 7 February, 2016.”

http://dh2016.adho.org/

Cfp for the conference of the association Digital Humanities in the Nordic Countries

Nordic Digital Humanities Conference

Oslo, 15-17 March 2016

“Digital Humanities in the Nordic Countries calls for papers for its 1st Nordic Conference and Constitutive Meeting. The conference is organized by the Oslo Digital Humanities Research Network in collaboration with the Norwegian National Library and the Digital Humanities Center at Gothenburg University and will be held at the Norwegian National Library and The University of Oslo, March 15-17, 2016 in Oslo, Norway.
Deadline for proposals is November 15, 2015 (midnight GMT). Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the program committee by January 15, 2016.”

Narratives of Smart Kalasatama

Posted on 25.8.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Timely: new website of fiksukalasatama online now – “Smart Kalasatama” is a key project in Helsinki’s drive towards smart city districts http://fiksukalasatama.fi/en/.

I’ll be presenting on narratives of Kalasatama during next week’s ReCity conference in Tampere, Finland – disclaimer: I’m not investigating the smart city narrative so much as some of the other methods of narrative emplotment in the development of Helsinki’s waterfront.

Turku, Bristol, Harare, Leningrad, Trieste…

Posted on 19.8.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Turku in Finnish literature, Bristol in 18th century poetry, Mexico City in Novels and Maps; Harare, Birmingham, Leningrad, Stargorod, Diyarbakir, Dublin, Trieste, Tartu, and a host of other literary second cities at the Literary Second Cities conference in Turku (20-21.8.2015)! Looking forward to what promises to be an exciting exploration of shadow cities of sorts…

Welcome to the 2^nd international conference of the HLCN!

And a reminder that the volume Literature and the Peripheral City (Palgrave), based on our previous conference in Helsinki, 2013 is available for sale.