Callout for Workshops
The Contested City: Radical Perspectives on Gentrification
Saturday April 13th, 2013 – Toronto ON
(Location TBA)
https://www.facebook.com/events/173800892767171/
Callout for Workshops/Tablers:
The city has always been a primary site of struggle. Today, the lingering effects of the 2007-2008 US sub-prime mortgage crisis have left an international legacy of misery and hardship in its wake, identifiable by a drastic rise in unemployment, poverty and growing levels of homelessness. These problems have only been exacerbated by the prescribed ‘solution’ to the crisis; what economists, governments and media pundits have termed ‘austerity’ is in fact nothing more than a vicious attack on the social safety net and the life sustaining services that working-class people have spent generations fighting to secure. These neoliberal policies also have a flip-side: many of our cities have witnessed an explosion of gentrification, often coming in the form of frenzied condo development and the growth of trendy commercial districts. This reconfiguring of the city represents an attempt by capital to change the character and composition of urban spaces to reflect its ongoing need to expand, regardless of human consequences. But the city has not been entirely ceded to the logic of capitalism: the world over, neighbourhoods and communities have organized themselves to defend housing and social/community centres, and are demanding freedom from harassment by police, predatory developers and their crony politicians in city hall. Employing tactics ranging from advocacy to direct action, this work represents a vital counter-narrative to the myth of gentrification as an inevitable manifestation of progress.
Drawing inspiration from these struggles, this conference aims to provide a space for participants to come together to discuss and strategize around urban issues from an anti-capitalist perspective. We are currently looking for groups and individuals interested in facilitating workshops that further this discussion. Workshops could entail facilitated group discussions, research presentations, skill shares, panels, film screenings and individual stories of resistance and community organizing. We acknowledge that experiences of gentrification are affected by race, gender, class, sexuality, ability and age, and encourage proposals that consider such intersections.
Suggested topics for workshops include, but are in no way limited to:
– Local anti-gentrification campaigns: successes and failures
– Neighbourhood histories
– Gentrification and intersectionality: Race and Gender
– Urban sprawl and changing urban demography
– Prison expansion as a component of gentrification
– The role of academic institutions in gentrification
– Tenant organizing
– The role of anti-poverty organizing in resisting gentrification
– Queer perspectives on gentrification
– Squatting/occupations as a response to gentrification
– Urban development research skills
– Resisting school and daycare closures
– Gentrification as colonization
– Neighbourhood assemblies
– Working with unions
– Urban sustainability/community gardens
– Gentrification and (dis)ableism
– Community organizing against deportations
This conference is being organized on a limited budget, and therefore we do not have extensive funds available for travel subsidies. In order to attempt to mitigate this, we will be coordinating a limited number of Skype workshops. If you would like to present a workshop, but travel would be an obstacle, please inquire about this possibility. We will also have a limited amount of space available for radical tablers/distros. If you or your group would like to table at the event, please email us.
The deadline for workshop and table proposals will be: Friday March 29, 2013.
Please submit your proposals, and any questions you may have to: thecontestedcity@gmail.com
Information regarding accessibility, childcare and further logistical details will be provided in the near future. Check http://thecontestedcity.noblogs.org/ for important updates!