Doing City: Urban Space as a Social Construction in the Modern Era
Workshop at the University of Siegen
November 28–29, 2024
Organizers: Dr. Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß and Univ.-Prof. Dr. Angela Schwarz
The modern city, understood as a structurally and culturally dense space, serves as a magnifying glass for societal developments, revealing social conflicts, struggles for recognition and participation, as well as for differentiation and economic, political, and cultural paradigms.
It is important not only to understand the genesis of a city as the result of interest-driven actions by social groups, but also to examine its mental construction and appropriation. The aim of the workshop is to examine this and, within the framework of a New Cultural History, to expand urbanization research—which has thus far been primarily politically and socioeconomically oriented—by addressing cultural urbanization from a historical perspective.
The modern city, understood as a densely built and culturally concentrated space, acts as a magnifying glass for societal developments, revealing social conflicts, struggles for recognition and participation, as well as exclusion and marginalization, and economic, political, and cultural paradigms. It is therefore well-suited for exploring the most relevant issues that a society has grappled with. In particular, the debate over who the city “belongs” to—which groups shape the urban landscape, have primary access to it, and are granted the authority to interpret it—is as old as the city itself. Thus, many of today’s discussions can be classified within broader discourses, some of which date back as far as the 19th century, including those concerning the allocation of transportation routes—often with a focus on the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and local public transit—as well as the unsealing of formerly impervious areas and the associated greening of the city to better cope with the impacts of climate change. An analysis of precisely these discourses reveals the various efforts at distinction and integration among social groups—defined by multiple categories of belonging—within the urban space as both a built and cultural space. In this way, it can facilitate a new perspective on societal, (local) political, and social issues within their spatio-temporal context.
The aim of the workshop is not only to understand the topographical and architectural genesis of a city as the result of interest-driven actions by social groups, but also to elucidate its mental construction and appropriation. To this end, approaches from New Cultural History will be employed to expand urban historical research—which has thus far been primarily politically and socioeconomically oriented—by incorporating cultural urbanization.
Within this framework,
- the individual and collective engagement with urban space will be interpreted as a process of appropriation and meaning-making,
- tensions and contradictions between structural and mental change and their influence on a city’s development will be examined,
- overlapping mental spaces will be identified and their interrelationships explored, and
- the competing efforts at distinction and power relations within urban space in its subjective dimension will be made visible.
To address the questions outlined above regarding the appropriation of urban space, distinction through this appropriation, and the power relations visible therein, categories of belonging such as social class, gender, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation—which are inextricably linked to questions of empowerment in social spaces—will serve as guiding principles for the investigation. The workshop will explore this topic from various perspectives using different case studies, with a focus on different regions of Germany in the period since World War II.
Further information on H-Soz-Kult:
- Conference announcement and program: https://www.hsozkult.de/searching/id/event-150849
- Call for Papers: https://www.hsozkult.de/searching/id/event-145231
The workshop will take place November 28–29, 2024, at the University of Siegen’s Unteres Schloss campus in Room US-C 112 (Lecture Hall Center). It begins on Thursday (November 28, 2024) at 1:00 p.m. and on Friday (November 29, 2024) at 9:00 a.m. The workshop ends on November 29 at approximately 3:30 p.m.
The workshop is divided into the following four sections:
- Keynote Presentations
- Social Phenomena and Their Spatial Context
- Case Studies – Gütersloh
- Case Studies – Siegen
If you have any further questions, the organizers will be happy to assist you via email at fleiss@geschichte.uni-siegen.de or by phone at 0271-740-4623 (Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß) or 0271-740-3473 (Petra Schöppner’s office).
Day 1: Thursday, November 28, 2024
| 1:00 – 1:30 p.m. |
Welcome coffee |
| 1:30 – 2:00 p.m. | Introduction Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß and Angela Schwarz (Siegen) |
|
Section I: Keynote Presentations
Room: US-C 112 |
|
| 2:00 – 3:10 p.m. |
City – Space – Urbanity: On the Integration of Spatio-Temporal Aspects into Historical Urban Research Susanne Rau (Erfurt) |
| Between “World Heritage” and “Places Without History.” Historical Research and the Socio-Spatial Order of the City Sebastian Haumann (Salzburg) |
|
| 3:10 – 3:30 p.m. |
Coffee break |
|
Section II: Social Phenomena and Their Spatial Context
Room: US-C 112 |
|
| 3:30 – 5:10 p.m. | Social Choreographies of Everyday Life: Emotions, Interactions, and Identity Formation in Northern Dortmund in the 1950s Ronny Grundig (Greifswald) |
| Negotiating the City: Theory and Practice of Religious Freedom and Its Spaces Beate Löffler (Dortmund) |
|
| 5:10 – 5:20 p.m. | Coffee Break |
| 5:20 – 6:10 p.m. | The Flea Market: An Urban Event and Its Local Interpretations Stefan Zeppenfeld (Bochum) |
| 7:30 p.m. |
Dinner |
Day 2: Friday, November 29, 2024
|
Section III: Case Studies – Gütersloh
Room: US-C 112 |
|
| 9:00 – 10:40 a.m. | Measuring, Evaluating, Comparing: How City Rankings Shape the Urban Landscape—The Case of Gütersloh Since the 1970s Joana Gelhart (Hamburg) |
| The History of Youth Centers as Urban History: Anti-Fordist Spatial Conflicts in a Mid-Sized City in the 1970s, Using Gütersloh as an Example Tim Zumloh (Münster) |
|
| 10:40 – 11:00 a.m. | Coffee break |
|
Section IV: Case Studies – Siegen
Room: US-C 112 |
|
| 11:00 a.m. – 12:40 p.m. | From “Flagship Project” to Problem? The Mental Appropriation of the Winchenbach Housing Development in Siegen Katrin Minner (Siegen) |
| Urban Space as a Discursively Shaped Living Environment: The Construction and Demolition of the Siegplatte as a Focal Point Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß (Siegen) |
|
| 12:40 – 12:50 p.m. | Coffee break |
| 12:50 – 1:10 p.m. | Closing Remarks and Discussion Moderators: Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß and Angela Schwarz (Siegen) |
| followed by |
Group lunch |
(As of November 26, 2024; subject to change)
On this page, you will find all the information you need about how to participate in the workshop “Doing City: Urban Space as a Social Construction in the Modern Era.”
Participation:
Participation in the conference is open to anyone interested. Registration is required, as the number of seats in the conference room is limited. Registration is open from October 15 through November 15, 2024, via email. There is no conference fee. Presenters do not need to register separately for the workshop.
Program:
You can find the conference program in the “Program” section. The program is subject to change, even at short notice. The conference organizers will provide on-site updates regarding any changes.
Directions:
The event will take place in Room US-C 112 on the “Unteres Schloss” campus of the University of Siegen. The campus is centrally located in downtown Siegen and is a 10-minute walk (approximately 750 meters) from the main train station. Parking for cars is available in the “Unteres Schloss” parking garage (Contipark Tiefgarage Unteres Schloss; cost according to the operator’s website: maximum €7 per day). The US-C building is the former Karstadt department store. The entrance is located on Schlossplatz. For more information on traveling to Siegen, please visit the University of Siegen’s website, which provides directions and maps of the “Unteres Schloss” campus. Travel information on public transportation can be found on the websites of Deutsche Bahn, the Rhein-Ruhr Transport Association, and the Westfalen-Süd Transport Association.
Accommodations:
The organizers do not provide accommodation for guests. You can find information about hotels in Siegen on the page with travel and accommodation information (which will be available once the registration period begins). In addition, both Stadtmarketing Siegen GmbH at https://visitsiegen.de/tourismus/touristinformation and the Touristikverband Siegen e.V. at https://www.siegen-wittgenstein.info/de/poi/tourist-information/tourist-information-siegen/6470299/#caml=8hk,1bs6ks,8ew4w3,0,0 provide further information on accommodations in Siegen and the surrounding area. The speakers will be accommodated by the organizers at the Hotel Amedia Siegen. The organizers will cover the costs of the speakers’ accommodations. Speakers will receive separate information regarding this via email. Conference guests also have the option to reserve rooms at the Hotel Amedia at their own expense.
Catering:
During the conference, the organizers will provide cold beverages free of charge to all guests, as well as coffee and pastries during coffee breaks. Dinner on the first day is free of charge for the speakers. All other conference guests may attend dinner at their own expense. In this case, please indicate your desire to attend dinner when registering. During breaks, you will have the opportunity to purchase additional food and beverages at your own expense in Siegen’s city center, located near the conference venue. During the lunch break on the second day, you will have the opportunity to dine with the speakers in the cafeteria at the Unteres Schloss campus at an affordable self-pay price.
Registration:
To register, please simply send an email to Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß at fleiss@geschichte.uni-siegen.de