13th International Conference on Urban History,
European Association for Urban History, 2016: “Reinterpreting Cities”
Reinterpreting Space and Spatial Relationships (Main session 22)
Helsinki/Finland, 24-27 August 2016

In the rapidly changing environment of digital mapping new tools and techniques are emerging to build research capacity and facilitate analysis. These new tools are rarely adapted to historical questions even though the historiography of towns and cities is heavily focused on issues associated with space and hierarchies of spatial relationships. The capability of historical GIS to have a transformative effect on key issues in urban history warrants further examination.
The proposed session seeks to understand how new ways of analysing spatial relationships can contribute to the reinterpretation of city spaces and socio-economic relationships.

The organisers particularly welcome papers that:
(i) present case studies of historical mapping relating to the internal arrangements – social, economic, environmental, political, and cultural – that facilitate a reinterpretation of the dynamics of spatial relationships in neighbourhoods, towns or cities;
(ii) consider how to deal with shifting internal city boundaries and city expansion;
(iii) engage with technical developments – for example, with the automated extraction of data from historical sources such as nominal lists, directories, and from maps; or 3D historical representations;
(iv) discuss ‘which tools for which purpose’ work best;
(v) address licensing and copyright issues, or the relative merits of, say, OpenStreetMap or other mapping frameworks;
(vi) explore how urban historians in different countries are adapting to technical challenges, and whether longer term partnerships to develop international collaboration and funding initiatives would assist that adaptation;
(vii) examine how best practice can be distilled, both for research and teaching purposes; and how interactions between computer scientists and historians might be improved.

Keywords: mapping, space, spatial relationships, digital humanities
Period: medieval, early modern, modern

The session organisers encourage further contributions, bringing together scholars from various fields, e.g. history, geography, computer science.
Please submit a 300-word abstract online, via the EAUH 2016 website: https://eauh2016.net/
Deadline for paper proposals submission: October 31, 2015
Notification of paper acceptance: December 15, 2015

Suggestion for young scholars: The European Association for Urban History has bursaries for postgraduate doctoral and postdoctoral students without paid posts under 35 years (on 24th September 2016). The bursaries cover the full registration costs of students whose papers have been accepted for sessions, but all other costs (e.g. travel, accommodation) must be paid by the applicant. There will also be a limited number of Travel Bursaries to be announced later.