Specialist Session at the 7th International Conference on Urban History; October 2004

The way in which cities are perceived and what is thought appropriate for them in terms of public representation has become the focus of a growing number of works in different subfields of urban history. How those with power chose to represent "their" town in public, which views on history and future were circulated, and which measures were taken to make the built city fit the image - these questions are not only subjects of interest in their own right, but also reveal a great deal about the social order in a place. Self-images of towns, foreigners' perceptions, descriptions of a place's present state and imaginations of a better future also closely mirror questions of identity and reflect the process of adaptation to modernity in an urban environment, i.e. the process of "cultural urbanization". Especially during periods of conflict and change, the underlying ideas and their constructedness become visible and obvious.

Urban images also reflect more general attitudes of social groups present in the city and thus can be analyzed as representations of social order at large. The way in which different actors - city council, educated middle classes or working class and their associations and institutions - fought for their vision of the appropriate (self-)image, apprehended existing images and established boundaries within and around the city (by including and excluding contradicting images) mirrors the historical processes that were under way in these towns. While analyzing these representations, the profound spatiality of the city's social order becomes obvious, since conflicts over class, ethnicity, gender and religion were deeply rooted in the respective urban territories. The built environment as well as concepts of town planning illustrate the results of many a struggle within urban society.

Analyzing narratives and discourses as well as social practices resulting from them (e.g. local festivities and performances) allows one to show the social order of the respective city with all its conflicts. The study of the fundamental ideas and cultural expressions will also show the links of these urban representations to other communal, regional, national and ultimately global trends and processes.

The aim of this session is to gather case studies from a broad geographical and temporal horizon that will allow us to analyze common aspects as well as significant differences in an international perspective.

Papers should address at least one of the following key questions:
· How were towns represented in a given historical context? How did those (self-) images change or remain stable during the 20th century?
· How were representations and self-images translated into built structures?
· Which different groups within the city attempted to represent "their" town and how were the power relations between them? Who was included or excluded in urban (self-)images and how did these processes mirror social order?
· Which functions for an urban society were fulfilled by urban representations? Which role did play different kinds of references to the city's past or future for them?
· How did conflicts over (self-)images mirror the adaptation to urbanization and urbanity in general?
· What influence and importance did external factors - such as war, ruptures of the political system, or change of economic and demographic structures - have on urban (self-)images?

To facilitate a comparative perspective, the organizers welcome not only case studies on specific cities but especially encourage papers that look at cities in different countries. It is planned to include examples from different European regions.

Papers can be given both in English and French and will be pre-circulated. Participants should be prepared to give only a five to ten minutes presentation of their main theses at the conference to allow for longer discussion.

If you are interested in participating, please email an abstract of your paper (up to 500 words) and a brief CV to the session organizers until October 1st, 2003.

Contact:
Jochen Guckes
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften
Unter den Linden 6
D-10099 Berlin
guckesj@geschichte.hu-berlin.de
and
Sandra Schuermann
Museum der Arbeit
Poppenhusenstr. 12
22305 Hamburg
schuermann.sandra@web.de