Urban Policy
Convenors
Call for papers for Conference 2008 Panel: Cities in an Insecure World
Some of the most intractable and
enduring challenges of development are concerned with reducing insecurity.
Early and very current development debates have been concerned with issues of
food security. Ensuring sustainable
economic development and livelihoods in the context of volatile global markets
is another enduring preoccupation of development, as are efforts to guarantee
social security or protection. Concern about the relationship between national
and human security has been at the centre of recent development debates. All
these aspects of security have particular implications for and manifestations
in cities. Urban economies and livelihoods are inextricably tied into or
bypassed by global economic forces. The food riots sparking off in cities
around the world are testimony to the fact that urban food security is a
critical issue for developing countries. And increasingly modern warfare is
impacting on cities directly through contemporary combat or indirectly through
displacement of people from conflict zones in the countryside.
These insecurities
now accompany more familiar dimensions of urban vulnerability such as
irregular or inadequate access to urban services such as water and sanitation
and poor environmental conditions, resulting in health insecurities;
vulnerability to violence and fear of violence as cities become increasingly
subject to violent crime and rule by gangs and mafias; and other forms of
physical insecurity related to natural and man made disasters, including
climate change and extreme weather conditions to which cities and their vast
populations are particularly vulnerable, especially in the absence of strong
and effective urban governance.
The aim of this
panel is to discuss the relationship between cities and development in an
insecure world. Theoretical, empirical and policy papers are equally invited.
A major conceptual issue to be addressed is whether global, national and city
level insecurities might influence the way in which cities are conceptualised
and addressed in development research and policy to date. For example, does
the urban bias thesis still have resonance and what does over urbanisation
mean in a world where the vast majority of urban workers do not enjoy formal
conditions of labour?
Empirical and
policy questions might include the following. Do cities need to be factored
into economic analysis as spatial entities? What are the implications of the
security-development nexus for cities? What do we know about cities and
climate change and what should we know? What are the challenges of an insecure
world for urban health and urban environments? Are city governments up to the
task of addressing multiple and intersecting insecurities and have
decentralisation policies helped or hindered them in this? Are citizenship
rights and an inclusive urban politics possible in insecure cities in an
insecure world?
Abstracts
of 750-1000 words should be submitted to the convenors with a copy to Frances
Hill (conference@devstud.org.uk).
The deadline for submitting an abstract is 15th
July 2008.
Further
details on the conference and other panel sessions can be found at http://www.devstud.org.uk/conference.htm