Friday, March 13th 9:15–11:00am
Centre for Ethics, Larkin Building, Room 200
Light breakfast will be served from 8:30-9:15
"When mankind loses its storyteller, it will have lost its childhood”, so a quote from Wim Winder’s movie The Wings of Desire. What this quote seems to suggest is that the disappearance of those who recollect past experiences, interweave them with the present and thereby open up new horizons amounts to the disappearance of the desire to explore the possible in what is. What we are left with then is nothing but the present, a present to which there is no alternative – or so it appears. The idea (or ideology) that “there is no alternative” appears to also have gained foothold in the contemporary production of urban spaces, a production increasingly guided by the economic principles of profit-maximization and efficiency. How can we understand the ongoing economization of our urban landscapes? How does the ongoing privatization and commercialization of cities impact the private and public life of urban dwellers? And if economic criteria of profit and efficiency indeed have begun to dominate the production of urban space, how can we account for their success?
Steven Fong (Architecture, UofT): "Five Cities, Great Lakes"
Susan Pell (Humanities, SFU): "Considering Democratic Cities through the Grammar of the Public"
Deborah Cowen (Geography, UofT): "The Logistic City: Containing Insecurity"
Discussant: Adrian Blackwell (Architecture, UofT)
Dystopic Horizons Realty
Industrial Ruins...beautified
Urban Nature
Right to the City
