[oberlist] Conference "The Ins and Outs of Socialism: Visions and Experiences of Urban Change in the Second World."

[vitalie sprinceana]

*On August 25-27, 2017* the Center for Urban History will host a
conference *"The
Ins and Outs of Socialism: Visions and Experiences of Urban Change in the
Second World."*

This conference aims at bringing together scholars who study different time
periods and cities where socialist projects were either launched or
collapsed in the 20th century, as well as those that are still in place.
The theme of transition into and out of socialism and the (un-)making of
socialist cities serves as entry points into broader discussions about the
specificity of urban change in the Second World and its relationship to
similar currents in the global North and South. The conference examines the
content of the socialist city – its "ins and outs" – from power grids and
housing stocks to museums and places of worship at these points of
transition. Looking at the series of junctures that produced new forms of
urbanity can help create a fresh narrative of socialist urban experiences
and visions at the crucial moments of their realizations and
reconceptualizations as both the future and the past of the socialist
project.

The conference invites proposals in all fields of the humanities and social
sciences, and aims to bring into conversation scholars who focus on vastly
different periods and locations of the socialist city’s past and present.
We seek proposals that include but are not limited to the following points
of entry or exit: late imperial and the early Soviet/Socialist period; the
continuities and ruptures of 1939/40 and 1944/45 in the making of the
"socialist bloc" and the "Soviet west"; the years of launching and leaving
socialist projects in the Global South; and most recently, 1989/91 as a
major divide in socialism’s "before" and "after" as a state, a geopolitical
actor, and a vision of the future. The conference will specifically examine
the role of cities and their transformation during the transition periods
in or out of socialism. Focusing on these turning points in the history of
Second World urbanity can help us examine in more detail the key resources
and materials, both symbolic and physical, and the major actors, both human
and non-human, that engaged in the making and unmaking of socialism. We
hope that bringing together a wide range of cases, both chronologically and
geographically, will help generate stimulating discussions and allow
participants to assess the characteristic peculiarities and ramifications
of the societies and cities that embraced and later abandoned socialism all
across the Second World.

For more information and suggested themes please *download*
<http://www.lvivcenter.org/download.php?downloadid=625> CfP.

*Deadlines:*

Please submit a brief CV (1-2 pages) and paper proposal (paper title + 400
word abstract) no later than *January 15, 2017 *to
conferences at lvivcenter.org with the subject "Ins Outs of Socialism." Your
proposal should relate your topic to conference theme(s) and briefly
discuss primary sources. The conference language will be English. The
conference selection committee will announce its selection of papers for
the conference by February 15, 2017.

*Funding:*

The organizers will provide accommodation in Lviv. A limited number of
travel grants will be available.

*Conveners:*

Daria Bocharnikova (KU Leuven / The Center for Fine Arts BOZAR)
Sofia Dyak (Center for Urban History)
Steven E. Harris (University of Mary Washington / National Air and Space
Museum)

*Organizations:*


*Center for Urban History <http://www.lvivcenter.org/>**Second World
Urbanity network* <http://www.secondworldurbanity.org/>

*Contacts:*

conferences at lvivcenter.org
secondworldurbanity at gmail.com
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