Welcome Jakub Grygar, a ‘new’ member of the Critical Urbanism Crew

Hi all. Please, welcome one more urban scholar in our the ‘urbanism crew’ section. Jakub Grygar, Ph.D., is currently teaching and researching at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. His academic interests include ethnicity, nationalism, EU integration, urban anthropology, social memory and his current research project is titled Enacting the EU: international borders and politics of space in Polish-Belarus context. To learn more, read here.

Although with many of us Jakub has been in cooperation for quite a while, nonetheless it’s pleasure to see him ‘officially’ as part of the critical urbanist team.

Welcome, Jakub!

On photo: Jakub Grygar is welcoming Critical Urbanism Lab and its members.

 

‘Gender and Space’ Course in ‘Teaching Urbanism’ section

Hi there,

We’ve got a new section on the blog called ‘teaching_urbanism’ which will store the educational materials (course sullabi, bibliography lists, etc.). Currently, there’ s  ‘Gender and Space’ Course that was kindly contributed by Ben Cope. However, there’s more to come soon. Keep updated.

 

Alternative Culture & Urban Space (video)

Here’s the video from the Budapest conference “Alternative Culture & Urban Space” which many of us attended. Lude made a great video presentation out of it. Now we all can enjoy the clear answer what the “Urban Studies” and “Alternative Culture” stand for. The only thing that I wish to be changed is writing Belarus instead of “Byelorussia” (the country that doesn’t exist anymore, at least officially).

Ben, c’etait un superb introduction au sujet!

more about "video Urban Space – budapest, hongrie…", posted with vodpod

Thank you Lude!

 

Urban Disaster: Minsk Sea-City

Today, July 24, 2009, due to the heavy rain, certain areas of Minsk (Niamiha, Kamarouka, vul. Jakuba Kolasa, andothers) got literally under water – blocking the city traffic and driving crazy car owners who happened to be seized by the flood. The event was a true sublime in its clash between the forces of nature and the civilization of the city. It was interesting to see how quickly citizens of Minsk started to post pictures of the flooding in different online communities and forums More pictures here:

 

Urbain Studies in Belarus: In Search of Belarusian Chamberlains

Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Mayor of Birmingham

Apart for the Center for Cultural Studies and it’s leader S. Hall, a British city Birmingham is known to Belarusian intellectual public for its prominent mayors -   Joseph Chamberlain (father) and (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (son) who, for some mysterious reason, became a source of inspiration for the participants (urban researchers) of the round-table which can be accessed (regretfully, in a mixture of Russian and Belarusian languages) here

Please, spread around a word about this ‘Chamberlains phenomenon’ in Belarusian urban studies

P.S. What’s the fame  and legacy of Chamberlains in his home country?

 

Vilnius: Culture as a Driving Force in City Development

Last week, on June 19, we’ve been fortunate enough to look, to listen and even to talk to the mayors of the European cities at the International Mayors Forum in Vilnius titled “Culture as s Driving Force in City Development’.

In a strange mixture of academics and urban bureaucrats, some of the Critical Urbanists  managed to pass across their message as to what a city could be without municipal authorities intervention in a city space.

Even though the translation into major languages was provided, i.e. Lithuanian, Russian, French, German, etc., still the translation from the academic language to the bureaucratic one was definitely missing.

Have a look here for the FORUM PROGRAMME

 

Urban Studies in Belarus: presentations & discussion

Hi there,

A rather unique event for Belarusian intellectual life: presentation of 5 editions devoted in different ways to urban studies related to Belarus and neighboring countries.The presentation is followed by an expert discussion on the state of Urban Studies in Belarus. Check out the detailed information – (запрашэнне_на_прэзентацыю_і_дыскусію) (приглашение_на_презентацию_и_дискуссию)

Books to be presented:

 

Vilnius, Music, and Optimism

В субботу 2 мая в столице Литовской республики состоялся традиционный ежегодный фестиваль уличной музыки. В рамках фестиваля в городе проходили выступления как профессиональных, так и любительских музыкальных коллективов из Литвы и других европейских стран. Фестиваль стал также частью программы культурного развития «Вильнюс — культурная столица Европы-2009», в котором литовская столица принимает участие наравне с австрийским городом Линц.

Фестиваль уличной музыки в Вильнюсе

 

Street music videos from Budapest & our Youtube channel

The Lab has now its own youtube channel which can be accessed here:  http://www.youtube.com/user/criticalurbanism

where you can fine some of the videos on street musicians in Budapest. Among other musicians, you might enjoy listening to some of the critical urbanists you already know of. If you have more video to upload on this channel, leave your request in the comments and I will give you necessary access information. Best!

 

Lefebvre in our library

Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991)

Hi all,

Have a look at recent updates in the library. A special selection of H. Levebvre (including important excerpts from Production of Space)  has been added as well as some of his translations in Russian.