English
Working conference: How to survive
in the global city
6th-8th of June 2008
Various locations
Registration: citysurvivor08 (at) gmail.com
The problem
Neoliberal globalisation is turning the city into a commodity, which is being sold by means of city marketing to the ones that dispose of enough financial means to buy the city. This onesided orientation towards a well funded target group and the supply side economy causes well known phenomena of globalisation processes on the city level: Gentrification, segregation, megaprojects, neglect of the social infrastructure (schools, hospitals etc.), corruption and so on.
However or because of this local reification of the global world order in the city, projects and initiatives spring up that are opposing the “natural” phenomena of globalisation: citizens’ initiatives, tenants’ and owners’ cooperatives or tenants’ associations are struggling for the “right to the city” (Henri Lefevre) for everybody, for a social intermix and the rights of the deprived. What initiatives are there in different cities? What are they fighting for and what kind of globalisation processes do they observe? How do they analyse them and what kind of visions about a fair and beautiful city do they contrast with the neoliberal model?
The approach
The conference focuses on the transnational and local cooperation of citizens’ initiatives and organisations, which are struggling in Zurich, Berlin and St. Petersburg for collective and cooperative alternatives to the effects of neoliberal globalisation. In order to understand each other, a common language and a mutual understanding of the local situation has to be developed. In a next step experiences can be discussed and practical problems discussed, that even might lead to future cooperation.
Following this logic the conference is structured into three blocs: A first block analyses theoretically and through the lens of globalisation theory the situation in St. Petersburg, Berlin and Zurich, in the second block local initiatives are discussing their respective problems, their approaches, organisational forms and techniques. The initiatives are grouped into three workshops: Cooperatives, citizens’ initiatives and tenants’ unions. The results of the workshops should finally be presented and discussed in the plenary session. The cultural program (guided city tour/documentary) is supposed to animate informal discussions and create again more space for exchange.
Conference program
Contact
