Who Owns the City?
On April 19 & 20, 2023, the Minerva Center for Human Rights and the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are hosting an international academic conference titled Who Owns the City? The conference will be held at the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus in Jerusalem.
The conference seeks to generate an international and interdisciplinary discourse around the questions of who controls public spaces, and their communicated messaging? how are cities constructed, designed and contested? who is included in urban spaces and excluded therefrom? what kinds of behavior do public places foster and what kinds do they forbid? Presentations will also address specific projects – completed, planned or imagined – that bring more inclusive and participatory urban spaces closer to reality.
The conference will be comprised of six sessions, including a podium discussion:
Who owns city walls? Perspectives on graffiti and street art
Who owns urban meanings? Narratives of contested spaces
Who owns a right to the city? Perspectives on urban (in)equality
Who’s in charge? Urban authorities and institutions as agents of problem-solving, conflict negotiation and autonomy
Who owns public spaces? Urban exclusion, isolation and strategies of placemaking
Imagine: Visions of possible cities (podium discussion)
Confirmed speakers include (in alphabetical order):
Katya Assaf, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (conference co-organizer);
Nufar Avni, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Nir Barak, Ben Gurion University of the Negev;
Peter Bengtsen, Lund University
Yishai Blank, Tel Aviv University
Talja Blokland, Humboldt University of Berlin
Enrico Bonadio, City University of London
Michal Breier, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Avner De-Shalit, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Michal Huss, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (conference co-organizer)
Jasmin Jossin, German Institute of Urban Affairs
Merav Kaddar, Erasmus University of Rotterdam
Noga Keidar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Stephan Leixnering, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Eynat Mendelson-Shwartz, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Tareq Nassar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Antoni Remisar, University of Barcelona
Tim Schnetgöke, Independent Scholar, Berlin (conference co-organizer)
Limor Yehuda, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Registration details, along with the full conference schedule, will be published soon!