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Call for Participation 39th
Annual Meeting "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir [one's] blood. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a nobler, logical diagram once recorded, will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing... Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty," Daniel Burnham. This was the message put forward at the turn
of the century by Chicago visionaries who sought to bring order
to what they saw as a chaotic and dangerous urban arena. The "well
designed" city would be comprehensively planned, with regional
transportation systems linking city to suburb, with accessible public
parks and civic centers, widened streets, well-placed iconic structures
and pleasantly designed water fronts. The "well planned"
city would enable sustainable growth and keep populations contented
within a visually appealing urban form. The "city beautiful"
movement sought to integrate the aesthetic and the pragmatic. In
Chicago such plans came together in 1909 in the Plan of Chicago,
better known as the "Burnham Plan," and it is considered
by many to be one of the most influential urban plans ever conceived. And yet, with all their ambitious ideals,
others have considered plans such as these to be projects led by
corporate interests seeking to control and contain the voices of
an increasingly vocal urban working class and minority population.
In The Death and Life of
Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs was especially critical of
these early reform efforts, writing that, "There is a quality
even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner
quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring
or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist (15)." One century later, and policymakers, planners
and scholars continue to debate the question of how we should govern
our cities. If we should plan our cities. What place should aesthetic
design hold in the process? Whom should we be building our cities
for? And with whom should we be making these kinds of decisions?
The twin forces of globalization and urbanization generate new contests
among city dwellers, and new challenges for policy makers seeking
to build the socially inclusive, environmentally sound and economically
sustainable city. The search for competitive advantage between neighborhoods,
cities and regions leads policy makers to focus more and more of
their attentions on projects geared to enhance "quality of
life." However, as the gaps between rich and poor continue
to grow, the question that is left is, "For whom do we craft
our urban world?" As policy makers seek to enhance their economic
position locally, nationally and internationally, they are faced
with a variety of tradeoffs—leaving winners and losers. Contesting
and sustaining the city is the theme for the 39th Annual Meeting
of the UAA in Chicago, a perfect location for us to consider whether
cities should be tamed, sustained or nurtured. And if so, by and
for whom? We encourage proposals that focus on the conference theme as well as submissions on the array of research topics typically found at UAA conferences:
Proposal Deadline—October
1, 2008 Registration Policy
and Rates Hotel Accommodations
and Rates Exhibitors Local Host Committee Program Committee UAA Office—University
of Delaware Important Dates and
Deadlines UAA website: www.udel.edu/uaa (conference registration, hotel reservations, etc.). Questions: 302-831-1681 (country code 001) or see e-mail contact information.
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