Borders and Identity 2015: Urban fragmentation(s)

Veranstaltung im Rahmen des BMBF-Wissenschaftsjahres 2015

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities; cities that are growing each year by approximately 70 million inhabitants, i.e., 1.4 million a week. The conference aims to contribute to the understanding of urban societies, their construction and expression, and as sites of cultural change that is not always peaceful and orderly, but instead often violent and destructive. Focusing on language, literature and questions of society and governance, the conference attempts to elucidate the constantly changing formations of cultural, linguistic, and societal identities. Within the framework of urban society, identity (of languages, cultures, groups, concepts of urban life, etc.) is not a fixed entity. Instead, the boundaries of identity are constantly being negotiated, creating vacillations between inclusivity and exclusivity, new majorities and minorities: urban societies are therefore faced with a constant need to reevaluate their own traditions and trajectories, governance and policies.
The Centers for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (GWZ) jointly host the 3rd Borders and Identities conference. The conference provides a meeting place for researchers interested in interdisciplinary approaches to exploring Urban Fragmentation(s) from linguistic, literary, sociological, and historical points of view, or a combination thereof. The conference is organized in three parallel strands, each chaired by a corresponding GWZ-center (ZAS, Center for General Linguistics; ZfL, Center for Literary and Cultural Research; ZMO, Center for Modern Oriental Studies):

1. Literature & Translation (ZfL)
2. Language & Linguistic Creativity (ZAS)
3. Society & Governance (ZMO)

See also:
Borders and Identities Conference (BIC 2013), 29-30 March 2013, Rijeka, Croatia