Call for abstracts “Whose tradition ?” – IASTE 2014 – Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia

Call for abstracts  “Whose tradition ?” – IASTE 2014 – Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia

Deadline for abstract submission : 2014 February 17

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Présentation : As in past IASTE conferences, scholars and practitioners from architecture, architectural history, art history, anthropology, archeology, folklore, geography, history, planning, sociology, urban studies,and related disciplines are invited to submit papers that address one of the following tracks:

Track I. WHO: Power and the Construction of Traditions : Questioning ownership and authority of dominant traditions deployed in the making of space is an essential first step. The historical development of any tradition displays patterns of selection that either negate or celebrate certain forms and practices. Which narratives become privileged in spatial practices and to what end? What are the politics of ‘choosing’ traditions, manufacturing or creating them? Further, what is omitted, negated, or silenced in the interest of those in power at any moment? Thus, to understand the transmission of traditions between generations, it is essential to examine linkages between tradition, authority, and power. Papers in this track should address traditions that are ‘produced’ and transmitted or deployed across time and place. Papers should consider spaces and practices that have been created, adopted, or invoked by certain social groups and/or governments for specific purposes.

Track II. HOW: Place and the Anchoring of Traditions : In order to examine how traditions are manifest in space and time, it is important to consider which versions, particularities, or specificities of tradition emerge and are subsequently anchored in specific places. Understanding where traditions are established in built form and practice is equally as important as understanding whose traditions are privileged. For example, Southeast Asia and other parts of the world are witnessing a revival of urban agriculture which will no doubt influence the future urban form of our cities. How can new settlements incorporate the demands of food security and urban agriculture within their complex infrastructure and eco-systems? In Track II, papers should actively explore hegemonic spatial practices and their alternatives that either adopt or challenge and contest standard configurations of power and authority. For example, how have disadvantaged groups left out of dominant spatial traditions created their own traditions? How are such these spatial practices transmitted? And how do they subvert established norms, allowing new voices to enter and gain legitimacy? Papers in this track should explore how traditions are anchored in place.

Track III. WHERE: Mobility and the Reimagination of Traditions : In a rapidly changing postglobal world, traditions cease to be fixed or attached to given places for very long. The mobile nature of contemporary traditions can negate past forms of ownership and authorship that assumed a top-down power structure that privileged an elite. The celebrations and ways of one culture may be popularized through adoption by others. In many cases, this results in commodification and a loss of original referents. In others, a tradition common to neighboring geographies and communities may be strategically claimed by a distinct subaltern or minority group for political purposes. Technologies of reproducibility, such as photography, radio, film, TV, and advertising, have undermined the placed-based nature of traditions, allowing flexible interpretations as well as the creation of new meanings. In fact, the mass media have created their own traditions. The advent of the internet and wireless media has further facilitated new interpretations of traditions, with flexible temporalities and places. Papers in this track should consider the emergence and establishment of new mobile traditions and their possibility for both disruption and foreclosure.

Pascal Fort

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