DPU staff participate at the RC21 conference in Delhi

The Research Committee 21 (RC21) on Sociology of Urban and Regional Development of the International Sociological Association was established with the intended aim to promote theory and research in the sociology of urban and regional development, and – in so doing – create an international community of scholars who will advance the field.

The 2019 edition of the conference, held in Delhi, India between September 18 – 21, was titled “In and Beyond the City: Emerging Ontologies, Persistent Challenges and Hopeful Futures”. 

The DPU’s Dr Catalina Ortiz and Prof. Camillo Boano were in attendance, as well as DPU PhD candidate Hannah Sender. The Conference was an occasion to present some of their current works and to engage with scholars, colleagues and alumni in Delhi. Catalina presented a paper co-authored with Gynna Millan titled “Storytelling as Sensing-Thinking: A Co-designed Platform for Learning on Slum Upgrading Strategies”, and Camillo a paper titled “A world of many world: towards an ontoethics of the urban (project)”. 

Catalina's paper shared findings from her research project “COiNVITE: Activating Urban Learning for Slum Upgrading” financed by the Bartlett ECR-GCRF. The project aims at finding alternative spaces and methodologies to recalibrate the debate on slum upgrading policies and the role of the circulation of urban knowledge across cities through new visual and digital tools. To achieve this, COiNVITE has delivered a prototype of a Transmedia Storytelling Platform co-designed by multiple urban actors.

Camillo presented a paper that emerged from some of his work recently undertaken in different consultancy and research projects reflecting on the role of inhabitation and the possible reflection on a different political ontology of housing to try to connect some of the work carried out by RELIEF in Lebanon as well as the Border and Camps research undertaken alongside Ricardo Marten.

DPU PhD candidate Hannah Sender presented a paper titled “Youth-led non- and cross-sectarian urban planning in contested Lebanese cities: Why young people matter in researching contested spaces." In her paper, Hannah shared findings from her research in Bar Elias (a town which has been shaped by protracted displacement) where she has been learning about young people's spatial practices and their subjectivities.

Being in Delhi was also an opportunity to meet with a number of DPU alumni and friends in attendance who were involved in different research projects and activities.