Call for papers - Urbanisation, gender and the global south: A transformative knowledge network

A first call for papers for the Feminist Explorations of Urban Futures International Conference has been made by the Urbanisation, gender and the global south: A transformative knowledge network (GenUrb) research project at York University, Toronto.

The purpose of this conference is to advance feminist thinking on urban research across the global south.

With social reproduction in crisis and people increasingly making a living outside the wage, the urban is being reshaped in ways that are no longer captured in 20th century conceptualisations of urbanisation.

In those countries labelled the 'global south', urbanisation, driven both by natural increase and rural to urban migration, is where over 90% of urban growth (between 2000 and 2050) is expected to occur.

The aim of this conference is to explore how feminist scholars, activists and policymakers understand the gendered nature of urbanisation, and women's place-making strategies, and to rethink the urban from the perspective of 'the global south', not least comparatively and relationally.

Through a series of roundtable, panels, workshop, and research paper sessions, the Feminist Explorations of Urban Futures Conference will create a global dialogue on the following themes:

• comparative feminist research
• critical policy dialogues on gender and the urban
• feminist activism and the city
• social reproduction and women's place-making in cities.

The conference will bring together leading feminist urban scholars, students, shapers of urban policy, activists working on gender and the urban at various scales, and new and emerging scholars working on feminist approaches to the urban.

This call for papers invites researchers, policy makers, artists, and practitioners to submit proposals for research papers on topics including, but not limited to, the following themes:

• social reproduction/production/financialisation
• everyday life: housing and habitus
• mobility, migration, debt, networks
• infrastructure
• violence
• grassroots mobilisation and advocacy
• global urban policy frameworks and local contexts.

Abstracts of no more than 250 words are should be submitted via the online form by 1 May 2019.

Applicants will be notified of our decision by May 15 2019.

You can find out more on the conference website.