The Urban Poor: Mobilities and Mobilizations

CALL FOR
PAPERS

The Urban Poor: Mobilities and Mobilizations
An International Conference in Honor of Professor Peter J.M. Nas
23-25 September 2009, Leiden University, The Netherlands
An international, interdisciplinary conference on the mobilities and mobilizations of the urban
poor will be held in Leiden, the Netherlands on September 23-25, 2009. This symposium
aims to bring together experts from a range of academic disciplines - including anthropology,
sociology, human geography and cultural studies - to discuss urban mobilities and
mobilizations. We invite contributions discussing cities from both the Global South and the
North.
The conference aims to explore the physical, social and imagined movements of the poor into,
within and out of cities, and how these connect to the dynamics of urban social mobilization.
How do the ways in which urban space is imagined influence possibilities for movement?
How are the networks of the urban poor spatialized within and beyond cities, and how do
these local, national and global connections influence their mobilities and mobilizations?
What socio-spatial forms of individual and collective agency crystallize within cities? How do virtual forms of travel and alliance replace or supplement physical movement(s)? When do the poor coalesce to become visible, and when do they strategically remain invisible, in both a
real and a symbolic, hyperreal sense? To what extent is immobility a form of poverty in itself, and how can what sociologist John Urry has termed ‘mobility capital’ be transformed into economic capital? We invite papers that address these questions in a broad range of urban contexts.
For information, please contact Freek Colombijn or Rivke Jaffe:
Dr. F. Colombijn Dr. R. JaffeE:
f.colombijn[at]fsw.vu.nl E: rjaffe[at]fsw.leidenuniv.n