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Back to Events

DiverCities: Contested Space and Urban Identities in Beirut, Cairo and Tehran

International conference, 12-14 December 2013

Orient-Institut Beirut,Warehouse

December, 12 to December 15, 2013

12 /12
to
15 /12

(PDF Download)LinkENAR

Jointly organized by the Orient-Institut Beirut and Goethe-Institut Beirut 

This conference aims to look at urban governance, its agents, agendas and options, through contested space and conflicting urban concepts, identity claims and social environments. Rapid urbanisation and demographic change, antagonistic political and economic interests, and the diversity of cultural patterns have impacted and continue to impact the make-up of local neighbourhoods and use of public space in urban centres. Situated at the core of social and political fractions, contested spaces reveal insights into the dynamics of diverse societies and urban identities. Contested space here is understood as the physical space at the centre of conflicting interests as defined by different social actors. The focus will be on the three cities of Beirut, Cairo and Tehran, each highlighting different types of fragmentations, political, cultural and social.

For more information, check out our divercities blog!

Thursday, 12 December

In parallel to lectures: Dictaphone Group: Bus Cemetery

10.15 – 10.30

Monique Bellan and Nadia von Maltzahn: Introduction

Claims and Agency

10.30 – 12.45

Roman Stadnicki: The Emergence of Urban Activism in Cairo since the 2011 Revolution

Omar Nagati: A Coup or a New Revolution? Competing narratives inscribed on Cairo’s urban landscape

Hiba Bou Akar: Beirut’s Geographies of the ‘War Yet to Come’

Discussant: Omar Abdulaziz Hallaj

12.45 – 14.00

Lunch

14.00 – 15.30

Maryam Amiri/Esmaeil Izadi: Tehran Urban Space, Under the Rationale of Sales Price

Nada Moumtaz: Practices of Commoning: Public utility and religious interest in the waqfs of contemporary Beirut

Discussant: Mona Fawaz

15.30 – 16.00 

Coffee Break

16.00 – 17.30

Panel discussion: What does Beirut’s urban future look like?

with

Bilal Hamad / Mayor of Beirut

Amira Solh / Senior Urban Planner, Solidere

Vladimir Kurumilian / Urban Activist

Omar Abi Azar / Zoukak Theatre Company

Rami G. Khouri / Issam Fares Institute (Moderator)

Transfer to Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB)

19.00

LABAN Improvisational Theatre

Friday, 13 December

Corniche

Dictaphone Group: This Sea is Mine

Tour 1: 10.00 – 12.00

Tour 2: 12.00 – 14.00

Pre-registration required

Location: Zico House

Between Public and Private

15.00 – 18.30

Nazanin Shahrokni: A Gender-Divided City? An inquiry into the spatial politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Mathew Gagné: Expanding Queer Spaces in Beirut: Mobile communications technologies and contestations to heteronormative space

16.30 – 17.00

( Coffee break)

Nahid Siamdoust: Tehran’s Soundscape and the Public Sphere

Mazen Haidar and Akram Rayess: Public Sounds, Private Spaces: Towards a Fairouz Museum in Zoukak el-Blat

Discussant: Robert Saliba

18.30 – 19.00

Break

19.00 – 20.00

Dictaphone Group: Why the Sea is Mine / Lecture Performance

Saturday, 14 December

Location: Mansion

10.00 – 10.30

Ghassan Maasri: Introduction to Mansion

Panel 3: Open Air Spaces of Gathering

10.30 – 12.00

Lucie Ryzova: Strolling in Enemy Territory: Contested spaces and spatial practices in Downtown Cairo, a historical analysis

Soraya Batmanghelichi: Red-lights in Parks: A social history of Park-e Razi

Discussant: Anton Escher

12.00 – 12.15

  Break

12.15 – 12.45

Rana ElNemr: Olympic Garden I & II + III / Lecture performance

12.45 – 14.00

Lunch

14.00 – 16.15

Maïa Sinno: The ‘Gulfization’ of the Cairo Downtown ‘Corniche’

Abir Saksouk-Sasso: Contesting National Authority in the Construction of Public Space: the making of communal spaces in Beirut

Konstantin Kastrissianakis: Rethinking Public Space in Beirut since the Ta’if Agreement

Discussant: Mona Harb

16.30

Wrap up

Anton Escher

 

 

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