Geomedia Speaker Series - Myria Georgiou

This paper looks at the city of difference (Fincher and Jacobs 1998) as a cultural space full of unknowns and uncertainties, risks and opportunities. While urban uncertainties represent a condition associated with city life, their cultural and social meanings remain contested. This paper adopts a communication perspective in exploring some of the ways in which urban dwellers makes sense of these uncertainties from the street level. City as a cultural space is largely composed by neighbourhoods where people of different social and cultural backgrounds co-occupy urban space, without engaging in any apparent conflict. How is this relative harmony achieved and do urban dwellers living next to each other manage civility through indifference (Bailey 1996)? Is civility dependent on separation and, if so, does separation reflect a way to manage uncertainty? Does togetherness ever replace separation and if so, under what circumstances? What will be argued, is that separation partly represents a way to sustain stability and a sense of ontological security among those occupying culturally diverse urban domains. Togetherness only emerges momentarily, raising questions on whether it is ever possible, even desired, as a more sustained condition. Urban communication both reflects and plays a constitutive role in the management of the always fragile balance between togetherness and separation. As will be discussed while drawing from empirical evidence from London, both separation and togetherness are organised and enabled through complex communication systems that help sustain, manage and occasionally cross boundaries. Importantly, the discussion does not privilege togetherness vis-à-vis separation, neither does it make assumptions about separation presenting evidence of urban segregation. Instead, the paper aims to create a space for reflection on the internal contradictions and challenges associated with politics of conviviality in cities of difference (Amin 2012; Gilroy 2004). This politics can often follow unpredictable routes and lead to a range of cultural outcomes in the city of difference.

Date: 26th of March
Place: Minerva, Karlstad University
Lecture & workshop schedule:
9.00 - 10.30 Guest speaker PhD Myria Georgiou
10.30 - 10.45 coffee break
10.45 - 11.45 PhD student presentation/discussion (Jenny Janssdotter/Ilkin Mehrabov)
11.45 - 12.45 lunch
13.00 - 14.30 PhD student presentation/discussion (Raul Ferrer/ Reinhard Handler)