DIVIDED CITIES

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS – 01 FEBRUARY 2022

Introducing the first edition of The City is [Not] a Tree: The Urban Ecologies of Divided Cities in collaboration with Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa, IEREK is proud to announce that the conference will be held as hybrid conference from 5 to 7 July 2022, choose to attend physically in South Africa, or online from the comfort of your home country.

THE CITY IS [NOT] A TREE creates awareness of the problems that cause spatial, physical, political, social, economic, racial, religious divisions in cities. Architects, planners, built environment professionals, social and political scientists, economists, designers and artists will come together to discuss the reasons for the divisions as well as to conceptualise an approach to heal those divisions. The conference involves developers, local authorities, and communities in the conversation.

The fuller conception of the nature of divisions in cities means that effective principles and strategies can start to be formulated towards healing and transformation into livable and loveable places, which are a ‘home’ to more integrated communities, cities and a more just and unified society.

We are laying the ground for the possibilities of a new commons, new social and physical formations, seeking ways to work meaningfully for societal advantage. We explore the different kinds of approaches, tools and possibilities that may be learned between different actors, knowledges and disciplines.

The conference unpacks two possible conditions:

The city is a tree – the city reproducing itself (more walls, more divisions)

The city is not a tree – the city remaking itself anew (an alternative condition)