Posted by Lynne Yancy on May 25, 2101 at 03:56:52:

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Institute for Baha'i Studies will hold a colloquy on "Cities, Suburbs, and Countryside: Connecting the Spirit to the Environment" in late October or early November.

Abstract Deadline: June 25, 2001
Article Submission Deadline: September 11, 2001
Conference Date: To Be Announced

People and the places in which they live directly affect each other in many ways. The public spaces of a city frequently reflect the quality of a city's public life and constitute a major criterion for judging a city's "health." The public spaces in rural settings, however, may affect people in less direct ways, and those in the suburbs may take on new and different aspects. As our society's values shift under the relentless pressure of globalization, the role of "place" in defining and uplifting our lives requires re-evaluation.

Submissions that consider the ways in which globalization alters our conception of space, architectural design, and planning in urban, suburban, and rural areas are all welcome. Presentations may wish to consider the following or related questions:

Urban

The public spaces of a city ultimately reflect both the relationship of a citizenry to its government and individual citizens' relationships to each other. Today a city's public spaces are often experienced as fragmentary, with multiple public insisting on separate physical spaces, thus calling into question the idea of a universal public and a public space reflecting that concept. Some issues that could be explored include:

• What is the role and limit of urban space in the expression of spirituality and social justice?
  
• Is architecture gendered?
  
• In what ways do the architectural and urban planning implications of the Baha'i Faith address broad issues of social concern?
  
• How has tourism shaped urban space?
  
• How do post-apocalyptic communities incorporate the memory of trauma into urban planning and design (i.e., post-World War II cities)?
  
• What do tangible and intangible "quality-of-life" indicators (levels of crime, hospitalizations, and positive/negative citations in local news media, and so on) tell us about the health of a community and its use of space?
  
• How has the reordering of urban space evolved historically and in particular historical periods?
  
• In what ways do the Baha'i implications for urban planning disrupt the notion of "chocolate cities and vanilla suburbs"?
  
• Does urban space foster gang activity?
  
• How does urban space reinforce punitive social policies (for youth or other marginalized social groups)?

Suburbs

Suburbs as we know them are a relatively recent and hybrid kind of space. They take their identities from the city nearest them but typically offer more open and green space reminiscent of the country. Older towns have a "downtown " area and other features similar to those of cities, while the newer suburbs may have only shopping malls and no town center. The urban concept of "public space" has evolved (or devolved) along with suburban development over the last century.

• In what ways do the Baha'i implications for urban planning disrupt the notion of "chocolate cities and vanilla suburbs"?
  
• How has the structure and function of suburbs changed from the Victorian ideal of suburbs as a marriage of the best of city and country?
  
• Can clustered development minimize suburban sprawl's encroachment on rural space and help maintain a sense of community?
  
• What have been the issues for the many different kinds of suburbs (older and well-established, 1950s subdivisions, present-day developments in the middle of cornfields, for example)?
  
• What is a suburb in 2001-02?

Rural

The agrarian life is still, after thousands of years, at the center of people's dreams of an idyllic lifestyle. Now, with ever-increasing development pressures and the universal availability of products and services, the actual countryside is changing in never-before imagined ways. What humanity now chooses to do with the Earth's open spaces will forever alter our planet's landscape.

• What is the role of rural space in the twenty-first century?
  
• Is the countryside becoming a museum?
  
• What effect is globalization likely to have on future rural land use planning?
  
• Is the ancient myth (dating back the early Greeks) of the corrupt city vs. the virtuous countryside still shaping our thinking, and is there any validity to this myth now?
  
• How can we find a way of integrating land-development pressures without negatively affecting sacred places of indigenous peoples?
  
• Given the continual population increase, what are viable options for rural areas in the twenty-first century?
  
• As we lose open space through the development of agricultural lands, are we losing spiritual values as well?

All of the above:

• How do cultural norms translate into physical and spatial design?
  
• What are some of the challenges to the environment with the onset of globalization?
  
• Is there a spiritual aspect to spatial propinquity?
  
• In what ways can the need for development be harmonized with spiritual principles?
  
• Does the Baha'i Faith offer a way of reconceptualizing development and addressing issues of broad social concern?
  
• How does the automobile continue to alter/affect urban, suburban, and rural space?
  
• What are the implications of the concept of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar for future planning in urban, suburban, and rural areas?
  
• What are the consequences of the spread of global entertainment industries casinos, malls, theme-parks) for urban, suburban, and rural spaces?
  
• How do "quality-of-life" indicators measure the effect of public space and architectural design on our lives?

Papers presented at the colloquy may also be submitted for consideration as part of a special issue of World Order magazine on the topic.

The colloquy "Cities, Suburbs, and Countryside: Connecting the Spirit to the Environment" will be held in Wilmette, Illinois on a Saturday and Sunday in late October or early November (the date will be announced in a few weeks).

Those interested in making a presentation should submit an abstract or description of 250 to 500 words and a paragraph of biographical information to:

Mrs. Lynne Yancy
c/o Research Office
Baha'i National Center
1233 Central Street
Evanston, IL 60201

847-733-3548 (phone)
847-733-3563 (fax)
lyancy@usbnc.org (e-mail)

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