"VERNACULARS OF URBAN MULTIPLICITY / A Space for Ideas in the Making"

For more details please contact esser(at)mmg.mpg.de.

The initiative flows from a series of discussions that took place in Berlin in 2012 organised by the Max Planck Institute on the topic: ‘Public Space and Diversity’. At that gathering it seemed important to assemble urbanists that are preoccupied with the specificities of urbanism in the global South for a more fine-grained discussion.

ACC, with support from the Max Planck Institute, is mounting a major exhibition on Cape Town, City Desired. Set against the backdrop of the exhibition, we aim to convene a select number of participants to explore their current theoretical preoccupations about the contemporary urban moment—one that is decidedly fractal and diverse. The ambition is modest. We envisage that each of the invited scholars will use the occasion to push forward their thinking beyond limitations that they currently encounter. In other words, this will be a safe space where partially formed ideas can get an outing for critical reflection and commentary.

Participants:

• AbdouMaliq Simone
• Ash Amin
• Caroline Wanjiku Kihato
• Darshan Vigneswaran
• Edgar Pieterse
• Filip DeBoeck
• Gautam Bhan
• Robin Cohen
• Steven Vertovec
• Teresa Caldeira