From Brasilia to post-unification Berlin, from polyclinics in post-war France to the social housing projects in post-Apartheid South Africa, ideas about community and participation on the one hand, and architecture, space and emotions on the other are intimately linked. Picking up where history’s spatial turn and architecture’s emotional turn have left off, this conference seeks to unravel the close connections between politics, spaces and feelings.
Built environments enabled, (un)intentionally provoked, or methodically educated a variety of feelings towards different forms of democratic governance—here understood as a political claim as well as a practice. They did so through their conception, materiality and use. Architecture rendered ideas about emotions and their value for democratic governance concrete. Ideas about morality and conduct were inscribed into it. This, to some extent, is true for all government and official architecture. Yet particularly after the Second World War and during decolonization, almost all countries, regardless of actual practices of governance, claimed to be democracies or at the very least republics. This conference asks what effect these claims had on the organization of architecture and space, on the feelings that circulated within them and how this contributed to the challenged history of democracy.
The Max Planck Institute for Human Development will contribute towards travel and accomodation expenses. If you are interested in participating in this conference, please send us a proposal of no more than 500 words and a short CV by 15 December 2015 to cfp-emotions@mpib-berlin.mpg.de. Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes.
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