CALL FOR PAPERS DISEGNARECON ISSUE Vol 15, No 28 (2022)

Cities and Migration: Visual approaches to the challenges of increasingly diverse cities

Editors: Michael A. Toler and Beniamino Polimeni

Almost invariably, cities are the product of movement. They were born at harbours of coasts, mountain passages, crossroads, along rivers, or near transportation hubs, springing up from places where people and goods could move in and out freely. Their existence has been historically connected to the presence of structures to facilitate mercantile activity, collect taxes, maintain law and order, administer distribution and transportation networks, and to house, feed and entertain workers, either temporarily or permanently.
Therefore, large human movements directly resulted from urbanisation, since cities represented opportunities for work and freedom. However, the migrants are also vulnerable to exploitation.

In the 20th century, the issue of migration and the growth of cities became more pressing than at any other time in history, a trend that has accelerated in this century.

While migration to urban areas has always posed challenges for architecture and urban planning, the magnitude of these challenges is also growing. The movements of people are correlated to broad economic, social and technological transformations, whether it is new, more expensive technologies that lead to the demise of small farms, thus pushing people from the countryside to cities, or larger issues such as political unrest, oppression, armed conflict, or disasters, both environmental and human-made, more people move away from the place of their birth than at any time before. Indeed, many, particularly refugees, will be obliged to uproot their lives multiple times before settling permanently. The 2020 World Migration Report of the International Organization for Migration (OIM) estimates that 281 million people live in a country other than their countries of birth in 2020, 128 million more than in 1990, and over three times the estimated number in 1970. Two-thirds of them are labour migrants, with the rest including people fleeing conflict or disaster, whether natural, human-made, or a combination thereof. These are some of the push factors that lead to increased internal and international migration. Simultaneously, pull factors such as educational, cultural and, above all, economic opportunities attract migrants to urban areas.

The United National estimates that by 2050, two out of every three people will be living in cities. This will have a transformative impact on urban areas in ways that may be positive, negative, or neutral: rapid urban sprawl, the rise of megacities, cultural revival through the introduction of difference, increasing inequality, growth in the arts, a more conducive environment for innovation, increased corruption, crime and human exploitation, etc. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the UN General Assembly, emphasises these aspects in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, 'Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable'. The actions of policymakers can be instrumental in determining the direction of expanding urban populations, but architects and urban planners are also critical to ensuring the effective integration of migrants and social inclusion. Urban forms can cultivate or hinder the effective development of communities that include both current residents and new arrivals.

This issue of DISEGNARE CON will highlight new architectural and landscape/urban planning responses on migration, including strategies for reinforcing social inclusion and urban diversity. Priority will be given to papers based on an argument that analyses visual and material culture; look at issues of migration and urban growth through the lens of the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals; or that use data visualisations, GIS mapping, and multimedia archives to explore some aspect of questions relating to migration and urbanisation.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Cultural reactivation of marginal areas;
Adaptive reuse to suit the changing needs of existing or changing populations;
Distribution of migrant populations across the urban landscape;
Best practices for refugees settlements;
Strategies through which increasingly diverse urban communities can enhance the quality of life for residents of cities;
Best practices for transportation infrastructure that take into consideration global environmental challenges;
Models for the design or housing, educational and recreational facilities in urban areas;
Sustainable urban development in a time of global climate change;
The impact of global climate change on migration and on vulnerable urban areas;
Changing relationship between urban, suburban, and rural areas;
How urban planning and architecture can help realise the positive impact of urban diversity and minimise the potential for conflict.

Deadlines:


February 1, 2022: Opening call for extended abstracts;

March 27, 2022: Deadline extended abstract submission;

April 24, 2022: Extended Abstract acceptance.

July 15, 2022: Full paper deadline. Follows the double-blind peer-review process.

September 11, 2022: Full paper acceptance.

October 2022: Publication.

To submit a proposal please visit: http://disegnarecon.univaq.it/ojs/index.php/disegnarecon/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions