Ways of seeing: Bauman on strangerhood & the aesthetics of urban research

RC21 Leeds : September 11-13, 2017

Rethinking Urban Global Justice: An international academic conference for critical urban studies

Image: Rodanthi Tzanelli 2014 

Open Session 11:15 – 12:45 / Exhibition Hall:

Liquid Cities? Exploring Zygmunt Bauman’s Contribution to Urban Studies.

Distinguished social theorist and longtime Professor of Sociology at University of Leeds, Zygmunt Bauman passed away aged 91 earlier this year.

The founding director of University of Leeds Bauman Institute, Mark Davis leads a discussion with colleagues (Adrian Favell, Thomas Campbell, Dariusz Brzeziński and Rodanthi Tzanelli) from the School of Sociology and Social Policy about Bauman’s legacy to the field.

Link to presentation by Rodanthi Tzanelli

Ways of seeing: Bauman on strangerhood & the aesthetics of urban research

13 September 2017

Abstract

Bauman’s legacy in urban studies has a distinctive political flair that connects to his critique of the ways urban strangers (tourists, migrants, vagabonds and pilgrims) become socially positioned, ‘interpellated’ or represented by various constituencies and groups (including researchers).

I argue that his reference to ways of seeing as political tools does not compromise his analysis of liquid urbanism as an aesthetic project, but works politics and aesthetics into a distinctive proposition on the ‘right to the city’ for all. This proposition forms (in the tradition of Simmel’s sociology), a moral basis for which cognitive and affective ambivalences function as epistemological tools. 

Remembering John Urry (Leeds to Lancaster)

John Urry, 1946-2016

I have devised these two presentations as a response to a call Chia-ling Lai made to former students (in the broadest and narrowest sense) of John to participate in a collated video of recollections from encounters with this great scholar. Chia-ling primarily wanted us to discuss our intellectual relationship with John – how our own research connects to his and how we engaged with his multiple projects. I gather that I do more than that in the longer presentation, where I say a few things about who I thought John was as a scholar and a public intellectual as well as a person. In the shortest presentation I specifically respond to Chia-ling’s invitation to make a collective picture of John in relation to his colleagues, interlocutors and students.

My experience with new media is still limited. But recording myself externalizing thoughts about someone who stands as one of my significant others (my list is growing with new living colleagues all the time), then watching the complete narrative, I realized how uncomfortable I found the process. This becomes obvious in kinaesthetic aspects in both videos. I decided to leave them unedited – I am unable to participate in commemorative events in person, so this is my small, if insignificant, contribution. Some clips will appear in a relevant event in the 2016 ISA Forum in Vienna.

Click hereto watch the longer clip

Click here to watch the shorter clip

2 June 2016