Dear Colleagues,
The Israeli Association of Japanese Studies (IAJS) invites you to submit panel proposals or individual paper proposals for our first annual conference which will convene in Haifa, Israel, May 5-6, 2013.


Urbanism, Urban Space, Urban Culture:
Perspectives on Japanese Economy, Politics and Culture in the Past and in the Present

Keynote speaker: Professor Yoshimi Shunya, Tokyo University

Urbanism is a key word which seems self-evident, while in fact, it is a reference to a dynamic socio-cultural and economic construct characterized by heterogeneity, deep contradictions and incoherence. Urbanism as a reference to social and physical space and as constitutive cultural awareness, is the result of ongoing socio-cultural structuring, and hence, it bears the traces of dialectical processes. For example, because of the high concentration of population, urban spaces have always been closely associated with capital and government and therefore with education and socio-economic elites, but at the same time, they have always attracted also people from various less privileged socio-economic strata. From yet another perspective, processes of cultural production and planning, and the successful application of socio-political means of control, are clearly realized in urban spaces. At the same time, urban spaces exhibit in dramatic ways the failure of these means as well as resistance to them. In other words, urbanism is not only a reference to particular demographics and built environments, but should also be examined as a political arena of power struggles.

Throughout history, the rhythm and dynamism of urban centers have revolutionized means of production, promoting the undermining of socio-political structures, and creating the conditions for the emergence of innovative, experimental avant-garde in art, culture and politics. Within urban centers multi-dimensional relations have emerged between physical spaces, ideological state apparatuses, economic structures, grass-root movements, fashions, aesthetics and new tastes. Along with economic and industrial developments, urbanization and urbanism have become socio-cultural and economic trends in Japan as well, deeply connected to the development of modernism and later postmodernism. They both reflect and affect the development of capitalism and late-capitalism, consumer culture, mass leisure culture, transportation infrastructures, architecture, communication industries, information industries and cultural industries. In the twentieth century, urbanization and urbanism have had an impact on all aspects of civilization in Japan with particularly dramatic consequences on ecology and resource utilization.
Lastly, in the past two decades, the physical borders of urban spaces are redefined by overlapping virtual spaces that enhance and transform reality, the relationships among people, and urban culture itself.
In light of these functional transformations of urban spaces, some refer today to post-urbanity.

The first annual conference of the Israeli Japanese Studies association aims to explore the complexity and changing functionality of urbanism, urban space and urban culture in Japan in historical and synchronic perspectives, allowing unique vintage points of view on economic, political, social and cultural processes.
Beyond debating specific case studies, we hope to further explore the possibilities in using urbanism, urban space and urban culture as key concepts in social theory.

Proposals for an individual paper or for an organized panel should be submitted by February 15th or earlier to the steering committee.

Possible topics for papers may include, but are not limited to:
. The dialectics between government
institutions and personal freedom in the urban space
. Development of civil society in the Japanese
urban space
. Development of art and rituals in premodern
and modern Japanese cities
. Poetics of urbanity
. Ecology and sustainability in urban Japan
. Between planning and randomness in the
physical and cultural structuring of Japan's urban space, or, chaos and order in urban Japan
. New media and urban space
. Tradition, modernity and postmodernism in
urban Japan
. Competition and collaboration among urban
regions in Japan
. Post urbanity
We welcome ideas for innovative formats for panels.

We hope that the quality of the debates in the conference will allow us to move beyond the obvious and apparent, so as to become the basis for an edited volume that would offer innovative theoretical tools and deep empirical descriptions of aspects of urban Japanese space.

Proposals should include the following information:

For organized Panels
. Panel title
. Panel abstract (limited to 300 words)
. Abstracts of papers in the panel (limited to
150 words each)
. Name of panel chair including institutional
affiliation and contact information
. Names of all participants including
institutional affiliation and contact information

For Individual Papers
. Paper Title
. Paper abstract (limited to 300 words)
. Institutional affiliation and contact
information


Please send all queries and proposals to Michal (Miki)
Daliot-Bul: mikibul@research.haifa.ac.il , mikibul@gmail.com, or to the IAJS office:iajsoffice@gmail.com.

On behalf of the steering committee,
Prof. Ehud Harari, The Hebrew University Prof. Jacob Raz, Tel Aviv University Dr. Michal (Miki) Daliot-Bul, The University of Haifa

--
Miki Daliot-Bul, Ph.D.
Dept. of Asian Studies
Japanese Studies Section
The University of Haifa
Israel

http://asia.haifa.ac.il/staff/michal-daliot-bul.htm