The Planners Network National Steering Committee invites proposals for the 2019 conference. “Displacement and Dispossession: Calls for Action and Resistance” will take place on Friday, June 21 and Saturday, June 22, 2019 simultaneously in a few locations: presently confirmed: Montréal, Québec, Canada; and New York City. Attend whichever location is closest to you.
The goal of the conference is to bring together students, faculty, community organizers and activists, and practitioners to exchange ideas and practices of planning initiatives that contest social, economic and political exclusion, displacement, and dispossession.
We are soliciting submissions for the following conference sessions: indigenous/de-colonial planning; race/ism and planning; feminist planning; affordable/social housing; socially/ ecologically just economies; environmental justice; food justice, equitable public transport; planning for difference; community land trusts; community-driven or bottom-up planning. We encourage presentation of case studies from both the Global North and the Global South. We anticipate that some of the presentations delivered at this conference will be published in the online magazine, Progressive City: Radical Alternatives (www.progressivecity.net).
What to submit:
We invite your proposals for community-based workshops, discussions, speakers and plenaries. Proposals should be in the form of an abstract no longer than 250 words. Include three keywords, a title, and names and contact information of all participants, including the lead proposer.
How and when to submit:
Submit your proposals for NYC conference by e-mail to PN2019NYCConference@gmail.com, and please submit your proposals for the Montreal Conference to PN2019MontrealConference@gmail.com Proposals must be received no later than February 28, 2019.
Review of submissions:
Proposals will be reviewed by a local sub-committee. Participants will be notified of decisions by March 31, 2019. We will prioritize proposals that add value to ongoing grassroots work, are engaging and inclusive, and are action-oriented.
TENTATIVE CONFERENCE OUTLINE
Friday, June 21:
Friday will be focused on presentations, including the teleconferenced plenary session that will include representatives – local community organizers or planners – from each of the three locations. There will be an evening reception on Friday that will include a panel of local community organizers who are contesting displacement.
Saturday, June 22:
Mobile workshop / walking tour / etc.
*Planners Network is an international organization of progressive planning practitioners, organizers, students and faculty, with a mandate to center equity considerations in the planning practices. The main website of the organization is www.plannersnetwork.org
It was established in 1975 in the U.S. during a period of urban renewal when many planning initiatives were displacing lower-income minority communities and a group of academics and practitioners were opposed to the role of planners within such initiatives and sought to promote alternative practices that worked to support those facing exclusion and displacement. The organization also publishes an online magazine called Progressive City: Radical Alternatives (www.progressivecity.net), and there are eight local chapters in the U.S., three in Canada and one in Mexico, as well as individual members that extend as far as South Africa.
