Urban living and urban developments question increasingly the social and spatial conditions for living together. Urban developments can refer to changing social and spatial conditions within cities as well as in rural areas. In the latter case, this may involve a reflection on how urbanising trends and developments affect for instance local community traditions. In the current discourses, urban public space is on the one hand assumed to lack the conditions for the development of social cohesion, community life and citizenship. On the other hand cities are assumed to represent dynamic sites of social innovation and transformation. Recent changes in the social and spatial structure of cities increase the need to act and reflect upon the tensions in these ‘readings’ of community and urban developments.

Community workers, adult educators and other professionals are increasingly required to invest work in local community development. At this conference, we want to explore the meanings and possibilities of adult education practices by relating them to the changing nature of the sociospatial contexts in which they intervene. From the viewpoint that place matters, not just as the physical background or stage on which adult education practices unfold, but as a necessary condition that constitutes these practices, the environment is not merely a décor against which practices are set up, but the very raison d’être of these practices. Therefore practitioners in adult education practices can gain much through investing in reading and analysing the social and spatial context of their work. In this view, adult education practices position themselves as a contextualised praxis in the community: not only working in but also working with context. How and in which way do adult education practices support individuals and community in their reading of city life ? Why, in what situations, on whose initiative, for whom and on what grounds are adult education practices provided, and on which underlying problem definitions are these practices based ?

Papers at this conference are invited to explore the relation between an adult education practice and a detailed reading from the social and spatial environment in which this practice takes place. More specifically, papers should position a concrete organisation or practice within its wider professional, historical, societal and local context and is aimed at revealing the assumptions, discourses and social problem definitions that underlie its organisational goals and activities.
Conference sub-themes:

• Participation as a key concept ?
• Community art practices
• Reading and knowing the city
• The city as a public space
• The city as a multilingual and multicultural space
• Social and spatial diversity

Call for Papers

Abstracts should be submitted by 22th January 2013 to Luc De Droogh ([email protected] ) in electronic form. The abstract proposal should have no more than 500 words. Please send in a separate sheet your professional / personal data (name, institutional affiliation, phone, fax and mail). The proposals will be blind reviewed by the scientific committee and acceptance will be confirmed by 8st February 2013. Final papers (3000 – 5000 words) should be submitted by email by 31th March 2013 and will be placed on a conference website, and published in the conference book (published by Academia Press).

Conference Language: English

Conference Fee

Early Bird Registration Fee ESREA Members 140 Euros Non-members 190 Euros PhD Students 60 Euros Registration Fee ESREA Members 170 Euros Non-members 220 Euros PhD Students 70 Euros

Committees

Scientific Committee
Ann Bens – University College Ghent
Maria Bouverne-De Bie – Ghent University
Greet De Brauwere – University College Ghent
Evelyne Deceur – Ghent University
Luc De Droogh – University College Ghent
Sven De Visscher – University College Ghent
Rob Evans – University of Magdeburg
Ewa Kurantowicz - University of Lower Silesia
Emilio Lucio-Villegas – University of Seville
Griet Roets – Ghent University
Riet Steel – University College Ghent
Griet Verschelden – University College Ghent
Organising Committee
Luc De Droogh – University College Ghent
Isabelle Joos – University College Ghent
Kathy Vlieghe – Ghent University

Important Dates

22th January 2013: deadline of submission of abstracts
8th February 2013: acceptance of abstracts will be announced
31th March 2013: papers should be submitted
15th February 2013: deadline for early bird registration
31th March 2013: final deadline for registration and payment of the conference fee
25-27th April 2013: conference