Electoral process & the Candidates for ESA RN37 2024-2026 Term

The ESA Conference in Porto is approaching, and so are the elections of the new RN37 Board! Electoral process will take place during the RN37 Business Meeting at the Porto conference (August 29, 1pm-2pm, LC.2.00 – Venue L).
ESA confirmed us that there will be no provisions available for remote voting, which means that the elections will occur in person.

Electoral Process for RN37 Board (2024-2026 Term)
Election Procedures:
1. The Coordinator, PhD Representative, and five Board Members will be elected by secret ballot during the Business Meeting in Porto.
2. Only RN37 members in good standing and present in person at the Business Meeting can vote.
3. Voting allocation:

  • One vote each for Coordinator and PhD Representative.
  • Up to five votes for Board Members.

4. Immediately after Board election, Candidates for Vice-Coordinator will be sought from among elected Board Members. RN37 members will then elect the Vice-Coordinator by secret ballot (one vote per member).


Board Composition: The Board will consist of seven people: the Coordinator, Vice-Coordinator, PhD Representative, and elected Board Members.
Diversity Consideration: Members are strongly encouraged to consider diversity of backgrounds when voting, as per RN Guidelines (Art. 1, Paragraph i).

No presentations of Candidates will be made during the assembly due to time constraints.
Meeting Format: The Business Meeting will be held in a hybrid format if possible, but this is subject to room assignment constraints. However, as we said before, only RN37 members present in-person will be able to participate in the elections. Other ones can join the meeting and have the right to speak, but they cannot vote. 

Below you can find information about the Candidates to the Board for the 2024-2026 term, listed in alphabetical order. 

Anitra Baliga, Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands; baliga@ihs.nl

“I am an architect turned sociologist. I received my PhD in sociology in 2020 and am currently employed at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. My research focuses on urban development and planning in India. With nearly 10 years of experience in European academia, I have collaborated with researchers across the UK, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. 
My dedication to professional service is evident through my active participation in various research networks. Notably, I have been a part of the Real Estate Finance Complex (REFCOM), and the Network for European Researchers Studying Urbanization in the Global South (N-AERUS). As a steering committee member of N-AERUS from 2021 to 2024, I helped organize successful conferences in Kassel and Belfast.
If chosen as a board member for the Research Network 37, I will contribute my expertise in conference planning, my extensive contacts within European academia, and my knowledge of urban studies, towards the network’s growth and success. RN37 – Nomination and personal info Anitra Baliga for the Board Election 2024-2026. More info

Anitra Baliga

 

Margarita Barañano, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain (UCM); mbaranan@ccee.ucm.es

I have been interested in the theoretical and empirical analysis of the spatial and socioeconomic dimension of social processes, from a national and international perspective. More recently, I am studing how ongoing urban processes are impacting on roots and mobilities in vulnerable neighbourhoods, and on the local organisation of well-being and care in these spaces (02 panel at the RN37 Mid Term Conference, Berlin).
Thanks to this activity and also to my participation in 4 Cities Master and in other networks (UIU, UNAEUROPA) I have developed numerous international academic collaborations, from which I have learned a lot.
I have held different positions in academic management (Vice-Chancellor), and in dissemination and transfer activities (Executive President Congress of Women’s World).
For all these reasons, I would be delighted to be part of the RN37 Board and I believe that my contribution to the team could be positive.” More info

Margarita Barañano

 

Madalena Corte-Real, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal; mscortereal@gmail.com

Madalena Corte-Real has a background in Sociology and a PhD in Urban Studies. She is a lecturer at ISEC-Lisboa and at Nova University Lisbon, teaching Urban Sociology, Sociology of the Territory, Urban Planning and Qualitative Methods. She has been participating in different research projects, particularly in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, from different approaches and within an interdisciplinary context. The main areas of interest are urban development and local transformations by analysing how a territory is produced and perceived.
She has been an RN37 board member for three years (which was also a period of adaptation and learning) and would like to continue contributing to the promotion of Urban Sociology through (midterm) conferences, summer schools, and the dissemination of different calls through the research network’s social media.More info

Madalena Corte-Real

 

Maxime Felder (he/him), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Laboratory of Urban Sociology (Switzerland); maxime.felder@epfl.ch

My work has focused on the role of urban spaces in the formation of social ties, and more recently on how vulnerable newcomers to European cities find their bearings and a place to stay. After two years in the Netherlands, I am back in Switzerland where I am involved in new research on socio-environmental controversies related to housing (rezoning, densification). I am also co-chair of the urban sociology section of the Swiss Sociological Association. I would like to contribute to the work of the RN37 – from which I have benefited over the last ten years – as a member of the board. Collaboration with other RNs (e.g. in the form of joint sessions) is something I would like to promote in order to allow for cross-fertilisation and to better develop and emphasise the contribution of urban sociologists to general sociology. As a qualitative researcher, I would also like to work on bridging the (growing?) gap between qualitative and quantitative methods in RN37.” More info

Maxime Felder

 

Katarzyna Kajdanek, Department of Urban and Rural Sociology, Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław, Poland; katarzyna.kajdanek@uwr.edu.pl 

I am Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at UWr since 2016. I also have administrative functions of Director of the Doctoral College in Sociology, Erasmus+ Coordinator, and from October 2024 I will start as a Deputy Director for International Affairs at the Institute of Sociology.
As a former vice-coordinator of the RN37 network, I have actively contributed to its growth and development during my tenure. My involvement included supporting the preparations for the ESA mid-term conference in Berlin in 2022 and co-editing the RN37 newsletter with Niccolò Morelli. I also played a key role in developing visual materials for Rn 37 online communications and managed the RN’s Facebook presence from 2021 to 2023.
One of my proudest achievements was the successful submission of a post-midterm volume, co-edited with Anna Bednarczyk and Rui Carvalho, which will showcase the network’s research output (it is expected in December 2024 from Palgrave Macmillan).
Looking ahead to the 2024-2026 term, I am keen to continue my service on the RN37 board. My goals include further developing the newsletter and exploring new initiatives, such as launching online meetings for scholars at all career stages within RN37. These meetings would focus on promoting well-being in academia, a cross-cutting issue affecting research, teaching, and work-life balance in higher education institutions.” More info

Katarzyna Kajdanek

 

Beatriz Lacerda (She/Her/Hers), Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto (FLUP), Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto (IS-UP); bunny.lacerda@gmail.com

Beatriz Lacerda holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Porto, where she studied the networks of African communities in the city and their resistance to Portuguese colonial heritage. She has experience in artistic and social intervention projects, where she integrates sociology and cinema, employing ethnography and participatory visual methodologies. She is a member of RN37 (since 2021) and ETNO.URB (since 2023).
Currently, she is a PhD scholarship holder for the project ‘PERICREATIVITY: Peripheral Creativities: Youth, Arts, and Public Policies in Segregated Territories,’ coordinated by Otávio Raposo (CIES-ISCTE) and Lígia Ferro (IS-UP). In this project, she is conducting ethnographic research in marginalized areas of Porto, exploring the daily lives of young people and their interactions with the city, alongside an analysis of Portuguese youth public policies.
She is applying to be the RN37 PhD representative, aiming to strengthen the network among urban studies students and to create a collaborative writing project across different cities. More info

Beatriz Lacerda

 

Gabriele Manella, University of Bologna (Italy), Associate Professor in Urban and Environmental Sociology; gabriele.manella@unibo.it

My main research interests are the environmental and social challenges of urban transition, with a specific focus on land-use trends and policies as well as on neighborhood problems and dynamics. I have had to honor to serve the ESA RN37 – Urban Sociology Board as Member (2019-2021) and Coordinator (2021-2024). I was also a Scientific Board Member of the Environmental and Territorial Section of AIS – Italian Association of Sociology (2013-2019). I had the opportunity to contribute and join in person to the RN37 V Midterm Conference (Berlin, 2022) and the I RN37 Summer School for Young Urban Scholars (Genoa, 2023). I am also co-editing (with Madalena Corte-Real) a monographic issue for the journal Fuori Luogo with some selected contributions from the Midterm Conference.
In case I am elected as Coordinator, I really would like to further strengthen the relation with other ESA Research Networks as well as other national and international sociological associations. At the same time, I really would like to continue a specific attention to young scholars and PhD students, with debate and publication opportunities.”
More info

Gabriele Manella

 

Niccolò Morelli, PhD, Junior Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Political and International Sciences, University of Genova, Italy; niccolo.morelli@unige.it

I am a Junior Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Genova, Italy. I was elected to the RN37 Board in 2021, and I am now running for a second term to contribute to the growth of the RN37. In the last mandate, I organised in the University of Genova, together with the RN37 Board, the First RN37 Summer School for young urban scholars, which has seen 50 PhD students and post-docs from all over the world train on urban studies and the possibility to discuss their research projects with senior scholars. My attention will be devoted to building more opportunities for young, precarious scholars to develop formal and informal skills and strengthen our community. I would also promote a debate on how urban sociology is taught in European universities, which is crucial for creating more exchange between our universities.” More info

Niccolò Morelli

 

Oleksandra Nenko, Dr.Sc., senior researcher at Turku Institute for Advanced Studies and Landscape Studies Department, University of Turku, Finland; visiting researcher at University of Arts Helsinki and Georg-Simmel Centre for Metropolitan Studies Berlin; oleksandra.nenko@utu.fi

Oleksandra is Ukrainian sociologist based in Finland. Her research focuses on urban creative place-making. Oleksandra is s. Oleksandra participates in “IN SITU. Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas” Horizon Europe project; leads “Stories of the wooden houses: Circular skills and lifestyle narratives in Nordic and Baltic countries” project funded by Nordic Council of Ministers. She received grants from Finnish Academy, KONE Foundation, Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. Before 2022 Oleksandra has served as a professor of urban sociology at the Institute for Design and Urban Studies, St.Petersburg. In 2017-2021 Oleksandra was a board member of ESA RN02. Oleksandra has taught courses at UTU, Tallinn University, Stockholm University, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, others. Oleksandra has published papers in Poetics, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, in collective monographs by Routledge, Peter Lang, Springer. As a member of RN37 board, Oleksandra is going to promote multidisciplinary urban research, collaboration with ESA’s RN02 and RN11, engagements with Ukrainian academia, Eastern European, and Nordic-Baltic scholars.

Oleksandra Nenko

 

Manuel Ruiz, Ciência-IUL Research excellence and science at ISCTE-IUL, manuel_ruiz@iscte-iul.pt, More info

Tadas Šarūnas, Researcher at Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius university (Lithuania); tadas.sarunas@fsf.vu.lt

Tadas has been interested in urban and cultural sociology for more than a decade. He entered his academic career with dissertation “Pleasures and Pains of a Changing City” on social segregation in central Vilnius. Prior to that, he worked for fifteen years advising local, national and European agencies on a various policy issues. Tadas continues to practice public sociology – bringing his knowledge to local and professional communities. He led evaluation of “European Capital of Culture – Kaunas 2022” on interventions’ impacts on local and cultural communities. Tadas is also engaged in interdisciplinary work. He is leading a group of sociologists and historians at a Centre of Excellence for Post-authoritarian Landscapes in Vilnius university. During his service in the board Tadas will call to embrace benefits of interdisciplinary and public work in developing urban research. He will also stand for interests of colleagues in the early stages of their careers. More info 

Tadas Šarūnas

Call for Hosts – ESA RN37 Mid-term Conference and 2nd Summer School in 2025

Dear All,

Thank you for the big expression of interest in the RN37 sessions hosted at the next ESA conference: we have received more than 150 submissions. We think this is confirmation of the solidity of our network, since this represents an important increase when compared to the ESA conference in Barcelona. The evaluation of abstracts is close to aend and the results will be communicated soon.

We are now launching a call for hosts for the next RN37 mid-term conference, to be held in 2025.

As you probably remember, our last Midterm conference was held in Berlin on October 2022. It was a very vibrant moment, with almost 250 proposals and over 150 participants. We would like to thank once again the Humboldt colleagues who made it possible, as well as all the speakers who made it so fruitful. During the RN37 Business Meeting in Berlin, the possibility of organizing a 1st ESA RN37 Summer School for Young Urban Scholars was discussed, and the School was held in Genoa in September 2023, with over 100 applicants and 50 participants. The School was very positively evaluated by both participants and speakers, and we really thank them too.

Our intention/proposal now is to organize the 6th mid-term conference in 2025 together with the 2nd summer school. The joint organization of these events could be a great opportunity for everyone and the best way to optimize organizational and logistical efforts, encouraging interaction between junior and senior scholars.

We imagined a “standard” format, to be agreed upon according to the availability of the host institution of course: we envision at least three days for the Summer School (for example from Monday to Wednesday), and the midterm could include the first plenary on Wednesday afternoon and panels on Thursday and Friday, with a conclusion on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning if possible. In other words, this format includes at least five days but, again, calendar and duration are to be agreed with the host institution.

Even if the decision on the location will be made by the next RN37 Board, we think it is very important to launch this call now in order to encourage in time applications and considerations on all the issues.

This topic will also be part of the the agenda of our RN37 Business Meeting in Porto, which is open to all the RN37 members. However, we invite potential hosts to contact the Board by Friday, May 3, 2024 in order to open the debate and start the first conversations regarding potential applications.

Reach us at Urban Sociology rn37.esa@gmail.com

We are also available for any questions or clarification. Looking forward to seeing you in Porto!

The RN37 Board (Anna, Madalena, Katarzyna, Gabriele, Niccolò, and Rui)

16th ESA Conference, Porto 2024

The European Sociological Association (ESA) is pleased to announce the CFP opening for the 16th ESA Conference, scheduled to take place in the city of Porto, Portugal, from August 27th to 30th, 2024. 

The conference, themed “Tension, Trust, and Transformation,” promises to be a dynamic and engaging moment for sociologists and scholars from around the world.

To ensure your participation, don’t miss the abstract submission deadline on January 15th, 2024.

Abstracts must be submitted through the conference platform at www.conftool.com/esa2024

We greatly appreciate your commitment and efforts to motivate your colleagues to participate and make the ESA 2024 conference another great and successful event.

We are looking forward to receiving you in Porto!
CALL FOR PAPERS HERE

RN37 Newsletter Issue 2/2023 – call for contributions

We are looking for contributions to Issue 2/2023 of ESA RN37 Newsletter. Your contributions in a form of:

  • info on research programmes (ongoing and incoming), including
    calls for cooperation
  • summaries of recent PhD theses
  • reflections on recent articles (journal, media, newspaper) that could / should resonate with the research community
  • incoming books, reviews of books, etc 
  • visual materials (photos, photo essays, collages, sketches)
  • voices from places – short urban stories from where you are, accompanied by visual pieces
  • … and other types of materials you consider worth sharing with the RN37 community using the Newsletter platform.

Written contributions should not exceed 3000-4000 words with all add-ons. We do accept shorter written forms, though.

Make sure to send the written material in .doc or .docx format to avoid mistakes in formatting. Any visual materials should be send as attachments or, if too big, as links to
virtual drives or should be sent using platforms for sending large files (e.g. weFile, etc.)
Please, feel free to circulate this invitation among potentially interested contributors outside ESA RN37 network.

Send your contributions to: rn37.esa@gmail.com, mentioning Newsletter 2/2023 by October 1, 2023 [EXTENDED TO November 30th, 2023]

In case of any questions, please feel free to contact Issue 2 Editors:
Katarzyna Kajdanek: katarzyna.kajdanek@uwr.edu.pl
Niccolò Morelli: niccolo.morelli@unige.it

1st Summer School for Young Urban Scholars (updated program now available)

What we are organizing

The RN37 – Urban Sociology of ESA is organizing its first Summer School for Young Urban Scholars, an event entirely dedicated to PhD students and young non-tenured researchers.
This event will be held in Genoa (Italy) on September 4-6, 2023.

Why we are organizing it

This event is the result of the continuation of a path that started with the Young Scholars Pre-Conference Day in Berlin last October 4, before RN37 V Midterm Conference. It also draws on feedback that emerged during the RN37 Business Meeting in Berlin with the RN37 members and the young scholars who joined to the conference.

This event is planned to strengthen specific urban research skills, foster soft skills and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary expertise. PhD students and young non-structured scholars will also be able to discuss and receive feedback on their work from senior researchers with high reputation in urban studies.

Eligibility

People who are interested in joining the Summer School are requested to:  

  • Submit a motivation letter (max 2 pages) and a CV (max 5 pages) to rn37.esa@gmail.com
  • In case they are accepted, applicants will be requested to submit a full draft of a paper/proposal/chapter to receive a feedback during the summer school.

Deadlines

  • March 31, 2023: submission of motivation letter and CV to rn37.esa@gmail.com
  • April 15, 2023: communication of the selection result to the applicants
  • April 17, 2023 – May 17, 2023: opening and closing of registrations.
  • June 15, 2023: end of possibility to ask for refund in case of non-participation.
  • July 15, 2023: submission of papers/proposal/chapters to rn37.esa@gmail.com

Registration fees

  • 75€ for ESA members
  • 100€ for non-ESA members
  • Registration fees include: coffee breaks, lunches, the social dinner of September 5, and the urban walk
  • Registration fees do not include travel and accommodation (although we will give some information about accommodation timely)

Program

The detailed programme is now available:

Summer School Program (updated 31/08/2023)

RN37 Board

  • Gabriele Manella (University of Bologna, Italy), Coordinator
  • Katarzyna Kajdanek (University of Wroclaw, Poland), Vice-Coordinator
  • Anna Bednarczyk (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland), Board Member
  • Madalena Corte-Real (ISEC Lisboa / Nova University Lisbon, Portugal), Board Member
  • Niccolò Morelli (University of Genoa, Italy), Board Member
  • Rui Carvalho (Brown University, Providence, United States), PhD Student Representative.

Local Board

  • Niccolò Morelli (University of Genoa)
  • Paolo Parra Saiani (University of Genoa)
  • Daniela Preda (University of Genoa).

Call for Papers for Conference Publication

The ESA-RN37 has as one of its intended purposes supporting the dissemination of the work of its members. For this reason, and taking the opportunity provided by our recent meeting, we hereby launch a call for papers for all of those who presented their work at the last midterm conference. The RN37 Board has been in contact with several publication venues from different countries, ambits, and impact; in the field(s) of Urban Studies, including international high-impact factor journals, national journals, and book publishers (for edited volumes, i.e. including chapter contributions).

For the first stage of this call for publications, authors are asked to submit an abstract (250 words) and an extended summary of the paper. This extended summary must range between 1,500-2,500 words, not including tables, figures, references or any additional captions, titles or foot/endnotes.

Find the submission form at the following link.

In the form, you will be asked to add the following information about the paper:

  • author(s) name(s)
  • affiliation(s), and email(s)
  • title of the paper
  • whether the first author is a PhD student
  • publication venues of interest
  • abstract
  • extended summary

The submissions will be reviewed by at least two referees (which might include RN37 Board members, journal editors, conference organizers) and we aim to deliver feedback to all works submitted. Thus, submissions by doctoral students and early-career researchers are especially encouraged.

Once decisions regarding the acceptance and the potential allocations of these initial submissions are made, authors will be contacted and if applicable asked to express their interest in resubmitting their paper to one of the venues available which has shown interest in the publication of their work. Further details about this second stage will be provided timely but, overall, we expect the publication process to follow the general guidelines for submission of each journal or publisher. Regardless of the publication venue, full papers will always be peer-reviewed by at least two referees.

Submit your extended abstract using this submission form by November 30, 2022. Authors will be notified of the outcome of their submission by February 28, 2023. Any questions about this submission process must be directed to the following email address: rn37.esa@gmail.com.

Call for Newsletter Contributions

Dear Colleagues,

as we announced at the RN37 business meeting, we hereby present the Call for Contributions to the RN37 Newsletter (2023/1).

In 2023, the Newsletter will be hosted by the Colleagues from the Institute of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław (PL).

We kindly invite you to submit material that you would like to share with the wider community interested in your perspective on what is currently happening in urban spaces and in the study of such spaces.

We very much hope that this initiative will allow us to get to know each other better, make new research contacts outside our own research centres, and encourage existing members and newcomers to become actively involved in the work of the RN37 network.

Details for contributions can be found in the Call (PDF). New deadline: 28th February 2023

For any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Katarzyna Kajdanek and Niccolò Morelli (ESARN37 Board)

V ESA RN37 Midterm Conference in Berlin (5-7th October 2022) – Registration is now open

After the selection of abstract proposals, we are glad to communicate that registration for our V Midterm Conference “Seeing Like a City / Seeing the City Through” has been opened.
The conference will take place at the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Research of the Humboldt University Berlin from the 5thto the 7th of October 2022. 
The registration can be done at the following link: https://hu.berlin/RN37conference_registration

The deadline for paying early bird fees (both for authors and for panel chairs) is July 20.

Please contact the RN37 Organizing Committee (rn37.esa@gmail.com) or the Local Organizing Team (esa-rn37-gsz@hu-berlin.de) for any info or questions.

We look forward to meeting you in Berlin!

V ESA RN37 Midterm Conference in Berlin (5-7th October 2022) – Call for Abstracts

After the selection of panel proposals, we are glad to launch the call for paper abstracts for our V Midterm Conference “Seeing Like a City / Seeing the City Through”. The conference will take place at the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Research of the Humboldt University Berlin 5th to the 7th of October 2022. The deadline for submission of abstract proposals is May 6.
 
Information on the 27 panels and further details on the submission process can be found in the call for papers.
Abstracts may be submitted here
 
For any info or question, please contact:
RN37 Organizing Committee (rn37.esa@gmail.com)
Local Organizing Team (esa-rn37-gsz@hu-berlin.de)
 
We look forward to meeting you in Berlin!

V ESA RN37 Midterm Conference in Berlin (5-7th October 2022) – Call for panel proposals

We are delighted to announce that our V Midterm Conference entitled “Seeing Like a City/Seeing the City Through” will take place at the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Research of the Humboldt University Berlin from the 5th to the 7th of October 2022. 

Talja Blokland is the local organizer, and we really thank her and her colleagues for their proposal and their effort.

As we did in the IV Midterm Conference, we will first open a call for panel proposals. After that, a call for individual abstracts for the accepted panels will be opened.

We attach the CALL FOR PANEL PROPOSALS (1st STAGE) with all the details.

We look forward your proposals by February 10th February 20th, 2022 at the address rn37.esa@gmail.com, where you can also contact us for any question.

On the 7th of March we will open the call for individual abstracts (2st stage).

We look forward to meeting you in Berlin and we wish you again a Happy New Year!