International Conference on Urban Affairs
International Conference on Urban Affairs
April 15-19, 2025 | Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre | Vancouver, BC, Canada
URBAN CONCENTRATION: CHALLENGES TO EQUITY, MOBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY
/ / / / / Submission deadline: October 1, 2024 / / / / /
As a global urban center, Vancouver provides a dynamic yet unique context for an interdisciplinary conversation within the International Conference on Urban Affairs. It is a city experiencing rapid growth and concentrated development, as well as crises of precarity, poverty, and inequality. Shaping this experience, conflicting understandings of desirable urban change are continually juxtaposing different ways of knowing and being in the city. While Vancouver has embraced the quality of ‘concentration’ that American Canadian urbanist Jane Jacobs recognized as one of the four principles of good urban form, the city’s development trajectory provides lessons of the contradictory results of applying this principle.
Vancouver’s trajectory follows from early efforts on unceded Indigenous land to transform the spoils of resource exploitation into urban wealth. Over time, these efforts came to focus on a concentrated urban form emphasizing socio-economic mixing and mobility alternatives. This bore the fruits of vaunted livability and cosmopolitan status. However, the concentrations brought contradictions. For example, the push for unfettered private development contradicted the adherence to strong public institutions; rising vulnerabilities contradicted the narrative of livability and opportunity for immigrants; high consumption levels contradicted the longstanding goals of maintaining climate and ecological integrity; evidence of injustice and racism contradicted the promise of an open, diverse communities. Due to these simmering contradictions, trade-offs have become endemic to urban concentration in Vancouver. Recent tensions have included those between housing action and climate action, gentrification and preservation, innovation and tradition, colonialism and reconciliation. Concentrated efforts to resolve these contradictions have resulted in more distractions than solutions. The 2025 Local Host Committee welcomes fellow urbanists to expose and explore the ways that the contradictions of concentration shape cities and the lives of people within them.
/ / / / / LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT / / / / /
We would like to acknowledge that this conference takes place on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, that has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
Beyond our acknowledgement, respect and honor of the Indigenous Peoples of the land on which we work and live, we would also like to direct ICUA attendees to the special conference track, “Beyond Land Acknowledgements: The Struggle for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to the City.”
/ / / / / TOPIC CATEGORIES / / / / /
Special Track
—Beyond Land Acknowledgements: The Struggle for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to the City
Cities as Global Landscapes
—Cities as Conflict Zones, Reclaiming and Rebuilding
—Cities in Global Networks (e.g., finance, trade, investment, communications)
—Cities as Migration Centers; Urban Demographic Change; Immigration Rights & Border Politics in Cities
—Resilient Cities – Planning and Policies
Arts, Culture, Preservation and Heritage in Sustainable Cities
—Disaster Planning and Management
—Environmental and Energy Policy Challenges in Cities and Urban Green Futures
—Infrastructure, Transport, Services, Accessibility and Mobility in Urban Areas
—Urban Design, Land Use, Public Space, Growth Management
—Urban Health (e.g. care crisis and disease); Quality of Urban Life
—Urban Technology, Media and Communications, Smart Cities, Digital Divides
—Rights to the City
Community Development, Gentrification, Neighborhood Change
—Civil Rights of Urban Residents; Indigenous Rights
—Economic and Social Exclusion by Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Identity, Age
—Urban Housing Affordability, Financialization and Market Dynamics, Homelessness
—Urban Education, Labor and Employment in Cities, Urban Entrepreneurship
—Urban Income/Wealth Disparities, Poverty, Wage Gaps; Food Insecurity; Service Access
—Urban Technology, Media and Communications, Smart Cities, Digital Divides
—Urban Violence, Public Safety Challenges
—Democracy Under Stress: Institutions and Governance
Urban Economic Development Strategies; Urban Fiscal Policies
—Metropolitan and Regional Dynamics; Development Politics
—Urban Public, Private and Non-governmental Sector Roles; Philanthropy and the City
—Urban Political Activism, and Urban Social Movements
/ / / / / MORE INFO: SUBMISSION GUIDELINES + KEY POLICIES + / / / / /
Complete details about the conference, including the detailed call for participation, submission guidelines, 2 key policies for presenters, general schedule, and hotel info are available on the conference website. https://urbanaffairsassociation.org/conference/
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/ / / / / ABOUT UAA / / / / /
The Urban Affairs Association (UAA) is an international professional organization for 700+ urban scholars, researchers, and policy analysts.
In addition to the annual conference, UAA sponsors ongoing professional development opportunities; Upsilon Sigma: The Urban Studies Honor Society; and two peer-reviewed journals, the Journal of Urban Affairs and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City. You can find UAA on the web, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
