Symposium “Cartographies of the Urban”

Within the framework of the research project “Mapping for Change? Critical Cartography Approaches to drive socio-environmental Urban Transformations” K LAB is organising the international symposium “Cartographies of the Urban: Intersectionality and Climate Change Adaptation” on 16-18 January 2020 in Berlin. Check the public plenary with some great counter-mappers, critical geografers and scholar-activists like Cindi Katz, Catherine D’Ignazio, Philippe Rekacewicz, Punam Khosla and others. Check the website for more information: https://mappingforchange.net/

The symposium focuses on one hand on the disjuncture between theoretical knowledge on the complexities of socio-spatial urban realities and the multiple layers (re)producing inequalities; and on the other hand, on the sharing and communication of this knowledge across disciplinary, professional and literacy boundaries. In particular, we will zoom in on mappings and visualisations as a tool that has the potential to give rise to alternative, pluralistic understandings of the urban (against the homogenisation of places as well as of interpretations) and link works from within and beyond academia. In this respect, we want to investigate whether and how maps (in a broad understanding of the term) can contribute to a more dynamic understanding of resource flows, social relations, power structures and their interlinkages; and consequently explore whether and how maps can make a difference in tackling urban socio-environmental crises.