Urban Societies (URBS)

Coordinators: Filmo Verhagen (filmo.verhagen@antiken.uu.se) and Gustav Malmborg (gustav.malmborg@arkeologi.uu.se).
Themes
- Urban way of life
- Urban concepts
- The construction and morphology of urban spaces
- Urban subsistence and resilience
- Urban and rural connections
Description
The urban societies cluster is a multi-scalar platform for all researchers at the department with an interest in urbanism and urbanized societies, regardless of geographical and chronological scope. Past towns, cities or even modern mega-cities have as much in common as they are contrasted by their specific adaptions of regional conditions and cultural norms. This cluster seeks to inspire and develop research across the sub-fields within the department through discussing, comparing and contrasting all aspects of urban societies through long-term global and human history. The aim of the cluster is to be an open platform and resource for informed discussions on urban-theory, methods and materials. Themes for discussion feature urban everyday life and interactions; economy; resources and networks; architecture and planning; urban institutions as well as urban identities and material culture.
Activities
Spring and autumn term 2020 – dates to be announced
- Feeding the city – in collaboration with the Global Historical Ecology cluster
- Workshop on Urban Identity
- Workshop on boundary problems: urban – suburban - rural
Autumn term 2019
- 23/10, 10-15h: Framing urban places – Torun Zachrisson, Anna Källström, Joakim Kjellberg and Tymon de Haas.
Spring 2019
- 24/4: Seminar on Market places and market exchange systems
Autumn term 2018
- 26/9: Fieldtrip and visit to urban excavation in Enköping (with MA students)
Spring 2018
- 21/3: Workshop and textseminar on Empirical urban theory
- 10/1: Workshop “City Plans: A bird’s-eye view of the city”,
Autumn term 2017
- Lecture by Monica Baumanova on Swahili urbanism
- Writing workshop on “Comparative perspectives on Urban studies”
Spring 2017
- 8/3: Lecture with Professor Søren Sindbæk from UrbNet, Aarhus university
- PhD student workshop on Scandinavian medieval urbanism together with Professor Axel Christoffersen from NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
Autumn term 2016
- Workshop on urban economy and subsistence
Spring 2016
- The Structure of infrastructure: material networks in early urban communities, joint conference with Dept. of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, held at University of Liverpool, 17-19 March 2016 http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/digitalAssets/553/553506_3extended_infrastructure_confprogramme.pdf