Call for Participation

Sections below:  Call for Participation  ||| Land Acknowledgement ||| Submission Link ||| Topic Categories |||  Key Deadlines ||| Key Policies ||| Local Host & Program Review Committees

AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBAN AFFAIRS

April 15-19, 2025 | Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

URBAN CONCENTRATION:

CHALLENGES TO EQUITY, MOBILITY, AND SUSTAINABILITY

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 Native 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.

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 Native Peoples of this land, we would also like to direct ICUA attendees to the special conference track, “Beyond Land Acknowledgements: The Struggle for Native Peoples’ Rights to the City.”

Special Track: Beyond Land Acknowledgements: The Struggle for Native Peoples’ Rights to the City

• Challenges and Strategies for Advancing First Nations’ Rights in Vancouver
• Promoting the Rights of Urban Indigenous Peoples Across the Globe

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; Native 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

October 1, 2024 – Abstract/Proposal Submission Ends
NO LATE SUBMISSIONS ARE ACCEPTED—This is a STRICT deadline!
Abstracts for papers/poster and pre-organized session proposals may be submitted until 11:59PM Central Daylight Time (CDT) or 4:59am GMT on October 1. Acceptance or rejection notices will be sent by October 21, 2024.

Pro Tip: Do not be fooled by other conferences. UAA does not extend its deadlines. And we do not accept excuses for missed deadlines. Think of the deadlines the way you think of a planned trip on an airplane. The plane will not be there if you miss the boarding deadline. ☺

December 4, 2024 – Registration deadline for all accepted presenters and moderators.
Registration is conducted online. Payments are accepted using all major credit cards. Failure to register by this deadline will result in exclusion from the conference program.

One-Session Policy

• To maximize participation and minimize scheduling conflicts, individual attendees are limited to participation in one (1) conference session (i.e., panel, colloquy, roundtable, research brief).
  • This policy is strictly enforced.
  • WARNING: Any session proposal that includes a person who is listed in another proposed session, will be placed on an indefinite hold until one of the proposals is revised.
  • Exception: Persons in sponsored sessions AND official UAA professional development sessions can participate in one additional session. No one can participate in more than two sessions, regardless of their exception status.

Participant Registration Policy

•  December 4, 2024 (11:59pm CDT) – Registration deadline for all accepted participants (presenters and moderators)
  • All accepted participants must register and pay the associated fees to have their names listed in the final program.
  • Participants who fail to register by the registration deadline will not be included in the conference program.
  • You do not need to be a member of UAA/ENHR/EURA to register for the conference. However, members are eligible for discounted rates.
•  February 14, 2025 – Last day to request conference registration refund (Administrative fee: $200 for non-students; $100 for students)

• James Connolly (Co-Chair), University of British Columbia
• Meg Holden (Co-Chair), Simon Fraser University
• Kelly Clifton, University of British Columbia
• Lyana Patrick, Simon Fraser University
• Yushu Zhu, Simon Fraser University
• Austin Zwick, Syracuse University