CRSI is honoured to host Professor Ash Amin from Durham University for a public seminar.

CITIES OF CARE AMONG STRANGERS

Macquarie University, the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion and the Department of Environment and Geography, are honoured to hold a public seminar by Professor Ash Amin of the Department of Geography and Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University.

Professor Amin has been one of the most influential geographers of the past 20 years. This is a unique opportunity to meet one of the world’s leading geographical minds and discuss his recent research.

This talk, Cities of Care Among Strangers, will focus on living with diversity and the role of cities in managing cultural difference. In developing a novel conceptualisation of urban togetherness, the lecture will look at recent appeals to inter-personal understanding, argue that a certain collective unconscious in urban life (e.g. decent services, public spaces and a  strong commons) is a better way forward, and claim that the ethic of care cannot be divorced from the language of nation and community, which has become narrow and punitive since 9/11.  Arguing against a politics of recognition - on the grounds that life in cities knows no boundaries and is not reducible to inter-personal contact, the talk will focus on a politics of the urban commons that can bring people from diverse backgrounds together around shared concerns and the collective urban infrastructure.

Date: Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Time: 2.00pm – 4.00pm
Venue: Building C5C, Room 498, Macquarie University, Balaclava Rd, North Ryde
(entry via ‘Research Hub East entrance)

RSVP: Dr Kristian Ruming (kruming@science.mq.edu.au by Friday 12 February.

Prof. Amin's visit is sponsored by the Australian Research Council's Cultural Research Network, the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion at Macquarie University, and the Centre for Cultural Research at University of Western Sydney.