[ecrea] New Perspectives on the Problem of the Public - Westminster 15-16 May 2014

New Perspectives on the Problem of the Public

A two day conference hosted by the Centre for the Study of Democracy, 
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of 
Westminster.

Dates: Thursday 15 and Friday 16 May 2014

Venue: Board Room, 309 Regent Street, London

This inter-disciplinary conference brings together researchers from 
media, technology studies, law, sociology, planning, geography and 
political theory to discuss the implications of the rise of new strands 
of pragmatist, complexity and new materialist approaches to democracy 
and the public sphere. We have five keynote presentations - from Clive 
Barnett, Andrew Barry, Jon Coaffee, John Law and Sarah Whatmore - and 
four panels, discussing new perspectives on the conceptualisation of 
public space, the construction and emergence of publics, and the 
relevance of post-human, actor-network and new materialist approaches to 
how we might rethink the spaces and practices of the public today.

Attendance is free and refreshments will be provided. If you wish to 
attend please register with Eventbrite here: 
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-perspectives-on-the-problem-of-the-public-tickets-10448111583?aff=eorg

Provisional Programme:

THURSDAY 15 MAY

9.00 REGISTRATION

9.30-10.45 – KEYNOTE

John Law (Professor of Sociology, Open University)
title to be confirmed

10.45-11.00 COFFEE

11.00-12.30 – PANEL 1 - PUBLIC SPACE

Regan Koch (Department of Geography, University College, London)
Justifications of public and private: Notes from the not-quite-public 
spaces of underground restaurants
Manuela Kölke (independent researcher)
Ontological registers as the medium of convergence between political 
theory and spatial disciplines
Antonia Layard (University of Bristol Law School)
The Legal Production of Public Space (or not)
Nikolai Roskamm (Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplanung, TU Berlin, 
Germany)
The in-between of public space: Sitting on the fence with Hannah Arendt

12.30-1.30 – LUNCH

1.30-2.45 – KEYNOTE

Clive Barnett (Professor of Geography and Social Theory, University of 
Exeter)
Emergent Publics

COFFEE

3.00-4.30 – PANEL 2 – CONSTRUCTED AND EMERGENT PUBLICS

Nick Mahony and Hilde C. Stephansen (Centre for Citizenship, Identities 
and Governance, The Open University)
What’s at stake in Participation Now? Exploring emergent configurations 
of ‘the public’ in contemporary public participation
Helen Pallett (Science, Society & Sustainability group, University of 
East Anglia) Producing the publics of UK science policy: public dialogue 
as a technology for representing, knowing and constructing publics
Yvonne Rydin and Lucy Natarajan (Bartlett School of Planning, University 
College, London)
Materialising public participation: community consultation within 
spatial planning for North Northamptonshire, England
Peer Schouten (School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
The infrastructural construction of publics: the Janus face of 
representation by international actors in Congo

4.30-4.45 BREAK

4.45-6.00 – KEYNOTE

Sarah Whatmore (Professor of Environment and Public Policy, University 
of Oxford)
Experimental Publics: Science, Democracy and the Redistribution of Expertise

RECEPTION & SPEAKERS DINNER

FRIDAY 16 MAY

10.00-11.15 KEYNOTE

Andrew Barry (Professor of Human Geography, University College, London)
Material Politics and the Reinvention of the Public

11.15-11.30 COFFEE

11.30-1.00 PANEL 3 – BEYOND THE SUBJECT

Andreas Birkbak (Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg 
University, Denmark)
Facebook pages as ’demo versions’ of issue publics
Gwendolyn Blue (Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Canada)
Animal publics: Political subjectivity after the human subject
Ferenc Hammer (Institute for Art Theory and Media Studies, Eötvös Loránd 
University, Hungary)
The Hungarian Roundabout and Further Settings for the Authoritarian 
Subject: Technologies of Self-Governance in Everyday Practices
Jonathan Metzger (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden)
Moose re:public – traversing the human/non-human divide in the politics 
of transport infrastructure development

1.00-1.45 LUNCH

1.45-3.15 PANEL 4 – MATERIAL PUBLICS

Lindsay Bremner (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, 
University of Westminster) The Political Life of Rising Acid Mine Water
Ana Delgado and Blanca Callén (Centre for the Study of the Sciences and 
the Humanities, University of Bergen, Norway)
The making of obsolescence: how things become public in the age of 
precariousness
Michael Guggenheim, Joe Deville, Zuzana Hrdlickova (Department of Sociology
Goldsmiths, University of London)
The Megaphone and the Map: Assembling and Representing the Public in 
Disaster Exercises
Owain Jones (Environmental Humanities, Bath Spa University)
Is My Flesh Not Public? Thinking of bodies and ‘the public’ through water

3.15-3.30 COFFEE

3.30-4.45 KEYNOTE

Jon Coaffee (Professor in Urban Geography, University of Warwick)
Citizenship and Democracy in the City 2.0: Balancing the Quest for 
Resilience and the Public Interest in Urban Development

4.45-5.00 BREAK

5.00-6.00 CONCLUDING DISCUSSION

David Chandler, Professor of International Relations, Director of the 
Centre for the Study of Democracy, Department of Politics and 
International Relations, University of Westminster, 32-38 Wells Street, 
London, W1T 3UW. Tel: ++44 (0)776 525 3073.
Journal Editor, Resilience: International Policies, Practices and 
Discourses: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/resi20
Book series Editor, Routledge Studies in Intervention and Statebuilding: 
http://208.254.74.79/books/series/RSIS/
Book series Editor, Routledge Advances in Democratic Theory: 
http://www.routledge.com/books/series/RADT/
Amazon books page: 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Chandler/e/B001HCXV7Y/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Personal website: http://www.davidchandler.org/



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