5-7 February 2019, Launceston Tasmania
Australia is a nation of ‘coast-huggers’, with the vast bulk of its population residing within 50km of the sea. The geographical centre of the continent constitutes its demographic periphery. This apparent inversion, in which an edge condition fosters fecundity and the centre is displaced to a margin, neatly encapsulates the thematic focus for the 2020 iteration the Urban History Planning History conference. The conference aims to explore the formation, conditions and potentials of edges, margins, peripheries and islands in illuminating the understanding of cities and urban phenomena. This thematic is open to both literal and metaphorical readings. The ‘edge conditions’ of the title may be understood in geographic, demographic, historical, spatial, disciplinary, or methodological terms. Consideration of edge conditions in disciplinary and methodological terms invites productive engagements with alternate ways of researching the shaping of cities, whether through landscape studies or land economics; actor-network theory or action research. Notwithstanding the thematic prompt detailed above, submissions on all other aspects of urban and planning history in Australia and New Zealand will also be welcomed.
Abstracts due 1 November 2019