For the next four years the CSR’s research and seminars will focus on the theme of Conflict Urbanism, examining the role of various conflicts in the making and remaking of cities around the world.
Conflict Urbanism is a term that designates not simply the conflicts that take place in cities, but also conflict as a structuring principle of cities intrinsically, as a way of inhabiting and creating urban space. The increasing urbanization of warfare and the policing and surveillance of everyday life are examples of the term, but conflict is not limited to war and violence. Cities are not only destroyed but also built through conflict. They have long been arenas of friction, difference and dissidence, and their irreducibly conflictual character manifests itself in everything from neighborhood borders to differences of opinion or status and to ordinary encounters on the street.