The Idea of the City: Reality Check
Interdisciplinary Summer School
We invite you to submit your applications to participate in an interdisciplinary summer school "The Idea
of the City: Reality Check" to take place during June 29 – July 11, 2016, in Slavutych.
Location: Slavutych, Ukraine
Dates: June 29 – July 11, 2016
Deadline for applications: May 10, 2016
What can you learn in the city which is the last new city and the planned city of modern Ukraine? The
summer school in Slavutych is an opportunity to analyze the process of making a city, starting with an
idea, through discussions and solutions, planning, and construction and up to developing spaces and
buildings, functioning of institutions and everyday life. Who are the actors and participants of the
process of city creation? What is management and reforms in the planned city in the post-planning
context? What are environmental challenges following the industrial disaster? How could citizens'
prospects be included? How do you best study the process of identification with the place? What are
experiences of a city and the stories of Slavutych citizens who used to be displaced persons?
The goal of an interdisciplinary summer school is to combine learning and research formats while using
integrated approaches and methods of different disciplines in urban studies. The school curriculum will
include social, humanitarian, environmental and economic prospects in planning and functioning of a
modern city, also with the account for historical contexts. The example of Slavutych would allow
analyzing implementation and practices of such urbanistic and social concepts as a planned city, a
utopian city, a post-disaster city, eco-city, and mono-urbanicity for the prospects of different disciplines.
The school aims to enhance knowledge in one of the suggested fields, introduce and establish
cooperation with the related fields. Seminars, field studies, and methodological workshops would help
to apply theoretical knowledge in practice and get the new impetus for professional enhancement.
Location: Slavutych – a town in Kyiv oblast, an enclave in Chernihiv region. It was built after the
Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986. Slavutych is the last planned city of the Soviet Union
and the youngest city in present day Ukraine. Exclusive circumstances of its establishment shaped the
ideas and the implementation process of the project for a new city. Teams of experts from the 8
republics of the USSR used to be engaged in planning and into development works. As a result,
Slavutych architecture manifests criticism of modernist architecture which combines international
architectural context with socialist approaches and Soviet principles of regional peculiarities. Slavutych
is all about the last generation of Soviet architects searching for sustainable and citizen friendly
architecture and a new home for the staff of Chornobyl NPP and the residents of the contaminated
Pripyat.
Participation: The summer school invites Master students, post-graduates and independent
researchers aged 18 to 30 dealing with anthropology, architecture, economics, engineering, geography,
history, design planning, political science, sociology, and culture studies. We realize that all urban
researchers have different experiences and their own prisms. That is why the interdisciplinary summer
school would rely on achievements from different disciplines. We would also use a more general
discourse in urban studies providing the environment for critical and meaningful favorable intellectual
engagement.
School Structure: The interdisciplinary summer school plans to work in different research directions
in three themes. They would jointly analyze and develop a shared vision of what present day Slavutych
is, to which extent it corresponds to the architects’ ideas, and what the prospects of the city are for the
future. The participants are going to be supervised by lecturers from different countries.
Theme 1: Urban Practices, Memories, and Imaginations.
The focus of this research direction is on a person who keeps creating, recreating, experiencing,
imagining and remembering Slavutych. We are interested to learn more about how citizens of the
youngest Ukrainian city establish their link with the space: a building, a street, other cities and even
countries; what their life routes are; and how they interact with the city. In this biography-oriented class
we shall study human values, life experiences, everyday routes and images of places.
Theme 2: Urban Space and Environment.
Slavutych offers exclusive opportunities for research combining sciences and arts with architecture and
city planning. Within this theme, we shall analyze urban space and the structure of functioning of urban
ecosystems such as city forests, parks, landscape, biodiversity, water resources, and climate. It would
allow studying the interaction between architecture environment and infrastructure with the ecosystem
of the city. The aspect is crucial for a city satellite to the nuclear power plant.
Theme 3: City Finance and Governance.
Local self-government bodies adopt a city budget every year. What would the figures imply, though, for
local citizens who use the city every day, for entrepreneurs who consider sustainable options for their
development, for officials of local self-government bodies who adopt managerial decisions on city
operations? Do the figures matter to them? Understanding city funding and budgeting procedures
creates a precondition to implement any ideas. Within this study theme, students could analyze in detail
the system of managing the city.
Terms of Participation
Participation in the interdisciplinary summer school is free of charge. The participants will be provided
with accommodation and catering. The school organizers also cover travel costs up to UAH 700.
Working languages – Ukrainian, Russian, and English. Lectures will be mostly held in English that is
participants are requested to be fluent in English to the extent to be able to freely read academic papers
and understand the lectures.
Application
To apply for the school, please fill in the application form (in English, Ukrainian, Russian or Belarusian)
before May 10, 2016, following this link: http://goo.gl/forms/0amzzj4jjq
Selection Process
All candidates will be notified of the selection results by emails before May 31, 2016. If you are selected,
please, confirm within three days. If a candidate is not able to confirm the participation the placement
will be granted to the next person on the waiting list. Upon confirmation, you will be sent all relevant
details on transfer, catering, and accommodation.
For questions feel free to contact the school coordinator Ievgeniia Gubkina by email
[email protected] or by tel. +38 050 3012876
Organizers
Heinrich Boll Foundation's Office in Ukraine, Center for Urban History and the NGO Urban Forms
Center.
The summer school is part of research activities of the Center for Urban History "Planned Urbanicity in
Socialism and Beyond: Ideas, Experiences, Opinions".