Call for Papers: Architecture for the Common Good. Dublin, 7-10 April 2021
The Renaissance Society of America warmly invites submissions for its 67th Annual Meeting, to be held in Dublin, Ireland on 7–10 April 2021.
The session “Architecture for the Common Good” is sponsored by the European Architectural Histories Network.
During the recent health crisis, individuals across the globe have yielded to the intrusive politics of public authorities in the attempt to secure public health. Governing bodies highly controlled the movement and activities of their citizens, instructing them to stay at home, preventing them from meeting with friends and family members, sitting in parks, shopping and eating in restaurants. These intrusions on private liberties – and the questions they provoked from individuals as to accept them or not – brought back a central theme of political theory: that of the common good.
Since antiquity, the idea of the common good has problematized the shared political and social goal of communal well-being, which might or might not be in conflict with private interests. How to obtain this common good, in relation to private interests, recurs as an important question throughout the history of political theory. In these discussions, architectural patronage and design appear as important contributive factors in obtaining the common good. Architecture, urban planning and infrastructure development also incorporate innumerable tensions that exist between public and private interests.
This session invites papers that explore the “Architecture for the Common Good” in the Renaissance. Papers might focus on a primary-source text, examining the contribution of architecture to the public good. They might also present an architectural, urban or infrastructural project that hopes to contribute to the well-being of the community. Papers that specifically address the tensions that existed between public and private interests and that might have informed architectural patronage or design are likewise welcome.
Please send proposals by 1 August 2020 via email with the subject line “RSA 2021” to Nele De Raedt (nele.deraedt@ugent.be) and Elizabeth Merrill at (elizabethmerrill11@gmail.com). The proposal should include a title (15 words max.); an abstract (200 words max.); and a one-paragraph CV (in prose, 200 words max.). Provide also full name, current affiliation, and email address.
Submission guidelines are available at https://www.rsa.org/page/AnnualMeetingSubmissionsGuide