BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.8//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news487@dgw.philhist.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20210113T145159 DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210112 SUMMARY:Conference: "The Coloniality of Infrastructure: Eurafrican Legacies " DESCRIPTION:12. - 15. January 2021When Eurafrica emerged in the 1920s as an intellectual and political project to connect Europe with Africa\, its go al was to ensure European colonial dominance in a changing world. Key to t he proposed continental merger was infrastructure—not surprising at a ti me when railways\, ports\, camps\, and other large-scale building projects were facilitating the extraction and movement of things for Europe while curtailing the freedom and mobility of Africans on an unprecedented scale. Recent scholarship has emphasized the centrality of Eurafrica and the typ e of colonialism it mustered in the history of European integration\, from the EU’s founding intellectuals to its Cold-War-era realization. But co ntinental infrastructure also played a role in African struggles for indep endence. Highways\, ports\, and dams became tools of state-building and ev en mobilized hopes of Panafrican integration and international solidarity. In practice\, however\, large-scale infrastructure required technical and financial aid which further entrenched Africa’s asymmetrical relationsh ip to the Global North.Today\, as Africa enters a new age of development i ncreasingly dominated by China\, and the EU is in crisis\, is it still pos sible to speak of a Eurafrican present? From the physical imprint of citie s and the configuration of intercontinental airline routes\, infrastructur e testifies to the enduring legacies of Eurafrica. Infrastructure shapes t erritories and governs the mobilities within and across them\, but also se rves to immobilize and externalize bodies and things. The European infrast ructure of the Mediterranean border regime\, in which African migrants are systematically being detained or left to die\, recalls colonial-era polic ies that valued life and dictated death along racial lines. At the same ti me\, European aid focused on infrastructural development in Africa is incr easingly targeted to counter such unwanted migration—without touching th e global extraction economies that have roots in European colonial rule an d continue to shape African cities and territories today. Because of these specters of Eurafrica\, the EU seems structurally incapable to come to te rms with its colonial past.  This conference proposes to explore historic al continuities in Africa’s relationship with Europe through the lens of infrastructure. What are the infrastructural histories that bind the uneq ual destinies of people together across continents\, and how do these lega cies shape contemporary lifeworlds and international relations? How does i nfrastructural violence shape international relations between Africa and E urope\, and how is the legacy of Eurafrica manifested in the spaces of eve ryday life? To answer these questions\, the conference invites scholars fr om urban studies\, history\, political science\, postcolonial theory\, arc hitecture\, border and migration studies\, and allied fields. We invite co ntributions that develop new perspectives of our geopolitical and intercon nected urban present through its infrastructural pasts. Such studies of ma terial and aesthetics relationships between Africa and Europe can focus on questions of lifeworlds\, urban transformation\, migration\, territory\, citizenship\, development\, or related themes. We are particularly interes ted in studies that can reveal the differential entanglements between peop le and places\, and locate alternative forms of infrastructure\, imaginari es of belonging\, ongoing struggles for decolonization\, and practices of world-making that decenter colonial ways of seeing\, feeling\, and knowing . X-ALT-DESC:

12. - 15. January 2021

When Eurafrica emerged in t he 1920s as an intellectual and political project to connect Europe with A frica\, its goal was to ensure European colonial dominance in a changing w orld. Key to the proposed continental merger was infrastructure—not surp rising at a time when railways\, ports\, camps\, and other large-scale bui lding projects were facilitating the extraction and movement of things for Europe while curtailing the freedom and mobility of Africans on an unprec edented scale. Recent scholarship has emphasized the centrality of Eurafri ca and the type of colonialism it mustered in the history of European inte gration\, from the EU’s founding intellectuals to its Cold-War-era reali zation. But continental infrastructure also played a role in African strug gles for independence. Highways\, ports\, and dams became tools of state-b uilding and even mobilized hopes of Panafrican integration and internation al solidarity. In practice\, however\, large-scale infrastructure required technical and financial aid which further entrenched Africa’s asymmetri cal relationship to the Global North.

Today\, as Africa enters a new age of development increasingly dominated by China\, and the EU is i n crisis\, is it still possible to speak of a Eurafrican present? From the physical imprint of cities and the configuration of intercontinental airl ine routes\, infrastructure testifies to the enduring legacies of Eurafric a. Infrastructure shapes territories and governs the mobilities within and across them\, but also serves to immobilize and externalize bodies and th ings. The European infrastructure of the Mediterranean border regime\, in which African migrants are systematically being detained or left to die\, recalls colonial-era policies that valued life and dictated death along ra cial lines. At the same time\, European aid focused on infrastructural dev elopment in Africa is increasingly targeted to counter such unwanted migra tion—without touching the global extraction economies that have roots in European colonial rule and continue to shape African cities and territori es today. Because of these specters of Eurafrica\, the EU seems structural ly incapable to come to terms with its colonial past. \; This conferen ce proposes to explore historical continuities in Africa’s relationship with Europe through the lens of infrastructure. What are the infrastructur al histories that bind the unequal destinies of people together across con tinents\, and how do these legacies shape contemporary lifeworlds and inte rnational relations? How does infrastructural violence shape international relations between Africa and Europe\, and how is the legacy of Eurafrica manifested in the spaces of everyday life? To answer these questions\, the conference invites scholars from urban studies\, history\, political scie nce\, postcolonial theory\, architecture\, border and migration studies\, and allied fields. We invite contributions that develop new perspectives o f our geopolitical and interconnected urban present through its infrastruc tural pasts. Such studies of material and aesthetics relationships between Africa and Europe can focus on questions of lifeworlds\, urban transforma tion\, migration\, territory\, citizenship\, development\, or related them es. We are particularly interested in studies that can reveal the differen tial entanglements between people and places\, and locate alternative form s of infrastructure\, imaginaries of belonging\, ongoing struggles for dec olonization\, and practices of world-making that decenter colonial ways of seeing\, feeling\, and knowing.

DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210115 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR