From November 20th-22nd the 3rd annual conference of the International Graduate Research Program Berlin - New York - Toronto "The World in the City: Metropolitanism and Globalization from the 19th Century to the Present" will take place at the Center for Metropolitan Studies/Technical University Berlin.

The conference explores the question what role time plays in the characterization of the metropolis and the global processes that sustain metropolitan life. Over the past three decades, both urban studies and globalization studies have predominately focused on spatial concerns, often neglecting the important temporal dimensions of global urban development. The conference therefore seeks to systematically examine the diverse temporal aspects of global exchange and metropolitan development.

Urban temporalities not only affect the historicization of the past, present, and future, but they also raise questions about changing social structures, patterns of living and the local and global spatialization of the urban. For instance, conceptions and perceptions of time change dramatically during periods of social upheaval, or as the result of technological innovations (e.g. the standardization of times through "railway time", the organization of working hours according to technical "requirements"). Time is also central to cultural differentiation and religious segregation (e.g. observance of a day of worship in the three main world religions). Struggles over the regulation of time have been a field of control and contestation throughout colonialism and postcolonialism. Throughout the course of globalization, during which the world became interconnected through transport and telecommunication networks and the intensification of exchange of goods, information, and people, different notions of time have often collided, especially in metropolitan contexts.

Interested participants are welcome. Please register by November 12th at temporalities[at]metropolitanstudies.de