New call for papers - Astrágalo Journal - 2022 and 2023

 

A31 (2022) EXTRA. THE LEGACIES OF COLIN ROWE; MATHEMATICS, CONTEXTUALISM, COLLAGE CITY AND BEYOND.

Colin Rowe transformed and changed over his lifetime, constructing and refining his intellectual and conceptual apparatus in response to his changing circumstances. There can be little doubt that the single most formative experience of the young Rowe was his time with Rudolf Wittkower at the Warburg Institute, after his earlier architectural education at Liverpool University, whose Professor Patrick Abercrombie guided the re-building of London after WW II. Rowe attempted unsuccessfully to adapt Wittkower’s diagrammatic analyses to Le Corbusier’s St Dié with his students Robert Maxwell and James Stirling. Later with the Texas Rangers he began to unpack the Wittkoverian geometry into the urban landscape, studying Le Corbusier’s League of Nations with his colleagues Robert Slutsky, Bernard Hoesli and John Hedjuk. He continued this process to recoup the traditional, classical city via Camillo Sitte in the 1950s with Alvin Boyarsky at Cornell, and then in the mid-1960s with Wayne Copper and Tom Schumaker. From this hybrid base, Rowe constructed a new, meta-historical, reflexive, curatorial apparatus of the “city as museum” outlined in Collage City with Fred Koetter and the Roma Interrotta Team (1978). As argued in Recombinant Urbanism (2005) many of the subsequent Urban Design movements unfolded from this layered, diagrammatic, multi-scalar approach to communal history, memory and the environment in the following half-century ranging from the Neo-Rationalism, De-construction, New Urbanism, Parametric Urbanism, Landscape Urbanism, Ecological Urbanism, Strategic Urbanism, to the emphasis on Historic Preservation, Adaptive re-use, the self-built megacity and the informational city. Even in Covid Urban Designers still struggle with the complexity and contradictions of classical and modern continuities that made Rowe’s intellectual struggle so difficult and dynamic.

It seems an appropriate time to revisit Contextualism and Collage City and Roma Interrotta within the framework of contemporary urban design networks, and the new tools of representation available in the contemporary metacity of information.

In this sense, authors are invited, from among other related instances, to focus on Contextualism, Collage City and beyond, to investigate Colin Rowe’s mid-twentieth century role in appropriating Sitte’s 1890’s reaction to Von Forster’s 1860 imperial design for the Vienna Ringstrasse. Rowe’s critical appropriation paved the way for later iterations and code shifts that greatly expanded into a more fragmented, inclusive Collage City. It took Rowe several iterations to develop this concept with Fred Koetter and with his Roma Interrotta team. Moreover, authors are called to explore strength and weaknesses of the mutations of Rowe’s classical impulse as it, in its turn, evolved with urban design beyond the binary into the 21st century.

Guess Editor: David Grahame Shane Columbia University

20 November (extended deadline): submission of articles' deadline

20 December (extended deadline): external reviewers' response deadline (60 days)

31 December: final decision for publishing the article (90 days)

A3X (202x). ORIENTED OBJECTS FOR AN ONTOLOGY

Contemporary philosophy can be divided (very roughly) between a varied group of thinkers whose axis is based on problems of the subject (such as those questions linked to ideology, language and social practice) such as Ranciere or Zizek and a group –much less nourished and published– whose interest lies in defining a philosophical realism that can transcend any philosophy centred on consciousness, experience, action or existence that declines to be objectualist, which would be a nickname applicable to thinkers like Latour and De Landa, within a modern tradition that reaches a certain part of Heidegger’s production and that of North Whitehead. In this context, one of his founder-cultivators –Graham Harman– proposed the expression OOO (object-oriented ontology), within his field of installation which he calls speculative realism and which aims to analyse the relationship between real objects and intentional objects (which we could describe as projected) and/or sensitive objects (which we could define as any objectology of aesthetic-communicational will). Although these thinkers accept that the intentional object is subsidiary (or vicar) to the real object with which it tries to establish relationships, it would seem that deepening such a real-intentional relationship comprises a substantive part of the OOO programme. In this A30, the aim is to invert the OOO formula, from Object-Oriented Ontology, to Ontologically-Oriented Objects and, in short, to contribute to the discussion of the relations between intentionality and reality, which is none other than the problem of the project.

 

We are looking for a guest editor. If you are interested, please send a brief CV to astragalo@us.es, together with an advance proposal for this monograph, and you can also propose an alternative call, without changing the title.

 

A32 (2023) EXTRA. FROM COMPOSITION TO EDITING.

The transition between globalisations has been experienced in the field of architecture unconsciously, randomly and collected by a multiplicity of insufficient and partial responses, in a complex process mediated by the obligatory incorporation into contributory and productive networks. We would say that, without hardly feeling it, contemporary architecture has been subjected to a process of continuous editing by external agents who have seductively dictated its inexcusable adaptation to their languages, their presentations, values and procedures. In its tour de force, with these external requirements that sought to insert it into an interior even more powerful and enveloping than its own, architecture has mutated into a body, traversed by multiple practices, that is never capable of showing anything but a hologram of its appearance, in which the memory - or at least the traces - of its historical natures are incorporated.

The call that we have entitled "from composition to edition", delimits a space of contributions that is undefined in its own limits, unless we investigate the reality of both. Thus, composition as a concept of order and power, of hierarchy and system, would have been deconstructed by a complex practice full of singularities and essays, which provide the first trace of an unconscious mutation and, from the other extreme -if it really is-, we would have converged on the considerations of fluidification of the preceding categories: order, system, hierarchy..., to insert the monstrous body of the architectural into a symbiont as a production proper to post-production that would shape it in the contemporary support of communicative materiality.

We are aware that the call for this monographic issue of Astrágalo is aimed at contributions that act reflexively on this growing complexity, of which it is impossible today to implement a characteristic entity, but whose state encourages an open debate attentive to other positions, in which crossroads can be guessed at as a result of the confluence of the paths opened up by a research seduced by the very object it is incapable of shaping. This would at least encourage an incipient topology of the quotidian in which it would be possible to glimpse ways back.

Guest editor: José Ramón Moreno Pérez. University of Seville.

30 December 2022: deadline for submission of articles.

30 January 2022: deadline for external reviewers (60 days)

25 February 2023: decision deadline from article submission (90 days)

A33 (2023): CITY, GENDER AND CARE

Urban planning is not and has not been neutral. It has essentially been conceived from a patriarchal, capitalist and pyramidal vision, which has given total priority to productive activities, assigned to men and by the male gender. As a result, only the productive sphere has been taken into account, while the other three spheres of human life have been marginalised and made invisible: the sphere of reproduction and care; the sphere of community life, interrelation and social and political activity; and the sphere of personal development.

For this reason, we speak of feminist urbanism, whose prior objective consists of the critical recognition of reality from the perspective of women's experience. In urban area study projects, the working premise of feminist groups is the urban reconnaissance walks, which precede both exploratory walks and daily walks, in which women walk through the neighbourhood in groups, sharing their stories and experiences, and explaining the reasons for each enclave and the perceptions of each specific urban space. Taking to the streets is an act of rebellion and a political action.

And today we turn to ecofeminism, as it brings together the issues of the environmental crisis and the crisis of care: it critically analyses the beliefs that sustain the ecocidal, patriarchal, capitalist and colonial model of our civilisation; based on the nefarious hierarchical pyramid that puts men as the sex at the top and women, animals, trees, vegetation and resources in the lowest and most exploitable strata. Ecofeminism, as a philosophy and as an action, denounces the risks to which people and all other living beings are subjected, proposing alternative approaches to reverse this systematic war that capitalism has decreed against life. It is, in short, a plural and diverse position, rooted in different places. It therefore proposes the recovery of the values of care, applying them to the scale of ecosystem care. In other words, the values of caring for people are extended to caring for society and nature, but this must in no way imply a technophobic and nostalgic return to a pre-technological or essentialist society.

In conclusion, the challenge today lies in constructing new narratives, as opposed to hegemonic stories; new narratives based on feminist demands for equality of people based on differences, placing care at the forefront and confronting the climate crisis. New narratives that analyse and propose what an egalitarian city is and how it transforms the way housing, buildings and public spaces are designed.

Guest editors: Zaida Muxí (ETSA Barcelona) and Josep Maria Montaner (ETSA Barcelona).

30 May 2023: deadline for article submissions. 

15 June 2023: deadline for external reviewers (60 days). 

15 July 2023: decision deadline from article submission (90 days)

 

A34: Life Forms

Guest editors:

Marta Velasco Martín

Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Sciences, University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) and researcher in the Health, History and Society group of the Regional Centre for Biomedical Research (CRIB, UCLM). LifeHUB.CSIC Network

Degree in Biology (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), postgraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and PhD in Logic and Philosophy of Science (Universidad de Salamanca, Instituto de Filosofía del CSIC). Her doctoral thesis entitled "Drosophila genetics and gender: circulation of objects and knowledge" obtained the qualification of outstanding cum laude and Extraordinary Doctoral Prize for the 2018-2019 academic year. Her lines of research address the history of women scientists; the study of the influence of gender in the construction of biomedical knowledge and in cultural and historical studies of science and technology; and the social construction of disease in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as collective responses and the establishment of measures to combat them from a gender perspective.

Jesús Rey Rocha.

Department of Science, Technology and Society. Institute of Philosophy, Spanish National Research Council.  (IFS, CSIC). Red LifeHUB.CSIC. https://digital.csic.es/cris/rp/rp11211 https://scholar.google.es/citations?hl=en&user=m9ggL3QAAAAJ

Focus:

Maintaining life on planet Earth and the well-being of its inhabitants, human and non-human, animal and plant, bacteria, protists and fungi, both individually and collectively, must be at the top of the political and scientific agendas, especially as our human actions have aggravated the climate and environmental crises in recent years.

Fifty years after the publication of The Limits to Growth report, commissioned from MIT by the Club of Rome, its message is still valid: Earth's interconnected resources - the global system of nature in which we live - are unlikely to be able to support current rates of economic and population growth of the human species well beyond the year 2100, if at all, even with advanced technology; if global population growth, industrialisation, pollution, food production and exploitation of natural resources were to continue unabated, the absolute limits of growth on Earth would be reached, in a situation that could be described as an environmental pandemic.

As the first quarter of the 21st century draws to a close, the human species is facing what we might call an anthropic paradox, for despite the evidence of its contribution to the overexploitation of the planet's resources and the worsening conditions for life on the planet, it is confronted with the yearnings and ambitions of its species to transcend its human condition, to improve life as we know it and, eventually, to become a creator of life. Faced with this situation, some models of societies seem unable to find institutional referents and personal models that provide the certainties and confidence necessary to feel the security on which to live. Moreover, they must face increasing levels of complexity, since not only are there multiple options to choose from, but their advantages and disadvantages are not always clear, are not comparable or are even contradictory (or appear to be so), in other words, they are faced with various trilemmas and plurilemmas.

The monograph 'Life Forms' addresses this anthropic paradox by studying the challenges, impacts and social and philosophical implications of research on the origins, (co-)evolution, diversity and synthesis of life from a multidisciplinary, integrative and collaborative approach that calls upon the expertise of a wide range of disciplines - from the Life, Physical and Chemical Sciences, through Engineering, to the Social Sciences and the Humanities─. We believe that the understanding - and control - of life, from the (sub)cellular to the organismal and systems scale, requires philosophical, ethical, political and social reflection, due to the possible impact of the application of the technologies that make this possible and the results of research in this field; that is, due to the impact of science, technology and human activity, on its own life and on the conditions for life on planet Earth - and eventually on its satellite and other planets. Thus, the development of purely scientific and technological aspects, accompanied by a constant and simultaneous ethical and philosophical evaluation of research, allows the analysis of the progress made and expected, of its implications and social challenges, of its repercussions, benefits, impacts and problems, of its safety and biosafety, of its risks, and of its cultural implications. Furthermore, we believe that the participation of society in them must be considered. We cannot neglect, in this context, the role of citizens: how they are and will be affected and their eventual involvement.

The idea of compiling these reflections in the form of a monograph arose at the meeting "Challenges, impacts and social implications of research on life. Let's think, and reflect

together to act" that was held at the Casa de la Ciencia in Seville in May 2022, sponsored by the CSIC's Life-Connections network (LifeHub). This meeting allowed interaction and dialogue between professionals trained in different experimental and social fields, directly or indirectly related to life sciences. For this reason, 'Formas de vida' has been designed to be built in a cooperative way, thanks to the interaction and collaboration of different authors. The monograph is thus conceived as an exercise in dialogue between sciences and cultural disciplines, with the aim of contributing to show the need for this dialogue in order to generate a broader and more innovative vision, capable of evolving in the face of the wide range of changes that are occurring in this first quarter of the century.

Astrágalo already published an issue dedicated to this topic in 2017, under the title Elusive city. Forms of life and modes of existence [https://editorial.us.es/es/num-23-2017]. With this new issue, we intend to revisit the theme 'Ways of life', treating it from a perspective that results from the combination in interaction between the Life, Physical and Chemical Sciences, Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities, through the research tools that are specific to them, without forgetting the interactions with the architectural, spatial, cultural, urban, geographical and artistic spheres, which are the journal's own themes.

Manuscript proposals

Manuscripts are invited under the general theme Life Forms.

Proposals should preferably be supported by two or more signatures and propose interdisciplinary approaches. Alternatively, single-person papers will be considered, open to the possible later incorporation of new authors, as a result of the process described in the following paragraph.

The manuscripts received will be circulated among the participants in the monograph in order to allow the exchange of specific contributions and cross-references, and even to facilitate the incorporation of new authors into manuscripts in progress, subject to the agreement of the proposers.

Manuscripts will be accepted on the following topics or any other topic of interest related to the general theme of the issue

- The concept of 'life forms'.

- What is life? Is the debate and research on what life is still ongoing, and does it still make sense?

- The concept of life: Are there different concepts of life? Biological, social, economic, cultural, political, etc. elements in the definition of life.

- Difference between life and living.

- The identification of life. Properties of life. Attributes and phenotypes of life. Differentiation between living and non-living.

- Perception of life: external vision and self-recognition of life.

- Why is it important to define what life is: search for extraterrestrial life, artificial life and intelligence.

- Natural and artificial environments for the establishment of life. New niches resulting from anthropogenic action.

- New forms of life, new forms of organisation. Where life, humanity, is going (biological, social, cultural... perspectives of evolution).

- Paradoxes and conflicts related to the establishment of different life forms.

- Life forms and complexity/complex systems.

- New and old life forms. Emergence of new life forms. Loss of biodiversity. Extinctions.

- Diversity of life forms. Why is it important to conserve biodiversity?

- City, rural environment and life forms.

- The relationship between humans and other life forms.

- Artificial creation and enhancement of life forms.

- The impact of the application of new technologies in curing diseases and prolonging life.

- The collective health of life. Global health.

Dates:

13 January 2023: deadline for receipt of papers.

16 January-17 February 2023: exchange and cross-checking of manuscripts between authors.

30 March 2023: deadline for submissions of papers.

28 April 2023: deadline for a response from external reviewers (30 days).

28 June 2023: decision deadline  (60 days).