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City in Common: Culture and Community in Buenos Aires
31 May 2017, 5:30 pm
Event Information
Open to
- All
Organiser
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UCL Institute of the Americas
Location
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UCL Institute of the Americas, 51 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PN
James Scorer (Manchester) - Using Buenos Aires as his case study, James Scorer traces the figure and practice of 'the commons' in Argentine cultural production to explore how communities are variously shaped and contested within urban imaginaries. Exploring a diverse set of works, including literature, film, and comics, and engaging with urban theory, political philosophy, and Latin American cultural studies, he paints a portrait of a city caught between the opposing forces of commoning and fragmentation. Scorer argues that, beyond the prevailing depictions of Buenos Aires as segregated and divided, urban imaginaries can and often do offer visions of more open communities and more inclusive urban futures. Discussants: Dr Niall Geraghty (ILAS/SAS) and Dr Chandra Morrison (LSE).
Dr James Scorer is Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the University of Manchester. His research is focused on culture and the Latin American city, and on Latin American visual culture, particularly photography and comics. In addition to City in Common: Culture and Community in Buenos Aires (SUNY, 2016), he is the co-editor of Comics and Memory in Latin America (Pittsburgh, 2017). He is currently coordinating an international network entitled Comics and the Latin American City funded by the Leverhulme Trust.