Interpreting reinterpretation

Abstract

A sunny Helsinki was the backdrop for the 13th biannual conference of the European Association for Urban History (EAUH). The EAUH was established in 1989 with the aim to create a common platform to historians, geographers, sociologists, planners, and other scholars working with a multidisciplinary approach on urban history in different time periods. The first EAUH conference took place in Amsterdam in 1992 and the next one will take place in Rome during 2018 (for further information about EAUH, please visit the website: http://www.eauh.eu/). The ambitious theme of the 13th conference was Reinterpreting Cities. For planning historians, this theme held ample promise on programmatic, methodological, and theoretical levels. With 592 participants, 44 main sessions, and 30 specialist sessions, we decided to look at the conference through a specific lens. Based on a selection of relevant panels, therefore, we formulated two questions: first, how can a reinterpretation of cities lead to new theories on the city and connect to existing theories in other disciplines? And second, how can a reinterpretation of urban history connect to the ‘real world’, for example, planning practices? This conference report explores the ways in which this conference actually reinterpreted the city, in particular, how it connected to the spatial dimension and planning history.