situated imagination and imaginaries of urban futures

17 July, 2026
Department of Architecture
University of Cambridge

Composite analytical drawing of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Frayne, 2019.

A conference exploring how situated imaginations and imaginaries are formed, contested, and translated across politics and space towards urban futures.

Timeline:

February 3, 2026 : call for abstracts opens
March 3, 2026 : call for abstracts closes

April 3, 2026 : invited contributors notified
July 17, 2026 : day-long conference, held at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge.

We hope to work with the authors to assemble the work from the conference into an edited volume following the conference.

There are no fees associated with this conference. UK travel can be subsidised at need.

Contact:
situatedimaginationsconference@gmail.com

We welcome contributions from all Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences disciplines, and all levels of study.

Call for abstracts

In an era of profound urban transformations, the power to shape what comes next lies not in abstract visions, but in situated imaginations and imaginaries - those collective understandings of political possibilities that are shaped by the everyday realities and potentials of urban life. These imaginaries are the blueprints for action, the deeply held beliefs that bridge the gap between a thought and a thing, ultimately materialising in the streets, institutions, and daily rhythms of urban environments. Yet situated imaginations and their imaginaries are more than guiding ideals; they are constantly being reconfigured through their materialisation, shifting as the grounded conditions of their production transform.

This conference seeks to explore how these potent, situated imaginations and imaginaries are formed, contested, and translated into both potential and concrete realities of the urban future. Going beyond utopianism, we are interested foremost in the real-world links that tether imagination and its related imaginaries to change: the artworks, policies, infrastructures, social movements, and spatial practices and tools that serve as both evidence and agents of these emerging worlds. We are also interested in historical and recent examples of socially based participatory and collaborative methodologies used to ignite the imagination of groups and communities to rethink and recreate their future worlds in playful or deliberative ways.

We invite scholars from architecture, urban studies, and the humanities and the social sciences more broadly to explore the critical intersection between imagination and its materialisation across politics and space. We welcome contributions that explore:

Sites of Imagination: Where and how are political and spatial imaginations and imaginaries collectively forged and negotiated in the urban context?
From Idea to Infrastructure: How do situated urban imaginations and imaginaries become visualised, codified in law, embedded in concrete, and/or translated into the social and urban fabric?
Tools as Testimony: Analysing specific tools—from community-led models and digital platforms to activist strategies—as manifestations of a process of inspiring the imagination or forming competing imaginaries in action.
Materialising Resistance and Resilience: The tangible practices through which communities spatially or visually enact imaginaries of justice, solidarity, and alternative futures against dominant narratives.

Contributors will be asked to present a 15-minute paper, fostering dynamic and focused discussion.

Please submit a 300-word abstract and a brief biography to situatedimaginationsconference@gmail.com by 3 March 2026

Join us in Cambridge to trace the vital lines that connect the world we can imagine to the world we build.

About the organisers
List of contributors