Call e bandi
Call for Papers | Beauty as a Public Category: Aesthetics, Politics, and Urban Space
Call for Papers for the European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes (CPCL).
Edited by Giovanni Semi from the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning-DIST, Irene Calabrò, Zeno Mutton, and Angelica Rocca.
In recent years, beauty has reemerged strongly in public discourse as an apparently shared, positive, and non-conflictual category. It is increasingly being mobilized as a normative criterion to guide urban policies, architectural practices, territorial transformations, lifestyles, governance of bodies, and collective imaginaries. On the other hand, beauty has been also mobilized by local collectives and dwellers, to reproduce or context such practices and transformations, and to imagine alternative futures for their cities.
In this sense, beauty seems to function as a conceptual passe-partout: a notion capable of replacing or integrating political, ethical, and moral demands, presenting itself as a desirable goal where the language of justice, conflict, or equality appears more controversial. Rather than a "just world," a "beautiful world" is invoked; rather than a fair city, a "beautiful" city; rather than a good life, a "beautiful" life. This opens the reflection on how beauty – and its conceptual history – is mobilized, problematized, and pluralized, in the dialogues between the institutional and public spheres.
The call aims to critically question this overflow of beauty from the aesthetic domain into public use, exploring its theoretical, political, and cultural implications. The goal is not to defend or deny beauty, but to problematize its status as a historically determined aesthetic category, as a normative device in public discourse, and as an operational criterion in fields such as architecture, urban planning, consensus building, collective action, and the management of space and bodies.
The call also aims to critically reconceptualize the changing role of beauty in today’s everyday rituals, particularly with regard to the impact of the abundance of images on social and mobile media on aesthetic formation and education in contemporary societies. Media surfaces are increasingly competing with urban scenography, which was formerly considered to provide the framework for a society's sensory and emotional development. Consider, for example, the murals, ornaments, fountains, obelisks and statues in European cities, which seem to be increasingly replaced by AI-produced and manipulated images of 'ideal' beauty. One topic could be the beautification techniques, i.e. the ideology of embellishment, that social media focuses on. Particular attention will be paid to the internal tensions within the concept of beauty (harmony and conflict, consensus and dissent, design and side effects) and its relationships with neighboring categories such as the sublime, the ugly, atmosphere, style, decorum, and degradation.
Deadline for abstract submission (optional but recommended): 31 May 2026
For further information consult the Call for Papers Beauty as a Public Category: Aesthetics, Politics, and Urban Space Vol. 9, no 2 and European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes (CPCL).
Edited by Giovanni Semi from the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning-DIST, Irene Calabrò, Zeno Mutton, and Angelica Rocca.
In recent years, beauty has reemerged strongly in public discourse as an apparently shared, positive, and non-conflictual category. It is increasingly being mobilized as a normative criterion to guide urban policies, architectural practices, territorial transformations, lifestyles, governance of bodies, and collective imaginaries. On the other hand, beauty has been also mobilized by local collectives and dwellers, to reproduce or context such practices and transformations, and to imagine alternative futures for their cities.
In this sense, beauty seems to function as a conceptual passe-partout: a notion capable of replacing or integrating political, ethical, and moral demands, presenting itself as a desirable goal where the language of justice, conflict, or equality appears more controversial. Rather than a "just world," a "beautiful world" is invoked; rather than a fair city, a "beautiful" city; rather than a good life, a "beautiful" life. This opens the reflection on how beauty – and its conceptual history – is mobilized, problematized, and pluralized, in the dialogues between the institutional and public spheres.
The call aims to critically question this overflow of beauty from the aesthetic domain into public use, exploring its theoretical, political, and cultural implications. The goal is not to defend or deny beauty, but to problematize its status as a historically determined aesthetic category, as a normative device in public discourse, and as an operational criterion in fields such as architecture, urban planning, consensus building, collective action, and the management of space and bodies.
The call also aims to critically reconceptualize the changing role of beauty in today’s everyday rituals, particularly with regard to the impact of the abundance of images on social and mobile media on aesthetic formation and education in contemporary societies. Media surfaces are increasingly competing with urban scenography, which was formerly considered to provide the framework for a society's sensory and emotional development. Consider, for example, the murals, ornaments, fountains, obelisks and statues in European cities, which seem to be increasingly replaced by AI-produced and manipulated images of 'ideal' beauty. One topic could be the beautification techniques, i.e. the ideology of embellishment, that social media focuses on. Particular attention will be paid to the internal tensions within the concept of beauty (harmony and conflict, consensus and dissent, design and side effects) and its relationships with neighboring categories such as the sublime, the ugly, atmosphere, style, decorum, and degradation.
Deadline for abstract submission (optional but recommended): 31 May 2026
For further information consult the Call for Papers Beauty as a Public Category: Aesthetics, Politics, and Urban Space Vol. 9, no 2 and European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes (CPCL).