call for abstracts Track 3 MIGRATION FLOWS – EURA Conference 2026
Next year, the Annual EURA Conference will be hosted by the University Iuav of Venice (June 17th — 20th, 2026), bringing together an international community of scholars to reflect on the future of cities in unsettled times. Under the theme “Cities Under Strain: Rethinking the Ungovernable”, the conference explores how urban systems respond to instability and overlapping environmental, social, and geopolitical pressures.
As usual, EURA 2025 offers a rich and interdisciplinary platform for advancing debates on urban governance, justice, and the evolving relationships between institutions, communities, and territories.
Against this backdrop, SSIIM Unesco Chair is co-chairing Track Nr. 3 MIGRATION FLOWS. Migrants’ Struggles for Socio-Spatial Inclusion: Local Policies and Practices in Times of Pressure
We invite all interested colleagues to submit an abstract! Deadline for abstract submission is December 15th, 2025 >> DEADLINE EXTENDED TO December 30th, 2025!!!
THE TRACK
MIGRATION FLOWS. Migrants’ Struggles for Socio-Spatial Inclusion: Local Policies and Practices in Times of Pressure
Chairs: Martina Bovo, Giovanna Marconi, Università Iuav di Venezia, Cristiana Rossignolo, Politecnico di Torino
Human settlements in both the Global North and South are increasingly facing challenges related to social and spatial inequality. The living conditions of international migrants—alongside those of other vulnerable groups— often represent the most visible expression of these challenges: urban arrival areas and infrastructures, refugee camps, and informal rural settlements shaped by exploitative agricultural labour regimes. Despite their structural presence, these spaces are still too often framed as ‘landscapes of exception.’ Therefore, addressing the challenges they pose is both urgent and an opportunity to advance an equity agenda within urban studies.
This session welcomes contributions that investigate how local policies and practices address international migration and growing urban diversity in contexts marked by uncertainty, instability and fragmentation.
We are interested in different forms of international mobility, encompassing both temporary and more stable migration and settlement processes. We invite papers exploring how local actors— whether migrants, civil society, private, public, institutional and/or grassroots organisations— are responding to these processes and how they contribute to the construction of more just, inclusive and resilient territories, affirming the right to the city and rethinking citizenship from below.
Particular attention is given to practices of cohabitation across differences, access to housing, public space and services, and everyday forms of integration — including those that foreground intersectional challenges. We also encourage contributions that explore whether, and how, institutional action and grassroots-led inclusive initiatives interact, whether through conflict or alignment, and the effect this has on policymaking. Analyses engaging with concepts such as spatial justice, conviviality, social cohesion, belonging, commoning, or socio-spatial resistance are especially welcome. This session aims to foster a transcalar and interdisciplinary dialogue on how local transformations driven by international migration can contribute to reimagine the politics of inclusion in territories under pressure.
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Paper abstracts should be between 250-350 words and should include 3 keywords and 3 references. The abstract must contain original research work conducted by the author(s); it should clearly outline the main argument, scope(s) of the contribution, methodological/ conceptual approaches, and its relevance to the track themes and the core topics of the conference.
>>> for submitting an abstract, visit the conference website
