City Debates 2010 explores how the militarization of security across urban contexts has affected the organization of/ practices of cities in multiple contexts. By engaging scholars from a diversity of social science fields such as geography, development studies, migration and design, the Debates seek to debunk the normalization of militarization in everyday sites and spaces and the threat security poses on daily practices and the movements of populations almost everywhere.

Conference panels will investigate the construction of threats, their translation into spatial and social boundaries, their materialization in urban enclaves, as well as the practices of transgression and resilience that resist this normalization. Case studies and reflections built on experiences taken across numerous contexts including Beirut, Baghdad, Cairo, Ramallah, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, as well as Paris, New York, and more.

City Debates is a yearly event organized by the Masters in Urban Planning and Policy and Masters in Urban Design in the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut. City Debates seeks to initiate a multi-disciplinary debate between scholars, practioners, and artists on timely issues affecting cities in the local and regional context. Previous themes include The Lebanese Master Plan, Whose Beirut?, Urban Heritage and the Politics of the Present, Cities for the Rich, Post-war Reconstructions, Spaces of Faith and Fun, and Towards Politically Conscious and Socially Responsible Planning Practices. City Debates is open to the public.