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ArgumentContemporary cities are spaces and places traversed by a diversity of movements, making them very special locus for analysing society. The ESA&#8217;s Research Network 37 - Urban Sociology- coordination team is working to stimulate scientific debate within the area of urban sociology. In times of digital information, conferences are very important spaces to debate current issues, showcase emerging research and discuss new approaches. The ESA Research Network 37 &#8211; Urban Sociology &#8211; Midterm Conference will take place at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, June, 29th- July, 1st, 2016. Our will is to create a cross-disciplinary space of scientific debate open to sociologists and other scientists from other disciplines interested in analysing and understanding urban life in moving cities around the globe. We welcome papers from young and senior academics developing research on cities and urban life, expecting that everyone can take useful insights to their works from their participation in this conference. We hope that this meeting can be a starting point for joint research and networking.Submission guidelinesThe conference is organised in five tracks (see below). Authors are invited to submit their abstract either to one of the five tracks (see below) or to the open sessions. Please submit one abstract to a single session only.Abstracts&#160;in English of maximum 300 words should be submitted to&#160;esamovingcities@gmail.com&#160;until&#160;December, 15th. Please indicate in the subject of the e-mail either if you are proposing a paper for discussion in a specific track (identifying the number of the track) or to an open session (indicating Open Session). Notifications of acceptance will be sent by January, 29th.Confirmed keynote speakersSaskia Sassen, Columbia UniversityTalja Blokland, Humboldt University of BerlinAyo Mansaray, University of East LondonJacek Gądecki, University of Science and Technology in KrakowConference tracksTrack 1 - Methodological approaches to the moving cityL&#237;gia Ferro (CIES, ISCTE-IUL, IS-UP) and Jo&#227;o Teixeira Lopes (IS-UP)Urban studies are based on multiple theories and methodologies and result from shared objects of study by a diversity of areas of knowledge. In this context of interdisciplinarity we dare urban sociologists and other social scientists studying contemporary cities to think about the possibilities of crossing knowledge and scales of analysis when approaching urban life. How can different methodological approaches contribute to understand &#8220;the urban&#8221;? What are the main theoretical, epistemological and ethical challenges when we work on an interdisciplinary background to study the city? Can we really separate theory and methodology when analysing urban life? We invite colleagues working on multiple objects and backgrounds to discuss these and other questions starting from their concrete investigations.Track 2- Moving cities: between structure and agency. Urban institutions and the pop-up cityMarta Smagacz-Poziemska (IS - JU) and Marta Klekotko (IS - JU)In the modern era urban institutions were fulfilling social needs for participation, leisure, education and cultural consumption. In the late-capitalist postmodern societies this no longer seems true. Rising mobility, multitudes of lifestyles, as well as social inequalities challenge the institutional order of the city and make a room for a pop-up city. This session asks: what is happening to the institutional order of the city? What kind of tensions between traditional structures and bottom-up city-making can be observed? Is a pop-up city a marginal and ephemeral phenomenon or does it shape a new mainstream of urbanity? Empirical papers are especially welcome.Track 3- Social processes in the globalised moving cityM. Victoria G&#243;mez (UC3M) and Juan Jose Villalon (UNED)Economic globalisation, crisis, migratory flows as much as the political responses to these processes intersect at the urban space. Some scholars have defended visions that emphasise the idea of de-territorialisation and undervalue the importance of local dynamics fostered by globalisation. Nevertheless the importance of local urban areas as the locus of the most relevant social processes seems to be increasing nowadays. The track aims at exploring the dialectic between the global and the local by examining the set of issues, practices and processes that take place in contemporary cities, from segregation, marginalisation and exclusion in their various forms, to potential new dynamics of solidarity and strengthening of feelings of belonging.Track 4- Dynamics and meanings of public spaces in the moving cityPatr&#237;cia Pereira (CICS.NOVA, FCSH-UNL), Lu&#237;s Baptista (CICS.NOVA, FCSH-UNL)Urban public spaces are diverse and multidimensional. They can be places of gathering and sociability where strangers can meet or exclusionary spaces where the power of some bans others. At times, they also become places where different visions of the world, of cities and of public spaces themselves are affirmed, contested and negotiated.This track aims at promoting the debate around public spaces, their dynamics and meanings, as well as their significance for everyday life in the contemporary &#8216;moving city&#8217;. We welcome empirically and theoretically focused papers and we especially encourage papers that offer innovative methodological approaches.Track 5- Changing Neighbourhoods in the Moving CitySebastian Kurtenbach (ISS-ZEFIR) and Jan &#220;blacker (FWGW).Rising social inequalities have a variety of effects on neighbourhoods in (European) cities. Demographic and migration shifts, structural change of labour economy, and neoliberal policies drive processes of socio-spatial (re)sorting that lead to either decline or ascent of neighbourhoods. For urban scholars issues of social and ethnic mixing, downgrading, neighbourhood effects, and gentrification are at stake. Taking into account the development of the city as a whole, these contrary processes can often be observed side by side. This track especially invites empirical contributions based on quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method designs. Case studies as well as comparative settings are welcome.If your work does not fit in these tracks, you can submit your proposal to the&#160;open sessions.PostersIn this conference scientific posters are used as tools for networking. We welcome poster proposals (abstracts in English of max. 300 words) presenting draft projects and ideas for future projects from teams and individual researchers who are looking for research partners. The organization will print and display the selected posters in a visible place and will assign specific times to meet the authors.Organizing teamL&#237;gia Ferro (CIES, ISCTE-IUL, IS-University of Porto, Portugal), Marta Smagacz-Poziemska (JU IS, Poland), M. Victoria G&#243;mez (UC3M, Spain), Patr&#237;cia Pereira (CICS.NOVA, FCSH-UNL, Portugal), Juan Jose Villalon (UNED, Spain), Sebastian Kurtenbach (ISS/ZEFIR, Germany), Andrzej Bukowski (JU IS, Poland), Karol Kurnicki (JU IS, Poland) and Marcjanna N&#243;żka (JU IS, Poland) .Scientific CommitteeAdriana Facina (MN-UFRJ)Alain Bourdin (IFU, Paris VIII)Ant&#243;nio Firmino da Costa (ISCTE-IUL)Carlos Fortuna (CES-FEUC)Catharina Th&#246;rn (GU)Clemente Navarro (UPO)Fr&#233;d&#233;ric Vidal (ISCTE-IUL)Gra&#231;a Cordeiro (ISCTE-IUL)Helena Vila&#231;a (IS-UP)Jes&#250;s Leal (UCM)Joan Pujadas (URV)Jo&#227;o Teixeira Lopes (IS-UP)Josune Aguinaga (UNED)J&#252;rgen Friedrichs (ISS- U. Cologne)Krzysztof Frysztacki (IS JU)Lu&#237;s Baptista (FCSH-UNL)Marek S. Szczepański (IS, US)Marisol Garc&#237;a (UB)Monica Degen (Brunel)Ray Hutchinson (UWGB)Richard Lachmann (UAlbany, SUNY)Saskia Sassen (Columbia University)Tim Sieber (Umass-Boston)Virg&#237;lio Borges Pereira (IS-UP)Yankel Fijalkow (CRH, LAVUE)Important datesDeadline for abstracts submission: 15th, December, 2015Notification of abstract acceptance: 29th, January, 2015Early bird registration: from 1st, February to 30th, April, 2016Late registration: from 1st, May to 17th, JuneYou can follow the conference updates in our blog and Facebook page:http://esarn37.hypotheses.org/https://www.facebook.com/esarn37