MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS 
BELARUSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY 
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL SCIENCES  
Supported by the Innovation Fund of Minsk City Executive Committee 

International academic and research conference 
and academic and research workshops 

Social Practices and Development of Urban Environment:
Urban Studies and Innovation

(November 25th – 26th, 2021, 9, Kalvaryiskaia Str., Minsk, Belarus)

The concept of ‘smart city’ is a comprehensive and complex system integrating smart people making smart decisions and using smart tools to create smart infrastructures within the framework of city life. The conference is multidisciplinary, so specialists from various fields dealing with city issues are invited.

Conference website http://conf.bsu.by/social_practices_and_urban_development_en

Conference priorities (November 25th, 2021):

1.	City as an educational environment 
City as a platform for educational projects. Educational and professional practices in the city. City and innovative education. University as a factor and subject of urban development. The role of university in the formation of city identity and city dwellers’ identity. University and urban traditions. University as an initiator and participant in modernization of urban environment. University campus as a cultural phenomenon. Urban planning and university. University and cultural heritage of cities. Urban studies as an academic discipline.

2.	Digital city and data management in urban development: prospects and risks 
Digitalization of urban infrastructure and social practices. Open government. Modernization and digitalization of the main spheres of urban life (transportation, healthcare, energy, administration, production, leisure activities, etc.). Personalization of offers and services in local context; ‘geomedia’ and big data, internet of things in the pack ‘smart house  – smart street – smart city’. 
Big data in urban environment: characteristics of content, data collection, storage, protection, and analysis. Public opinion polls in the contemporary city: peculiarities of sampling design, poll management, conduct, data processing and interpretation of results. Participant observation and other qualitative methods in city studies. Longitudinal studies as a tool for studying city development.

3.	Urban research and strategic urban management 
Key actors – authorities, business and civil society – as stakeholders, who determine decision-making and its implementation.
Social marketing and stakeholder management. Situational monitoring and evaluation, expert opinions, academic research, SWOT-analysis and risk assessment; management and control of social processes; test and trial projects and their implementation. Problematization, designing and forecasting the consequences of strategically important decisions, surveys of local residents and expert interviews; heuristics, collegiality and systemic approach in decision-making.
City as a brand. Positioning and promoting the city as a brand to develop tourism, attract investment, improve living standards, etc.
City and epidemics. History of epidemics and the European cities. Daily urban practices during the Covid-19 pandemic. Urban planning and management during the pandemic. 

4.	City as a multicultural environment 
Portrait of a contemporary city dweller. Sociocultural space of the city. Urban lifestyle. Public figures, ‘celebrities’, and ‘ordinary people’. Opinion leaders, ‘influencers’, and ‘followers’. Organizations and corporations, various groups and communities, urban cultures and subcultures, publics, and counterpublics. 
City as a symbolic construct, its reputation and the image it creates. Places, events, and practices, urban legends and myths as symbolic resources of territorial identity; ‘creative clusters’ and ‘third places’ as attractive areas for citizens and tourists. Psychology of urban space perception. Mental maps of the city. Institutionalized and informal urban symbols.
City culture, subcultures, and countercultures. Cultural space of the city. The culture of celebration in the city. Street culture. Urban design. Social stratification and urban landscape. Gentrification. Preservation of urban heritage. The ‘masses’ and the ‘elites’ in the city. The phenomenon of a cultural site. The problems of migrants' integration in the urban environment.

5.	‘Comfortable and friendly city’: inclusive technologies and universal design 
Center and periphery, the capital and regions – eliminating imbalances to achieve sustainable growth. Functionality of the urban environment and new communication vectors. A strategy for sustainable urban development. ‘A friendly urban environment’. ‘Green city’ and ecological practices. Inclusiveness, participation and co-designing of the urban environment to find optimal ways for its development. Mediation: strategies and tactics for conflict resolution and compromise, decentralization and distribution of powers. Cultural and educational projects, socially important initiatives and civic activism, informing and promoting plans for territory development via social advertising and PR. City structure. 
Accessible urban environment for people with special needs. Constructing models of inclusive culture of urban communities. Creating accessible environment for citizens with special needs. Inclusive education as a resource for creating a tolerant environment. Universal design in inclusive education. Social and cultural projects as tools for solving problems of persons with social insufficiency. Educational models of professional training in social urban studies.

Roundtable ‘Digital City’ and Digital Competences of Citizens: Trends and Mechanisms of Reciprocal Influence is planned.
Moderators: Larissa G. Titarenko, Doctor of Sociology, Professor (Minsk), Ruben V. Karapetyan, Ph.D. in Sociology, Associate Professor (St. Petersburg)
The round table is devoted to the discussion of the processes of digital transformations of urban environment and their impact on labor market transformations. Participants will consider such issues as sociological reconceptualization of the term ‘smart city’, stages in the evolution of theoretical ideas about ‘smart city’, the role of urban environment in shaping digital competencies of town dwellers in everyday and professional practices, and the impact of population’s ICT literacy on digitalization of urban space. The empirical data collected in 2021 in Minsk and St. Petersburg will be presented; the data focus is on the specific directions of digitalization of urban environment, the impact of the pandemic on the digital transformation of the labor market, and the social risks associated with these processes (technostress, foremost, viewed as difficulties in adjusting to the new digital reality). 

Academic and research training workshops (November 26th, 2021):
•	E-government in Digital Society (6 hours)
•	New Approaches, Technologies and Methods of Interdisciplinary and Sociological Research of Topical Problems of the Modern City (6 hours)
•	 Dynamics of Innovation Spreading in Contemporary Urban Environment (6 hours)

Conference working languages: Russian, Belarusian, English. 
An electronic collection of conference proceedings will be published by the start of the conference. 
Participation in the conference does not require participation fees.
Participation in the conference is possible in face-to-face and distance modes.
Travel costs, accommodation, and meals are at the expense of conference participants or the institutions sending them.
Register no later than September 30th, 2021 to participate in the conference and training workshops (fill in and send the registration form, selecting the appropriate section and/or training workshop by following the link:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTZ3Om30wIo9L1E8CjCDbhxMnqK27sKNJvSfUQbj9fIvtQeA/viewform?usp=sf_link ) and send  the text of the publication in the .doc, .docx, or .rtf format to the e-mail address urbanffsn@gmail.com . Indicate the surname and initials of the author in the subject line of the e-mail, along with the title of the section (for example, Ivanov A.A. Actual questions of the theory and practice of social work).

Conference Key Dates 
June 10th 	The first newsletter. Starting registration	
September 1st 	The second newsletter	
September 30th  	End of registration (face-to-face and distance participation modes) and evaluation of papers for acceptance in the collection of conference proceedings 	
October 15th  	Informing about acceptance of the papers in the collection of conference proceedings	
November 10th 	The third newsletter and publication of the conference program 	
November 25th  	Publication of the collection of conference proceedings and holding the conference   	
November 26th  	Conducting training workshops	

Contact information of the Organizing Committee:
9, Kalvariyskaya Str., 220004, Minsk, the Republic of Belarus, Belarusian State University, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, room 424. 
e-mail: FofanovaG@bsu.by, urbanffsn@gmail.com
Chairman of the Organizing Committee: Vadim F. Gigin, Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences. 
Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee: Galina A. Fofanova, Ph.D. in Psychology, Associate Professor, Deputy Dean for Research (e-mail: FofanovaG@bsu.by)

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Only one publication per author will be accepted. No more than 2 persons can publish in co-authorship. 
The name of the file with the text of the paper should contain the last name of the author (e.g.: Ivanov.rtf). When submitting a paper in co-authorship, please, indicate the surname of the first author and then the name of the second author (e.g.: Ivanov_Petrov.rtf). 
The text should not contain pictures or tables.
All the submitted papers undergo a preliminary review by the representatives of the organizing committee and the editorial board of the conference. The decision to accept/reject the paper is made on the basis of the analysis of the text provided by the author(-s). When reviewing, they consider the correspondence of the paper content to the topics of the conference, the validity of the obtained results, compliance of the paper style with the requirements for academic publications, as well as consistency with the correctness of the design requirements. The submitted papers are checked against plagiarism in the system ‘Antiplagiat’, the originality of the text should be more than 60 %.
 When preparing your text for submission it is necessary to follow the guidelines outlined below. The materials that do not meet the guidelines will not be edited and will not be accepted for publication. 

Text structure for publishing 
1. UDC
2. Title of the publication (no more than 10–12 words. Abbreviations and formulas are not allowed in the titles). 
3. Initials and surname(s) of the author(s).   
4. Affiliation (name of the organization where the author works, address (street, house number), zip code, city, country, e-mail address).   
If the paper has more than one author, the information about each author should be presented. It is necessary to indicate the corresponding author in the part in English after the affiliation. Graduate and undergraduate students should indicate the name, degree and title of their research advisor. 
5. Abstract in Russian (abbreviations or acronyms should be written in full. Abstract size is 90 – 150 words). 
6. Key words in Russian (are separated from each other by a semicolon). 
7. Further, you must specify the information (items 2-6) in the same sequence in English. 
8. Text of the publication.
9. Bibliographic references.

Publication text 
The text size is 4 – 6 pages of A-4 format of computer typing, including metadata. Font Times New Roman, 14 point; line spacing – exactly 18 pt; margins: upper and lower - 20 mm, left - 30 mm, right - 1.5 mm. 
The text should not contain undisclosed abbreviations or acronyms (with the exception of commonly used ones). When the names of international projects, programs, etc. are mentioned in the text, please, write their full names.
Bibliographic references 
The list of sources is designed in accordance with GOST STB 7.208-2008 ‘Bibliographical References’. Abbreviated words and acronyms are presented in the bibliographic record according to GOST 7.12-93 and 7.12-2001, abbreviated foreign words and acronyms are presented (according to ISO 4) - http://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa/. References to bibliographic sources are given in the order of citation (mentioning) - the serial number of references and cited pages in the text are written in square brackets (for example, [1, p. 3]). Paginated footnotes are forbidden.
Requirements for abbreviations and acronyms 
Only common abbreviations (acronyms) should be used in the text. Abbreviations or acronyms should not be used in the title of the publication. The full term replaced by an abbreviation or acronym should be deciphered when mentioned in the text for the first time. 

Paper Layout Sample 

UDC…………
title
 
I.S. Petrov., O.S. Semenova
Belarusian State University
4, Nezavisimosti Av., 220004, Minsk, the Republic of Belarus
IS_Petrov@mail.ru
Abstract. Text text text text text text text. Text text text text text text text. Text text text text text text text. Text text text text text text text text.
Keywords: Text; text text; text; text; text.

НАЗВАНИЕ

И.С. Петров, О.С. Семенова
Белорусский государственный университет
пр-т Независимости 4, 220004, Минск, Республика Беларусь
IS_Petrov@mail.ru
Аннотация. Текст текст текст текст текст текст. Текст текст текст текст текст текст Текст текст текст текст текст текст . Текст текст текст текст текст текст Текст текст текст текст текст Текст текст текст текст текст текст. Текст текст текст текст текст текст.
Ключевые слова: Текст; текст текст; текст; текст; текст.

Текст текст. Текст текст текст текст текст текст. Текст текст текст текст текст. Текст текст текст текст текст текст …