The annual conferences of the INURA International Network for Urban Research and Action consists of two parts. The initial city part is organized by the hosting committee, with a focus on learning from the visited city. The interactive part is the retreat, which will take place from June 8 to 11 near İznik/Nicaea this year. During the retreat, participants can and are expected to contribute actively. The following is the call from the retreat organizing committee for your contributions.
This year’s conference and retreat use the pan-Balkan exclamation “Haydi! / Hajde! / Aide!” as its verbal logo. This expression is written differently in every Balkan language yet it is articulated in the same way, to express exactly the same thing: to motivate, encourage, mobilize and move people—to make them act. The person who calls out Haydi! places themselves inside the action.
We have taken this linguistic commons of the Balkans and brought it together with the word for “the city” in each language, to form a conference motto. In everyday speech, Haydi! addresses people, not places. By directing it at the city itself, the motto performs a small mental shift: the city becomes something we can speak to, or something that can be moved. It invites a moment of reflection—without fully explaining itself.
During the Pori Retreat (2025), the retreat group decided to dedicate one session of the 2026 retreat to reviewing our past six Balkan conferences—similar to the review of the early INURA years we held at Salecina. To make this social event rich and visual, we invite participants of past Balkan conferences to upload their photos, videos, and other materials in the designated Balkan archive section of this website (main page, bottom left).
The retreat group further welcomes contributions within the habitat of the public panel in Istanbul, June 5th: On top of the neoliberalisation of space (widely discussed in past meetings), cities are now increasingly engulfed in geopolitical tensions. How can we navigate urban resilience and grassroots governance in difficult times? Balkan cities are symptomatic of a broader region between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, which is particularly affected today. Istanbul, with the retreat in Iznik (Nicaea), is obviously a most convenient location to dive into this discussion.
Contributions in classical INURA tradition, such as housing, gentrification, the new metropolitan mainstream are welcome as well as topics such as feminist and queer experience of the urban, artistic interventions into the urban, ecology and co-habitation with the non-human. We also welcome new topics altogether.
The retreat is not a formal academic conference, but rather a discussion forum. Following last years format, the preferred format will be roundtable discussions to enable maximum participation. You may suggest a roundtable topic. If you do, we would ask you to kick it off with a 10-minute framing talk, and later provide a written report for publication, shaped by the discussion. The retreat group will organise the moderation.
We also welcome individual research/activism presentations, particularly from people new to the INURA network so we can get to know your work.
Please use the attached form to propose a presentation or roundtable discussion on any relevant topic. Complete the form, save it as a PDF, and submit by email to: retreat@inura26istanbul.net