Dace Bula (PhD.). Director of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia. Fields of research: narratives, everyday culture, urban communities. I am a cultural scholar. I received my PhD in folklore studies for a dissertation on the use of folk culture at the service of national ideology. Since then, my research interests and publications have included a range of topics, such as history and theory of folklore studies, popular calendric practices, culture(s) and identities in the post-Soviet condition, community studies, and nostalgia. My long-standing involvement with an urban fishing community in Riga, the capital of Latvia, have brought me to the study of urban identities, environmental values and eco-narratives of city inhabitants. At present, I am leading an interdisciplinary project, titled “Living Next to the Port: Eco-narratives, Local Histories and Environmental Activism in the Daugava Delta”. The project is aimed at the study of lives, narratives and the lived space of four urban communities neighboring the port of Riga. E-mail: dace.bula@lulfmi.lv
COST provides networking opportunities for researchers and innovators in order to strengthen Europe’s capacity to address scientific, technological and societal challenges. There are three strategic priorities: promoting and spreading excellence, fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science and empowering and retaining young researchers and innovators.
Writing Urban Places proposes an innovative investigation and implementation of a process for developing human understanding of communities, their society, and their situatedness, by narrative methods. It particularly focuses on the potential of narrative methods for urban development in European medium-sized cities.