Extended Urbanization – A Research Seminar

Urba­niza­ti­on has achie­ved a pla­ne­ta­ry reach. Novel pat­terns of exten­ded urba­niza­ti­on are crystal­li­zing across diver­se envi­ron­ments, in agri­cul­tu­ral are­as, in the space of what may appear to be wil­der­ness, and even in the oce­ans. They are chal­len­ging inhe­ri­ted con­cep­ti­ons of the urban as a boun­ded zone and a den­se sett­le­ment type. Pro­cess of exten­ded urba­niza­ti­on includes the for­ma­ti­on of com­plex and mul­ti-sca­lar rela­ti­onships bet­ween cen­ters and peri­phe­ries, the blur­ring and re-arti­cu­la­ti­on of the urban fabric, the pro­duc­tion of func­tion­a­li­zed logi­stics spaces, and the pro­gres­si­ve ope­ra­tio­na­liza­ti­on of land­scapes around the world. The­se obser­va­tions sug­gest a radi­cal rethin­king of inhe­ri­ted con­cepts and car­to­gra­phies of the urban, at all spa­ti­al sca­les, encom­pas­sing both built and unbuilt spaces.

This elec­ti­ve cour­se is orga­ni­zed as a rese­arch semi­nar. In each lec­tu­re, rese­ar­chers will pre­sent and dis­cuss with us their most recent results of their ongo­ing rese­arch in various parts of the glo­be, such as Delhi, Ama­zo­nia (Bra­zil), the North Ame­ri­can corn belt, Malay­sia, the West Afri­can Cor­ri­dor, Johan­nes­burg, Arca­dia, the Ata­ca­ma Desert (Chi­li) and the North Sea. Sup­ple­men­ta­ry, we will read and dis­cuss a sel­ec­tion of sci­en­ti­fic artic­les on the­se topics.

Lei­tung: Ile­a­na Apos­tol, Lind­say Howe