Planetary Urbanization — a Theory Seminar

Fall 2019

Today, urban rese­arch is incre­asing­ly con­fron­ted with lar­ge-sca­le urba­niza­ti­on pro­ces­ses that unfold far bey­ond the realm of agglo­me­ra­ti­ons, urban regi­ons, and even mega city-regi­ons. Urba­niza­ti­on has achie­ved a pla­ne­ta­ry reach; novel pat­terns of urba­niza­ti­on are crystal­li­zing across diver­se envi­ron­ments, in agri­cul­tu­ral are­as, in the space of what may appear to be wil­der­ness, and even in the oce­ans. This chal­lenges inhe­ri­ted con­cep­ti­ons of the urban as a boun­ded zone and a den­se sett­le­ment type. The pro­cess of pla­ne­ta­ry 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 a func­tion­a­li­zed logi­sti­cal space, 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.