Apologies for cross-posting ***JUST A MESSAGE TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE CAN ACCOMMODATE TWO MORE PAPERS TO FILL OUT A 4th SESSION OF THE SPECIAL SESSION BELOW*** If interested, please send an abstract in the next few days.
Call for papers, special session 'The process of Metropolisation: Reconfiguring the city at the regional scale' American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, 5 - 9 April 2017, Boston, USA. http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting Special session organizers: Dr Rodrigo Cardoso, Delft University of Technology (r.o.v.card...@tudelft.nl<mailto:r.o.v.card...@tudelft.nl>) Dr Evert J. Meijers, Delft University of Technology (e.j.meij...@tudelft.nl<mailto:e.j.meij...@tudelft.nl>) A reconfiguration of cities at larger territorial scales is underway. Formerly separate urban centres expand or coalesce into vast and interconnected urban regions, in a process of restructuring of economic activity, spatial forms and flows that some researchers have tried to capture under the concept of 'metropolisation'. The processes underlying this transformation are tripartite: spatial processes of coalescence, expansion and connection contribute to gradually integrate (functionally, institutionally and culturally) cities into larger entities; the socio-spatial qualities and features once attributed to the 'city' are reconstructed by citizens, firms and institutions at the scale of that urban region; and policymakers and planners develop strategies towards that goal. Such processes of urban region formation have become important for policy, not only to respond to the spatial transformations of the territory, but also because the alleged benefits of size and agglomeration can arguably be achieved through integration with larger territorial scales. Deeply integrated and networked urban regions can try to organise agglomeration economies comparable to single, large conurbations of comparable size. Therefore, we can understand metropolisation not so much as cities dissolving into loose urban regions, but rather urban regions consolidating as extensive cities. But urban regions are not just constructed by functional or economic processes. They involve long-term historical processes of spatial and social change, which leave behind territorial and socioeconomic fault-lines. The complexity of urban regions and their integration processes demand a re-examination of issues of governance, metropolitan identity-building, inter-city cooperation, shapes and actors of formal and informal networks, inequality and segregation, infrastructural and functional configurations, among many others. As we acknowledge new dimensions of metropolitan integration, more unanswered questions emerge. The purpose of this session is to start sketching answers to some of them. Seeking to understand the process of metropolisation, we invite contributions that address the topics below: - The rise of new metropolitan entities, from relatively small clusters of cities to the mega-city region scale. - Interdependencies between functional, institutional and cultural aspects of metropolitan integration. - Identity-building at the metropolitan scale; the role of mobility, the built environment, symbols, media or urban visions of the future. - Cross-border metropolitan integration. - Historical long-term processes of metropolitan integration, locked-in relations and imaginations, and their bearing on urban regions today. - The democratic legitimacy of metropolitan governance; functional areas versus administrative boundaries. - Place-making at the metropolitan scale; policy, urban design, participation. - Regional city networks and agglomeration economies. - The benefits and costs of metropolisation; social, environmental, economic. Both conceptual and empirical papers are welcome, as are case studies or more comparative papers. Interested participants should send an expression of interest, questions and/ or title and abstract of 250 words or less to Rodrigo Cardoso (r.o.v.card...@tudelft.nl<mailto:r.o.v.card...@tudelft.nl>) or Evert Meijers (e.j.meij...@tudelft.nl<mailto:e.j.meij...@tudelft.nl>) by October 10, 2016. Participants will be notified by October 14 if their paper has been accepted for the session. They will then need to register for the conference and submit their abstract through the AAG website. Please forward your registration code (PIN) to us after you have submitted the abstract (by October 24). Kind regards, Evert Meijers TU Delft / Faculty of Architecture and The Built Environment OTB - Research for the Built Environment Building 8 - room BG.WEST.720 Julianalaan 134, 2628 BL Delft PO Box 5043, 2600 GA Delft The Netherlands T +31 (0)6 28616571 or +31 (0)15 27 87892 E e.j.meij...@tudelft.nl<mailto:e.j.meij...@tudelft.nl> W http://staff.tudelft.nl/E.J.Meijers/ Board member Urban Studies Foundation http://www.urbanstudiesfoundation.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------- Recent publications: Meijers, Burger (2016) Stretching the concept of 'borrowed size' - Urban Studies; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098015597642 Goess, De Jong, Meijers (2016) City branding in polycentric urban regions: identification, profiling and transformation in the Randstad and Rhine-Ruhr - European Planning Studies http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2016.1228832 Meijers (2016) Desenvolvimento Policêntrico na Europa: Uma reflexão crítica sobre um conceito de políticas normativas - Boletim Regional, Urbano e Ambiental; http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/images/stories/PDFs/boletim_regional/bru14_art03.pdf Cardoso, Meijers (2016) Contrasts between first-tier and second-tier cities in Europe: a functional perspective - European Planning Studies DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2015.1120708 Burger, Meijers (2016) Agglomerations and the Rise of Urban Network Externalities - Papers in Regional Science; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12223 Meijers, Burger, Hoogerbrugge (2016) Borrowing size in networks of cities: City size, network connectivity and metropolitan functions in Europe - Papers in Regional Science; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12181
