Where does the city end? Which are the most efficient urbanization models in terms of quality of urban spaces and environmental sustainability? How is it realistically possible to keep together objectives of social equity, quality of natural environment, and efficient relationships between functions and economic activities?
This session will discuss, in a comparative perspective, the phenomenon of increasing socio-spatial inequities in metropolitan areas. We welcome contributions focusing on new dynamics of spatial distribution of jobs and housing and their effects on the determination of socio-spatial inequities and environmental pressure.
Urban structures and their living communities in the developed countries are experiencing a sort of limbo: an intermediate position between a definitively-lost and a not-yet-defined condition. The cities where we live are facing a transition period where affirmed urban models undergo deep and radical quantitative modifications, and the existing relationships between shape and function are no more sufficient to interpret urban dynamics. The scientific literature clearly reflects these difficulties. The frequent use of neologisms such as post-industrial, post-fordist, post-modern, post-metropolitan, through the reiteration of the same prefix, indicates the incapacity to attain a positive description of the new urbanization paradigms. “Fluxes” are progressively substituting “places”, baring not only the physical discontinuity, but also the alteration of wealth and power distribution, both at the “macro” and the “micro” level. Excessive physical fragmentation, caused by uncontrolled urban sprawl, negatively influences the quality of both urban space and natural habitat, and accentuates social inequities.
The issues addressed in this special session may cover a wide range of theoretical and empirical problems, both at local level and in wider contexts.
Submissions
Abstracts (300-700 words) should include the name(s), email(s) and (if possible) affiliation(s) of the author(s), along with the indication of the Research Area [Z] “Co-Operative Economy and Collective Ownership”. Abstracts should be submitted electronically at the EAEPE conference website www.eaepe.org and also forwarded to Keti Lelo (keti.lelo@uniroma3.it), Salvatore Monni (salvatore.monni@uniroma3.it), and Federico Tomassi (federico.tomassi@uniroma1.it).
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: 31st March 2018
Notification of acceptance: 30th April 2018
Full paper submission deadline: 31st July 2018
