Urban Geopolitics - Rethinking Planning in Contested Cities
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
No booking required
Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London
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The objectives of this lecture are twofold: firstly to bring geopolitics into the mainstream of critical urban studies to enhance our understanding of cities as contested nexus points of social, spatial and political change; and, secondly to construct a relational research agenda to re-frame urban contestation as a dynamic and mobile process. Dr Rokem will explore the contrastive value of comparisons across different contested cities, pointing at the significance of learning from non-conventional cases normally excluded from academic debates, moving beyond the so called ‘global urban’ theory producing usual suspects. In so doing, he will argue that it is timely to start learning from, and comparing across different urban geopolitical contexts offering instead multiple access points, from which to explore the ever-expanding range of conflicts, contestations and cultural formations shaping the future of cities.
As an Urban and Political Geographer, Dr Rokem’s work has been inspired by over a decade of researching ethnic minorities and contested cities. His recent empirical research in the EU funded Marie Curie Contested Urbanismproject (2015-2017) involved spatial analysis of public transport infrastructures in Jeruaslem and Stockholm, coupled to statistical analysis of their urban geopolitical composition. In Jerusalem, this research explored how access to public transport is multi-dimensional: as well as providing access to resources, it shapes opportunities for spatial mobility that may either overcome or reinforce urban intergroup ethno-national violence. In Stockholm despite a long-standing political vision of social integration, there is increasing ethnic spatial separation. To conclude, there will be a discussion of opportunities, which counterbalance the on-going fractured urban reality in both cities, where the ordinary and not only the military becomes geopolitical relational sites.
Bio
Dr. Jonathan Rokem is Lecturer in Human Geography at the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent, UK. His overarching research objective is to bring a new geopolitical comparative agenda to Urban Studies with a specific interest in the Middle East and Europe. His work has been published in leading academic journals, such as; Political Geography, Urban Studies, The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR), and CITY. His new co-edited book (with Camillo Boano): Urban Geopolitics: Rethinking Planning Contested Cities (2018) is published with Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Urban-Geopolitics-Rethinking-Planning-in-Contested-Cities/Rokem-Boano/p/book/9781138962668
Contact name:
Geography Department