URBAN & REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
For the first time in human history, the majority of the world’s population is now living in urbanized areas, with all that this means for both human and natural relations and processes on a global scale. In rapidly growing mega-urban regions of the South there are increasing concerns about actual social and ecological sustainability in the face of ever growing densities and spatial polarizations of wealth and poverty, human security and insecurity, health and welfare, as well as the increasing problems of inadequate water supplies, polluted air, and the management of waste. In the unevenly globalizing-urban regions of the North, there are similar concerns about the polarization of wealth and poverty, the upkeep of aging physical and human infrastructures in traditional inner-cities, and the ever-growing sprawl of urbanization across greater swathes of hitherto rural territory.
Within our department, the focus is on the many trends that affect this rapidly expanding urban life. Economic restructuring, technological innovation and globalization, for example, all have profound impacts on the location of production and consumption in both the South and the North. Similarly, the importance of capital and population shifts between urban neighborhoods, from central city to suburb, and from region to region affect the quality of urban life for all. Through our research we can better understand the various impacts of the market and state, and the interdependencies between local, national, and global actors. As a result, more informed urban and regional policy and planning decisions can be made.
Our current faculty is conducting more specific research within these broad problematics. Kevin Archer’s work concerns the manner in which all cities of the world are economically, politically, and, significantly, culturally globalizing, if unevenly. He is also interested in how the process of urbanization affects the human understanding of, and interaction with, non-human nature. Martin Bosman is interested in place imaging in the context of inter-locality competition, the politics of public space, the making of global city-regions, and water and urbanization. His current research foci are on the Tampa Bay Metropolitan Region as an emerging global city region and water privatization in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Elizabeth Strom is interested in the interplay of public and private forces shaping the urban built environment. Her current focus is on the redevelopment of US downtown areas, and particularly on the role of arts and culture in efforts to revive central cities.
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