Research Projects
1) “SUSTAINLUX” (=> ongoing, see more information HERE )
2) “Suburbs – the next slum?” (under preparation)
The project deals with spatial inequality, growth and decline in the case of suburban areas, particularly in the U.S. My starting point is the observation that a substantial proportion of older, inner-ring suburbs in North American metropolitan areas now suffer from degradation and decay, as inner cities did before. Also, in the light of most recent developments on the real estate market, even newer sub- and exurban areas have experienced abrupt decline, due to imploding “subprime” mortgages and the effects of related foreclosures. According to some commentators, suburbs now represent despair and decline, or even the “next slum”.
Against this background, a case study of the Stockton Metropolitan Area in Northern California is being conducted. Stockton is one of the places most severely hit by the credit crunch nationwide and reveals both structural adaptation and more acute, abrupt changes. The findings of the case study are discussed in the context of cycles of urban change and the need for regenerating suburban areas as a core component of the North American city. For this reason, the research depicts on the concept of resilience and seeks to assess how the associated, both short- and mid-term challenges of crisis and decline can be met by policy and planning.
A related extension of the project is also planned for exploring Western European, notably German cases facing comparable problems due to life-cycle changes, being aware that they are considered completely different in terms of socioeconomic framework conditions, urban setting and governance or regulation.
3) “Observatoire Belval” (emerging, see more information HERE , German readers see HERE )
4) “ Cities, Regions and Flows” (Book proposal, under contract with Routledge Publishers)
Urban regions have always been significant nodes for organizing the exchange of goods, services and information. Cities have also acted as gateways for providing commodities and services to more distant hinterlands. However, the ability of cities to concentrate services and facilities – once a key factor of urbanization – has been subject to change. This is, first, a consequence of the shift from a rather place-bound economic system towards a strongly flow-oriented network economy, which evolved against the background of new technologies and globalization. Second, increasingly diversified patterns of urbanization have contributed to the emergence of metropolitan city-regions and also to a repositioning of cities in the urban system. Operating at both the inter- and intra-urban scales, together these changes suggest that the heightened flows act both as integrative and disintegrative forces shaping cities. Driving and responding to such changes, new logistics concepts and practices have been developed, connecting the interrelated but often dispersed locales of production and consumption.
Yet the fundamental role of physical flows, networks and chains in city-formation has long been overlooked by researchers. More recently, interest in these issues has increased, emphasising port development, linkages between world cities and air travel, and the changing geographies of freight distribution. This literature too emphasises the twin processes of integration and disintegration that result from goods movement within and through urban space. “Cities and flows” ties these debates together in a single volume and presents a theoretical framework for understanding the changing relationship between places and movement, and thoughtfully prepared case studies from different continents on how cities manage to become part of value chains and how they ensure accessibility in an increasingly contested policy environment. Moreover, it will be discussed how urban policies attempt to solve related conflicts in terms of infrastructure provision, land use, local labour markets and environmental sustainability.
