CFP: RGS/IBG 2008 - The geography of suburban space

Call for papers for a session on the geography of suburban space

RGS-IBG ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2008
Geographies that Matter
London, 27-29 August 2008


Session Conveners:
Dr Mordechai (Muki) Haklay, UCL Department of Geomatic Engineering –
m.haklay@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Laura Vaughan, UCL Bartlett School of Graduate Studies – l.vaughan@ucl.ac.uk


The widespread perception of suburbia as synonymous with social and
architectural homogeneity belies its spatial, social, ethnic and economic
diversity. With the increasing pressure to build large numbers of new homes
there is a real danger that such a perception becomes self-fulfilling.
Avoiding such an outcome is not simply a challenge for recently planned
settlements. The critical question concerns the extent to which existing
suburbs can adapt for future growth.
There is an urgent need for scholars and planners to recognise how suburbia
contains a great variety of distinctive places for living and working. Such
an improved understanding of suburban settlements must be grounded in
historically informed research into the process through which the suburbs
became absorbed into urban networks and their emerging position within
increasingly complex, multi-scaled urban regions.
Until suburban settlement forms are approached as a distinctive genus in
their own right the planning debate will continue to revolve around the pros
and cons of brownfield intensification and the absence of adequate transport
and public service infrastructures. Such debates, although important in
their own right, tend, in the absence of an appropriate research framework,
to recycle the politically charged questions of the ‘urbanisation of the
suburbs’ and the perennial problem of under-investment in urban infrastructure.

This session intends to move the debate forward by proposing that historical
suburban settlements raise fundamental socio-spatial issues that require
sustained collaboration between a range of disciplinary fields, including
geography, history, architecture, urban design and planning, before they can
be properly understood and addressed. The session will create a forum for
discussing these issues as part of the emerging field of suburban studies.

The session organisers invite proposals for papers that present theoretical
and empirical contributions into the subject of suburban environments,
ideally with a focus on the UK. We welcome proposals that explore:
- the relationship between shifting patterns of economic, social and
cultural consumption and the way in which people move around suburban
environments;
- the effect in practice of the intensification of areas of low density housing;
- the adaptability of suburban morphologies
- the role of suburban centres as places of production as well as
consumption and the implications of these questions for the traditional high
street and the practice of urban design.

Proposals for papers with a 200 word abstract for this session should be
sent to either of (or both) the addresses below by Monday 7th January at the
latest.

Addresses
Dr. Muki Haklay: Senior Lecturer in GIS
Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering
University College London (UCL)
Gower St. London WC1E 6BT
T: +44 20 7679 2745
E: m.haklay@ucl.ac.uk
W: http://www.ge.ucl.ac.uk/~mhaklay/

Dr Laura Vaughan: Senior Lecturer in Urban and Suburban Settlement Patterns
UCL Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering
University College London (UCL)
Gower St. London WC1E 6BT
T: +44 20 7679 1981
E: l.vaughan@ucl.ac.uk
W: http://www.space.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/people/laura/

Succsseful Suburban Town Centres - http://www.sstc.ucl.ac.uk/