The Future is Now: Urban Asia in the 21st Century
A one-day conference at Boston University exploring how
Asia’s cities are reshaping concepts of urban development.
October 8, 2014
Metcalf Trustee Center, One Silber Way
Co-sponsored by Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, the Initiative on Cities, the Center for the Study of Asia, Global Programs India Initiatives, and the Center for Global Health and Development, in collaboration with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and BU’s Metropolitan College.
The full conference agenda is available here.
Read our news post following the event, “Panelist Speak on Impacts of Urbanization in Asia at Conference.”
A conference report will be published by the Pardee Center later this year. This conference was the first Pardee Center event to be streamed live online. Video of the event can be viewed in the multimedia section of our website. The videos are divided by panel:
Conference Overview
The Asian continent is home to a vast array of cities and urban conditions. From the futurism of Dubai, to the extreme contrast of wealth and squalor in Mumbai, to the spectacular rise of Shanghai and Beijing as global nodes of political and economic power, cities in Asia in the 21st century are redefining notions – both positive and negative — of urbanization. While it is impossible to identify a single model of urban development, cities across Asia are providing examples of ways governmental institutions, the private sector, and civil society generate and manage rates of urbanization at scales previously unimaginable; they are pushing the boundaries of technology, governance, ecological sustainability, and the very concept of progress. Based on the proposition that cities provide a critical lens into social, cultural, economic, and political relationships, and by association humanity’s capacity to solve social and ecological problems, this conference asks: how are Asia’s cities reshaping accepted knowledge about processes of urbanization and urban management? Speakers will examine established theories of urbanization and urban management and ask whether we have the appropriate intellectual and policy toolkit to address issues associated with rapidly expanding cities in the 21st century.
The day-long conference was organized into three sequential panels as follows:
Panel 1: Idea of the City: The Asian Challenge
This panel asks whether current visions on the Asian city, articulated by urban theorists and adopted by policy-makers in Asia, are starting to challenge the Euro-American perception of urbanization.
Panel 2: The Politics of the City
This panel affirms the notion that cities are sites of cooperation and conflict, and examines the politics of identify, governance, and conflict management that characterize a spectrum of urban Asian experiences and contexts.
Panel 3: The City and Its Environment
This panel examines how patterns of urbanization change the urban environment, from energy use intensity to pollution and public health.