[Air-L] Conference call for papers: Island Cities and Urban Archipelagos

[Adam Grydehoj]

'Island Cities and Urban Archipelagos'
21-25 October 2014, Copenhagen,
Denmark<http://www.islanddynamics.org/islandcities.html>


'Island Cities and Urban Archipelagos' will explore the cultures, economies, and
politics of urban areas based on islands worldwide. Papers are particularly
being sought concerning how changes in IT and other technologies are affecting
the ways in which culture, government, and economy function in such island
cities.

Islands are often associated with peripherality, yet over the course of human
history, they have also been important sites of urban development. Many
important regional cities and global cities have developed wholly or partially
on small islands or archipelagos. Physical separation from the mainland and
spatial limitations along with a maritime tradition can encourage the transport
of products and ideas, improved defence infrastructure, construction of social
capital, consolidation of political power, formation of vibrant cultures, and
concentration of population. Some such island-based cities were located on
inland river islands and have since expanded far beyond their original borders
(for example, Paris and Strasbourg) while others are still strongly associated
with their island cores (for example, Hong Kong and New York City).

Major population centres located on larger, primarily rural islands and
archipelagos represent another type of island city. Each of these cities is
affected not just by the dynamics at work in urban areas in general but also by
the special
functions it gains from acting as a metropolis that provides goods and services
to rural island hinterlands.

'Island Cities and Urban Archipelagos is an international, interdisciplinary
academic conference exploring how island status influences urban development,
common attributes of island cities worldwide, and the opportunities that
islandness presents for developing urban cultures and economies. It will also
consider how and why different island cities have developed in different ways.

Visit the conference website (<http://www.islanddynamics.org/islandcities.html>
) to see the call for papers and learn more. The deadline for abstracts is 30
April 2014.

Plenary Speakers: Saskia Sassen, Jon Pierre, Godfrey Baldacchino, Christian
Wicchman Matthiessen, and Brenda S.A. Yeoh.

Organising Partners: University of Portsmouth's Centre of Art, Architecture &
Design; Memorial University of Newfoundland's Harris Centre of Regional Policy &
Development; Lund University's Department of Human Geography; and Queen's
University Belfast's School of Geography, Archaeology, and Paleoecology.