Research Overture

This series of talks focuses on new research topics being developed at Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global. Each seminar is an opportunity for the teams leading the research to articulate their aims, aspirations, challenges and apprehensions. It is also an occasion for participants to help shape the research through dialogue.

Meeting Link

https://ethz.zoom.us/j/67641484060

Meeting ID: 676 4148 4060

Extended Urbanisation in Agricultural Territories

Operationalisation, Peripheralisation and Enclosure

What is the future of agricultural territories that are exposed to rapid and far-reaching urban transformation processes - with massive social and environmental implications?

Nearly half of the planet’s total land area is currently dedicated to some form of agricultural production, making agriculture one of the most important fields of action to address the manifold problematic of sustainability. Extended urbanisation in agricultural areas often generates risks for climate change, exhaustion of water and natural resources, consumption of arable land, and depletion of soil fertility, as well as disadvantaging local populations, generating forced migration and affecting quality of life. Furthermore, the industrialisation of agriculture, including dependence on fertilisers, pesticides and fossil fuels, often results in soil erosion and long-term environmental pollution. More theoretical and empirical work on processes of extended urbanisation in agricultural territories is urgent.

The project 'New Urban Agendas under Planetary Urbanisation' analyses these processes in agricultural territories of the Zurich metropolitan region, Arcadia (Greece), Johor (Malaysia), Delhi (India), and the Northeast of Thailand in three typical forms: 1) operationalised landscapes of industrial agriculture, 2) peripheralised mountain regions, and 3) enclosed and fragmented agricultural landscapes in extended metropolitan regions. It uses cartography to synthesise interdisciplinary research results from ethnographic fieldwork, soil ecologies and ecosystem services.

The objective of this project is to develop urban-territorial design strategies and governance models for selected case studies within the Zurich metropolitan region, based on the principles of agro-ecology and sustainable urban development. In addition, drawing from empirical work carried out in Arcadia, Delhi, Johor, and Thailand a second cluster focuses on sharpening and expanding questions around the three proposed forms of extended urbanisation in agricultural territories.

Presenters

Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid,

Principal Investigator & Professor, Chair of Sociology, D-ARCH, ETH Zürich

Ass. Prof. Dr. Naomi Hanakata,

Principal Investigator & Assistant Professor, DOA Architecture, NUS

Dr. Nitin Bathla,

Postdoctoral researcher, Chair of Sociology, D-ARCH, ETH Zürich

Karoline Kostka,

Senior Researcher, Chair of Architecture and Territorial Planning, D-ARCH, ETH Zürich