Apologies for cross-posting. CALL FOR PAPERS Session Title: Interdependent Challenges and Urban Living: Managing Complex Cities Sponsored by the Economic Geography Specialty Group American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, April 5-9, 2017, Boston, USA.
Session Organizers: John Bryson (University of Birmingham, UK), Alistair Boxall (University of York, UK), Paul Chatterton (University of Leeds, UK), Mark Tewdwr-Jones (Newcastle University, UK), Colin Taylor, (University of Bristol, UK ); Jon Coaffee (University of Warwick, UK), and Vida Vanchan (SUNY Buffalo State, US) Cities disproportionately contribute to innovation, creativity and economic activity. To succeed, city governments, businesses and social enterprises have to create economic activity, high quality infrastructure and quality of life in the context of a need to reduce environmental footprints and also to increase density. Cities must also meet the needs and aspirations of changing urban populations - from aging cities to diverse cities. Cities are increasingly being viewed as systems of systems that are based on many previous technological and financing decisions that are layered on top of one another and are also interdependent. These incremental decisions are made by city governments, organizations, individuals and households and often lead to path dependency, and difficulties for the governance of cities. The research and policy questions that result from this complexity revolve around identifying and understanding the diverse and interdependent challenges faced by many cities. There is a need for research to cut across policy, organizational and disciplinary silos to develop new or alternative ways of understanding cities that lead to better outcomes for people. This session calls for papers that explore the complexity of urban living and the challenges faced by cities of all types. Each city has its own history, industrial and cultural heritage, geography, connectivity, diversity of communities, public services and soft and hard infrastructures. Each of these areas is a distinct research field in its own right, but many of the challenges facing cities around the world crossover these silos. In this session we invite papers that explore urban areas with a focus on diagnosing and understanding the complexity of cities and the interdependent challenges that they face. We are interested in papers that explore cities in different national settings and cities that are facing many different types of challenges. Papers that explore the effectiveness of more integrated approaches to policy are welcome. Some of the key issues to consider include: * Urban Living * Studies of individual cities. * Interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary research. * Papers that explore specific soft or hard systems including those that are engineered. * Papers that explore the interactions between the social, economic and environmental aspects of city living. * Cities and the natural environment. * Urban economies and urban living. * Research that focuses on diagnosing challenges that impact on the quality of urban living. * Research that focuses on individuals and households and the construction and experience of urban living. * Aging cities, young cities, diverse cities. * Cities and Connectivity. * Cities, Art and Culture. * Urban Complexity. * Urban Economies. If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words conforming to the requirements of the AAG (see http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/call_for_papers/abstract_guidelines) by Friday, October 14, 2016 to John Bryson (j.r.bry...@bham.ac.uk) and Vida Vanchan (vanc...@buffalostate.edu) Dr. Vida Vanchan Associate Professor Director, Center for Southeast Asia Environment and Sustainable Development Department of Geography and Planning State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo State 1300 Elmwood Ave. Buffalo, NY 14222 USA Tel: 716-878-5209 E-mail: vanc...@buffalostate.edu<mailto:vanc...@buffalostate.edu>
