Extended Urbanization and the Struggle for Centrality
Prof. Christian Schmid
Thursday 18/12, 14.00

Amphitheater and ONLINE

One of the most important aspects of the contemporary planetary urban condition is the shifting dialectics of centers and peripheries: While processes of extended urbanization have an inherent tendency towards peripheralization, the evacuation of social energies, the loss of population and jobs, and the homogenization and reduction of social wealth, they also open up possibilities for the development of new connections and centralities. As a result, a complex urban topography emerges, characterized by the simultaneity of processes of peripheralization and centralization. 

While the theorization of center-periphery relationships has a long history and was extensively discussed in the 1960s and 1970s in the context of the debate on the capitalist world system and dependency theory, the concept of peripheralization was only recently applied in wider contexts. It shifts the focus from a structural analysis of center-periphery relations towards a dynamic conceptualization, that is inspired by Lefebvre’s call for a right to centrality. It implies the struggle for the creation, maintenance, and defense of popular centralities created by the people.

Prof Dr. Christian Schmid is a Swiss geographer, sociologist, and urban theorist, and Professor of Sociology at the Department of Architecture of ETH Zurich. His work focuses on the theory and analysis of contemporary urbanization processes, with particular emphasis on planetary urbanization, extended urbanisation, comparative urban research, and the production of space. Strongly influenced by the work of Henri Lefebvre, Schmid has made important contributions to debates on centrality, peripheralization, and the transformation of urban–rural relations beyond the traditional city. He is one of the key contributors to the theorization of extended urbanisation, most notably through the co-edited volume Extended Urbanisation: Territories, Urbanisation and Social Transformations, which has become a central reference in critical urban studies. Schmid has led and participated in numerous international and comparative research projects examining metropolitan regions and urbanization processes across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. He is a member of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA) and has published extensively in leading academic journals and edited volumes, including Vocabularies for an Urbanising Planet: Theory Building through Comparison. He is widely recognized as a central figure in contemporary critical and comparative urban theory.

In the framework of the course EKTOS POLIS: Researching the Urban Otherwise - Wanderings across Extended Urbanisation

Observatory of the Countryside
tutor: Metaxia Markaki

For online attendance contact memarkaki@uth.gr

See the poster here.