Critical urban geopolitics: frontiers, connections and conjunctures

Abstract: The surge in references to urban geopolitics and associated architectures of security over the last quarter century have yielded lively discussions and extensive scholarly reflections. Reviewing claims that warfare has urbanized, however, requires consideration of the frontiers of the urban. Such questioning of categories and representations mobilize insights from critical geopolitics. The multiple meanings and definitions of “geopolitics” and “urban” beckon a broadening range of cities and sites, and a focus on conjunctures and connections. To these ends, the paper also revisits Maoism’s (urban) geopolitics, thereby inviting deeper geopolitical engagement with the literatures on extended – planetary – urbanization.

About the Speaker:

Prof. Sidaway has served as a Professor of Political Geography at NUS since January 2012.  Previously he was Professor of Political and Cultural Geography at the University of Amsterdam and prior to that a Professor of Human Geography at Plymouth University, UK. His main research interests are: 1. Political geography and geopolitics, especially of cities, states and conflicts; 2. The history and philosophy of geography. Bringing these together is an enduring fascination with the connections between geography and area studies.