Sociology Seminar | Tokyo's urbanization processes in comparative perspective towards a new vocabulary of urbanization

Abstract:

Tokyo’s seemingly endless sea of buildings has grown incrementally over the past centuries, leading to an urban condition that is both coherent and contradictory at the same time. A set of distinct urban patterns emerged through centralization processes, the phenomenon of “manshon urbanisation,” the relocation of various types of manufacturing, and other developments. What might appear homogeneous in composition and rhythm is in fact a configuration of distinctly different spaces, created by the routines of every life. This talk provides a comprehensive reading of the many, interdependent urbanization processes shaping Tokyo today and places them in the context of a larger comparative study of urbanization processes. Aside from Tokyo, this research considers Hongkong Shenzhen/Dongguan, Kolkata, Istanbul, Lagos, Paris, Mexico City and Los Angeles and addresses the ever-evolving process of urbanization which requires a grounded and extended vocabulary to include a multitude of urban experiences across the various divides that shape the contemporary world.

About the Speaker:

Dr Naomi Hanakata is also the Co-Founder of HANAKATA, a research and planning practice based in Singapore.

Prior to joining NUS, Dr Hanakata worked as Senior Researcher and Project Coordinator of the Grand Project: Towards Adaptable and Liveable Urban Megaprojects, Thinking Urban Futures, and Waterfront Tanjong Pagar Multidisciplinary Research Project at the Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability. She obtained her doctorate from ETH Zurich in 2016.

Dr Hanakata’s research interests are in adaptive and strategic planning for high-density urban energy landscapes, planetary urbanization processes, platform urbanization, and in fostering the role of planning in a sustainable urban development practice: how visions, schemes, mechanisms of implementation and management can respond to specific situations, while following a sustainable urban development paradigm particularly in light of climate change and in an inevitable global context.