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Centre for urban research
COSMOPOLIS. City, Culture
& Society

Free University Brussels

Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel
Tel: + 32 (0) 2 629 37 41
Fax: + 32 (0) 2 629 33 78
cosmopolis@vub.ac.be

COSMOPOLIS is related to the department of Geography at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and a member of the UAB Urban Studies Network, an interdisciplinary research and teaching network in urban studies.

Research

Fields of interest
COSMOPOLIS is interested in processes of glocalisation (globalisation and localisation) and urbanisation, i.e. the changing relationship between the world system and the system of nation-states, and the collateral processes of urbanisation and urbanity (as a post-national cultural condition).

COSMOPOLIS looks at changes in social ties, the emergence of new scales of regulation and the position of culture within this context. In what sense urbanity prefigures post-national society, what would be the time-spatial structure of such a society and what are the consequences for democratic governance and regulation regimes?

Research lines:
I. Scales / levels in the city
social spaces, build city, grid city; neighbourhood development;
area-oriented policies; urban networks; urbanism

II. Urban regimes
city imaging; transition to postfordism and social inclusion/exclusion; open cities; large scale urban projects; spatial strategies

III. Urban cultures
culture, communities and society; urban cultural policies;
cultural practices, planning and strategies; gender; interculturality

IV. Urbicide
cities in conflict zones; destruction and reconstruction of cities;
resistance architecture

V. Urban design and planning
interface social science and planning

VI. Urban Ecology
sustainable development; environmental management