Session Title: CORPORATE CITIES: NEW FORMS OF CITY-MAKING IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH

Session organisers:
Dr Ayona Datta (London School of Economics)
Dr Abdul Shaban (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai)

Sponsored by: Urban Geography Research Group and Developing Areas Research Group

This paper session will focus on the rise of corporate cities as new forms of ‘self-sufficient’ cities increasingly seen in the global south, which are exclusively planned, managed and (sometimes) governed by corporate groups. We are interested in corporate cities, which are different from western models of corporate-led urban development with respect to (a) ownership by a corporate group or a consortium of developers (growth coalition), drawing significant concessions in tax, environmental and labour laws from regional and national governments (b) Scale of conception with urban areas larger than other existing cities combining retail, commercial, leisure and residential spaces with limited manufacturing (c) governance managed by a consortium of developers with limited power sharing across other groups (d) linkages with mega/world city regions through airports or high-speed transport networks (e) planning and design by international firms largely reflecting 'western-oriented' lifestyles. While few of these cities have been built so far (Lavasa, Dongtan, Songdo, Masdar and Lippo being some examples), several such corporate cities are planned across countries in Asia, Middle-east and Latin America.

The rise of new corporate cities is based on a number of claims around their ability to address rapid urbanization, their environmental advantages over existing cities, and their role in stimulating national economies. Yet, very little is known about these new cities – for example, what are their relationships with other models of corporate-led urban developments in the west and the global south? How can they contribute to regional, national and international commitments to climate change, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and local self-governance? What modes and forms of citizenship and belonging will evolve there? How are their ‘success’ or ‘failure’ to be monitored and judged?

Papers are invited that explore (but are not confined to) the following themes around corporate cities:

- Theorising the corporate city through postcolonial, feminist, urban, environmental and other interdisciplinary lens
- Laws, politics and practices of corporate city-making
- Relationships with national/regional/international development goals
- Relationships with mega/world-city regions
- Potential to address rapid urbanisation and sustainable development in the global south
- Ecologies of urban development
- Modes and forms of citizenship and belonging
- Consequences for spatial justice and local power

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words to Dr Ayona Datta (a.datta2@lse.ac.uk) by 13th January 2012.