Cities between integration and disintegration

[i]42nd ISoCaRP International Society of City and Regional Planners [/i] 14-18 September 2006 Istanbul Turkey The 2006 ISoCaRP Congress will explore the contemporary challenges and emerging opportunities that cities are facing vis-à-vis influential forces that can be summarised as integrative and disintegrative. This year’s framework builds on themes examined in previous congresses, such as globalisation and its influence on planning (2003), the management of the city region (2004) and the spaces for the “creative economy” (2005). By integrative forces we refer to, inter alia, strategies formulated by urban stakeholders to position their cities in the competitive global arena, including institutional actions undertaken via policy and market initiatives realised through mega projects. These efforts have nevertheless revealed the other side of the coin –how cities have become exposed to disintegrative forces, which, scholars assert, has caused urban systems to be drawn to spatial, cultural, social and economic fragmentation. From 22 March on the ISoCaRP ON LINE SUBMIISSION PLATFORM will be open. For more information: http://www.isocarp.org/