Wasteland
How can the increasing challenge of societal waste open up new ways of charting the uneven geographies of urbanisation?
Wasteland encompasses the real and the imagined of a waste-defined landscape in a canny utilitarian valorisation of land within the production of the urban.
Challenging its antithetical relationship to nature, the objective of this priority theme is to bring in multidisciplinary conceptual tools from archaeology, anthropology, geography/remote sensing, architecture/planning, anthropology, literary and cultural studies, etc., to challenge not only its pejorative connotations but also open up new analytical possibilities to theoretically and empirically employ waste in charting the uneven geographies of urbanisation relationally across the global North and South.
Academic lead
Dr Pushpa Arabindoo is Co-Director of UCL Urban Laboratory and an Associate Professor in the UCL Department of Geography. Contact p.arabindoo@ucl.ac.uk to propose activities or connect with our work under this Priority Area
News
Waste Photo Competition - winner announced
Congratulations to Tom Farshi from UCL Computer Science for submitting the winning entry in our 2020 photography competition, ‘Nocturnal demolition’.
18 Jun 2020
Playwright Nicola Baldwin appointed UCL Creative Fellow
Dramatist and director Nicola Baldwin has been appointed to UCL as a Creative Fellow for the 2019-20 academic year
31 Jul 2019
Outlining the global fault lines of the 'slum' narrative
Urban Lab Co-Director Dr Pushpa Arabindoo (Senior Lecturer, UCL Geography) has written an article in The Conversation on the popular representation of 'slums' in the media, and what this signifies for the future of global-level policy initiatives.
11 Jan 2018
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Are you a researcher or a student working on this topic? We would like to hear from you. In return you will recieve occassional updates, event and networking invitations.
Image credit: Christophe Delory