« Shaping Global Urbanization: Expert Networks in the Mid-Twentieth Century » / EAUH 2026 Barcelona
veuillez trouver ci-dessous l’appel à participation à une table-ronde que nous organisons avec Rosemary Wakeman (Fordham University, NY) lors de la prochaine conférence de l’European Association of Urban History (Barcelone, 2-5 septembre).
La table-ronde aura pour titre « Shaping Global Urbanization. Expert Networks in the Mid-Twentieth Century ». Elle vise à interroger l’importance du tournant du milieu du XXe siècle dans la formation d’une expertise globale de l’urbanisation, à partir des problématiques de la guerre et l’après-guerre, la reconstruction, la crise urbaine et l’urbanisme, le colonialisme/postcolonialisme, l’extraction des ressources et les questions environnementales.
Les propositions (en anglais, 450 mots maximum) sont à envoyer avant le 22 octobre 2025 à Cedric Feriel (cedric.feriel@univ-rennes2.fr) et Rosemary Wakeman (rwakeman@fordham.edu).
Bien cordialement Cédric Feriel perso.univ-rennes2.fr/cedric.feriel
Lien : www.eauhbarcelona2026.eu/sessions/#session74
*EAUH 2026 Conference*
*City Networks in Europe and Beyond*
*Barcelona, September 2-5, 2026*
*Session 74 Round Table*
*Shaping Global Urbanization: Expert Networks in the Mid-Twentieth Century*
*Cedric Feriel* University Rennes 2 , Société Française d’Histoire Urbaine
*Rosemary Wakeman* Fordham University, New York
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When is it possible to speak of global expertise and a network of experts dealing with global urbanization? This session will examine the importance of the mid-20th-century turning point on this question, based on wartime and postwar, reconstruction, urban crisis and planning, colonial/postcolonial, resource extraction and environmental issues.
When can we speak of global expertise and a network of experts dealing with global urbanization? This session aims to examine the importance of the mid-twentieth-century turning point in the change of scales in networks of expertise regarding the urban future. The issue of global urbanization, as foreseen by historiography, is strongly marked by the mid-twentieth-century turn. Prior to this period, work in the early twentieth century emphasized the importance of city networks and essentially European or transatlantic expertise based on exchanges between municipalities and progressive elites (Daniel T. Rodgers, 1998; Renaud Payre, 2007; Pierre-Yves Saunier, Shane Ewen, 2009). Scholars have also pointed to the crucial importance of the colonial context in shaping cities in the global south (Isabella Jackson, 2017; Sheetla Chhabria, 2019; Debjani Bhattacharyya, 2019). In both cases, the expression “global urbanization” rarely appears.
After 1945, a radical shift appears in the way the issue is addressed. Research emphasizes the importance of decolonization and the Cold War (Lukasz Stanek, 2020), the rise of the United States (Amy C. Offner, 2019) and the development of international organizations (Richard Harris, Ceinwen Giles, 2003).
Bridging these two periods has rarely been the subject of scientific investigation. This session aims to fill this gap by questioning the rupture of the mid-20th century in order to focus on the continuities and evolution in the formulation of global urbanization and the networks of expertise concerned with it. In particular, we will consider : • Life trajectories and careers of experts. How many of the experts on “global urbanization” after 1945 began their careers in colonial administration? How many came from European or transatlantic city networks? Many were also deeply involved in urban issues in their own countries. How did they combine these two scales in their practices and projects? • Continuity and renewal of issues. While the issues on the international agenda changed significantly after 1945 (state building, urban crisis and planning, resource extraction and environment), can we trace the continuity of solutions proposed before the war? • Connections and dialogues between expert networks. This session will explore the reciprocal contacts and influences between experts. It will focus in particular on the levers that enable them to do so (international organizations, journals, conferences, competitions and commissions, crises). • Expert perspectives on global urbanization. How did expert planners, architects, and policy makers formulate and reformulate ideas about global urbanization and the role of cities? What continuity existed in their theories and what were responses to the changing conditions of the mid-twentieth century?