Globalisation and Urban Fragmentation

BURGESS, ROD; KOZAK, DANIEL

Delft, Holanda

Conferencia; 10th International Conference of the ALFA-IBIS Network; 2005

Technische Universiteit Delft

The issue about urban fragmentation has become a growing debate within urban studies. In particular, fragmentation has become a key concept in the context of the debate on globalisation. In the first part of this presentation the definition of urban fragmentation will be discussed and some research question will be raised, such as: 1) What is the relationship between spatial fragmentation and social and spatial segregation? 2) What is the relationship between social distance and spatial distance under conditions of urban fragmentation? 3) What is spatial integrity? 4) Does urban fragmentation lead to the creation of dual cities? In the second part, some characteristics of the concept of fragmentation will be reviewed and different cases of urban fragmentation at different scales examined. Finally, some arguments which attempt to explain this phenomenon will be presented, including socio-economic, cultural and technological reasons.