Deen Sharp in Progress in Human Geography

Terreform co-director, Deen Sharp, traces how the field of regional geography/area studies (focusing on Middle East studies) drifted away from the discipline of geography. He asserts that area studies’ milieus can ‘diffract’ geographical categories and create new possibilities for geographical knowledge production.

After decades of geography and area studies drifting apart, I argue there has been an area studies turn in geography. The long divergence between the two, however, has resulted in a certain misunderstanding by geographers of what area studies scholarship is and what this field can contribute to the discipline. Area studies should not be considered as an approach that merely concentrates on the representation of difference but rather as a milieu in which difference is practiced and geographical concepts can be ‘diffracted’. Area studies can offer geography new ways to think about its place in, and entanglement with, the world.

Keywords: area studies, Cold War, Middle East geography, new materialism, post-colonial theory, representation, War on Terror

PDF. Sharp, D. (2019). Difference as practice: Diffracting geography and the area studies turn. Progress in Human Geography, 43(5), 835–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132518788954

Kongjian Yu featured in WEF

“This man is turning cities into giant sponges to save lives.” - Kongjian Yu, featured in World Economic Forum.

And it all began in just one Chinese city, 20 years ago.

Today, 250 places in the country are working with Kongjian and his team, as well as urban areas everywhere from the US and Russia to Indonesia. — By Joe Myers, WEF

Learn more about Kongjian Yu, his life, work, and thoughts from Urban Research’s latest UR08: Letters to the Leaders of China: Kongjian Yu and the Future of the Chinese City (2018), which excerpts and updates Kongjian Yu’s 2003 classic text, The Road to Urban Landscape: A Dialogue with the Mayors, and contains additional, previously unpublished letters to high-ranking officials across the country, including President Xi Jinping.

Excerpts from selected reviews:

Through the letters, essays, and lectures, one gets a sense of how much Yu cares — and how driven he is to undo the unsustainable development patterns that repeat the same destructive errors made in the West over the past 50 years. — BY Jared Green for The American Society of Landscape Architects, The DIRT

Following them are essays by such academics as Thomas J. Campanella, Zhongjie Lin, and Peter G. Rowe. Concluding the book are an interview with Ai Weiwei and maps that show the remarkable extent of Turenscape's projects for Chinese cities -- 48 in Qinhuangdao alone (!), the city where the famous Red Ribbon Park is located. — BY John Hill, A Daily Dose of Architecture.

A testament to Kongjian Yu’s work but also an inspiring manifesto for contemporary urbanism, if not also for human survival more broadly.

–James Corner, Field Operations

Letters to the Leaders of China is edited by Terreform, with contributions by Ai Weiwei, Thomas J. Campanella, Zhongjie Lin, Xuefei Ren, Peter G. Rowe, Michael Sorkin, Daniel Sui, Julie Sze, and Kongjian Yu

ASLA 2014 Professional General Design Honor Award. Slow Down: Liupanshui Minghu Wetland Park. Turenscape / Kongjian Yu

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Letters to the Leaders of China was included in the American Society of Landscape Architects - Best Books of 2018.

Listen to Kongjian Yu interviewed by GSAPP MSAUD student Angela Crisostomo in advance of his Kenneth Frampton Endowed Lecture at Columbia University.

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UR (Urban Research), the imprint of Terreform, publishes progressive books about cities and their futures. Understanding that no single approach is adequate to the promise and problems of the urban, we publish a wide range of designs and analyses.

Shifting Gears

We emerge from the doldrums of summer and shift gears full speed ahead! Excited to share our progress and projects — none of which would have been possible without your support.

Syria Unsettled artwork courtesy of Christine Gedeon. The Seven Fountains Square, digital drawing, pencil, and tape on archival paper. Series: Aleppo: Deconstruction | Reconstruction. 2017.

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