Introduction

This conference aims to investigate urbanism, nature, and ecological sustainability in Asian cities and towns. We will explore the ways that urban social processes intersect with assessments of urban environmental order and disorder in specific cities by asking, how are relationships between urban environments and urban societies made, and made meaningful? How do biophysical properties, rules, and histories of nature matter in the city? How is the urban environment used to construct social identities and demarcate political spaces?

The papers will engage cases grounded in the cities and towns of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and south China. The conference themes include: the political ecology of the city, urban environmentalism, nodes and networks, and the social lives of infrastructure.