Public Scholarship

Metropolitan Futures Lecture Series

2009-2010 Lectures

The Metropolitan Futures lecture series explores the nexus between demographic change and contemporary issues in urban planning and policy. The lecture series is designed to facilitate dialogue and to enhance public awareness and civic engagement around these important issues.


Fall Quarter Lecture:

"Megapolitan America: the Rise of the New Metropolis"

Featured Speaker:

  • Robert E. Lang, Professor of Sociology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

When: October 26, 2010
Where: University Club Dining Room
Time: 5:30 pm-6:30 pm (Pre-Lecture Reception) || 6:30 pm-8:00pm (Lecture and Discussion)

Lecture Description:
Robert E. Lang will discuss the concepts presented in his forthcoming book, coauthored with Arthur C. Nelson. The book, to be published by the American Planning Association Press in 2011, explores the relationship between metropolitan form, scale, and connectivity. It revisits the idea first offered by geographers Jean Gott-mann, James Vance, and James Pickard that urban expansiveness does not tear regions apart but instead leads to new types of linkages. The book begins with a his-torical review of the evolving American metropolis and introduces a new spatial model showing changing metropolitan morphology. Next is an analytic synthesis based on geographic theory and empirical findings of what is labeled here the "new metropo-lis." A key element of the new metropolis is its vast scale, which facilitates the emergence of an even larger trans-metropolitan urban structure—the "megapolitan area.”
Megapolitan geography is described and includes a typology to show variation between regions . The megapolitan area definition is based on the U.S. Census Bureau's "combined metropolitan area" designation. The megapolitan areas are really a projection of this geography to the mid 21st century. The book contains population and employment projections for all megapolitan areas to 2040. It also covers the transportation, environmental, governance, and economic issues that emerge at the megapolitan scale.

Speaker Bio:
Robert E. Lang is Professor of Sociology and Director of Brookings Mountain West at UNLV. Dr. Lang is the editor of the scholarly journal Housing Policy Debate and serves as non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a fellow at the Urban Land Institute, both in Washington, D.C. His research specialties include suburban studies, real estate, world cities, demographic and spatial analysis, hous-ing, and metropolitan governance. He has authored more than 150 academic and professional publications on a wide range of topics and has developed many new urban concepts such as “Boomburbs,” “Edgeless Cities,” and “Megapolitan Areas.” His research has been featured in the USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report and reported on by NPR, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, and ABC World News Tonight.

Winter Quarter Lecture:

"Toward the Healthy City: People, Places, and the Politics of Urban Planning"

Featured Speaker:

  • Jason Corburn, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley

When: February 10, 2010
Where: University Club, Dining Room

Time: 6:00 pm-7:00 pm (Pre-Lecture Reception) || 7:00 pm-8:30pm (Lecture and Discussion)

Lecture Description:
In his lecture, Jason Corburn will discuss the concepts presented in his latest book, Toward the Healthy City. In distressed neighborhoods, where residential segrega-tion concentrates poverty, liquor stores outnumber supermarkets, toxic sites are next to playgrounds, and more money is spent on incarceration than schools, residents also suffer disproportionately from disease and premature death. Recognizing that city environments and the planning processes that shape them are powerful determinants of population heath, urban planners are beginning to take on the added challenge of revitalizing neglected urban neighborhoods in ways that im-prove health and promote greater equity. Professor Corburn argues that city planning must return to its roots in public health and social justice, and provides a de-tailed account of how city planning and public health practices can reconnect to

Speaker Bio:
Jason Corburn, PhD, MCP, is Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He is co-director of Berkeley’s joint MCP/MCH program, a member of the Global Metropolitan Studies Initiative and Associate Director of UC Berkeley’s post-doc, Health and Society Scholar’s Program. He is the author of two award winning books on urban health: Toward the Health City (MIT Press, 2009) and Street Science (MIT Press, 2005). Dr. Corburn is a recipient of an Investigator Award in Health Policy Re-search from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Urban Health.

Spring Quarter Lecture:

Building Resilient Neighborhoods: Policies and Systems for Responding to Foreclosures and Housing Market Stress

Featured Speaker:

  • Dan Immergluck, Professor in Department and Regional Planning, Georgia Technical Institute

When: May 4, 2011
Where: University Club Dining Room
Time: 6:00 pm-7:00 pm (Pre-Lecture Reception) || 7:00 pm-8:30pm (Lecture and Discussion)

Lecture Description:

The U.S. foreclosure crisis has revealed the importance of mortgage markets to house-hold and neighborhood stability. Much attention has been given to short-term policy responses to the crisis such as the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. However, as the traditional set of federal policymakers and interest groups have begun debating the details of mortgage regulations and the future architecture of the housing finance sys-tem, implications for neighborhoods and urban form seem to be once again absent from the discussions. Seemingly obscure debates over things like “qualified residential mortgages” and the privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could well constitute the most important urban policy issues of the current decade, but they are being largely ignored by many who care about cities, neighborhoods, and modest-income families. What should those who care about low– and moderate–income households and neighborhoods know about these debates and what they mean for the future of cities and regions?

Speaker Bio:
Dan Immergluck is Associate Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, where he teaches courses in housing policy, real estate finance and statistics. Professor Immergluck conducts scholarly research on housing markets and finance, fair lending and community reinvestment, neighborhood change and segregation, community development, and related public policies. He has testified before Congress, the Federal Reserve Board, and state and local legislatures and agencies. Dr. Immergluck has been widely cited and quoted in print and broadcast media, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, USA Today, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the Associated Press, and many other outlets. He has authored three books, more than two dozen articles in scholarly journals, and numerous applied research and policy reports.