NOVEMBER 19, 2021 12:25 P.M.
Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium, Milstein Hall
Click here to view a livestream of the lecture.
Click here register for the panel discussion/ virtual reception via Zoom.
Schedule of events |
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| Lecture | 12:25–2:20 p.m. | Milstein Auditorium/Livestreamed |
| Panel Discussion | 3:00–4:00 p.m. | Available on Zoom |
| Virtual Reception | 4:00–5:00 p.m. | Available on Zoom |
Christopher Silver: Planning in an Era of Rapid Urbanization: The Case of Indonesia
The John Reps Memorial Lecture
Bio:
Christopher Silver is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning who joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 2006 as Dean of the College of Design, Construction, and Planning (until 2016). He previously served as Head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1998–2006) and as Professor of Planning and Associate Dean at Virginia Commonwealth University. Silver is a four-time Fulbright Senior Scholar at two Indonesian Universities and holds honorary appointments at the University of Indonesia and the Institute of Technology, Bandung. He received his Ph.D. in Urban History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Silver’s teaching and research draw upon his international engagement in planning and urban development and he currently teaches Cities of the World, Sustainable Urbanism in Europe, Sustainable Community Development, and International Development Planning. Teaching, consulting, and researching in Indonesia led to Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century (2008), Decentralization and Planning: Contested Spaces for Public Action in the Global South (2008) with Victoria Beard and Faranak Miraftab, and (with Andrea Frank) Urban Planning Education: Beginnings, Global Movement and Future Prospects (2018). His forthcoming publications include Urban Flood Risk Management: Looking at Jakarta (Routledge, 2021) that focuses on water management in Jakarta and the problems of flooding in one of the world’s fastest sinking megacities and (with Andrea Frank), Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning 7: Transformative Planning: Greener, Smarter and More Inclusive Practices (Taylor and Francis, 2021). Silver is a past co-editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association and the founding editor of the Journal of Planning History. He has served as president of the Society of American City Planning History, vice president and president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, and chair of the Global Planning Education Association Network.
Abstract:
The immense and highly influential scholarly career of John Reps centered on helping us understand the land development and planning practices that created and shaped cities and towns in the United States from the 17th through the 20th centuries. He provided the first comprehensive history of city building and urban planning in the United States in his 1965 opus, The Making of Urban America. The present century is characterized by urbanization processes that reflect new urban forms and urban planning challenges, especially when one ventures outside of the North American experience. Rapid urbanization has created urban centers and mega urban regions in excess of 20 million inhabitants across the globe that call for a different set of planning approaches. Jakarta, Indonesia began as a Dutch frontier town in Southeast Asia, one of the many places affected by the “eastward” march of European colonizers. For several hundred years, it grew and changed incrementally and retained many of the European community attributes that the Dutch brought over. As with the western urban expansion in the United States that Reps documented in his books, city building in the Asian colonies was facilitated by government policy but also heavily reliant upon private speculative endeavors. In the case of Indonesia, independence in 1950 brought about mass migration to its cities, but with a newly formed government unable to provide the support needed to meet even the basic needs of its growing cities. The government relied on individual initiative and private sector investments to finance and guide development, sometimes in line with the objectives of official planning and development processes, but more often than not, ignoring the plans. The government did support private-led development processes by making available the land to build upon, including lands already occupied or designated as protected open space. The consequences of the unregulated and accelerated growth of Indonesian cities over the past three decades benefitted some but at a high cost to many more. This has brought about new challenges to the planning processes, as well as a call for enforcement of more sustainable and inclusive practices. The transformation of the colonial frontier town to the megacity region in Jakarta will be of focus in this fully illustrated presentation.
Due to Cornell’s recent changes in event guidelines, in-person department lectures will only be open to members of the Cornell community who are actively completing the Daily Check. Most lectures are recorded and you may request a copy of a recording by emailing crpinfo@cornell.edu