Urban Networks and Network Theory

8-9 June 2007, University of Lausanne (Amphimax 414)

This high-level seminar, which will be closed to the public, will bring together around thirty network experts from a wide range of disciplines: communication sciences, information technology, mathematics, economics, regional sciences, urban studies and social network sociology. The seminar is seen like a first step to develop a Worldwide, European and Swiss network on urban networks and network theory. The aim of this network will consist in linking conceptual, methodological and empirical approaches of cities and social networks towards a transdisciplinary network theory.

The seminar will address two issues:

• The transition from a network/networks of actors, individuals, firms or institutions to the coherent development of a city or system of cities
• The potential transfers and links between the various disciplinary and methodologica interpretations of the concept "network"

The seminar shall be divided into four individual sessions, which will deal respectively with multi-scale networks, economic networks, power and strategies, and finally networks of innovation.

Organisation

• Prof. Céline Rozenblat, Institut de géographie, UNIL, celine.rozenblat@unil.ch
• Dr Géraldine Pflieger, LASUR, EPFL Lausanne, geraldine.pflieger@epfl.ch

June 8th 9.30am - 10.00am

Introduction: Géraldine Pflieger, Céline Rozenblat
	Urban networks and networks theory

First session - Economic networks within and between cities
June 8th - 10.00am - 1pm

Peter Taylor, Urban Geography, Loughborough University, UK
	The interlocking network model as a generic approach to cities and economic development
	Questions

11.30am - 11.45am Coffee break

Denise Pumain, Urban Geography, Institut Universitaire de France, Paris
	City networks and urban system dynamics: a reconstruction through simulation
	Questions

Second session - Multi-scale city networks
June 8th - 2pm - 5.30pm

Manuel Castells, Communication science, USC - ANN, Los Angeles
	Space of flows: networks between global and local
	Questions

3.30pm - 3.45pm Coffee break

Christophe Jemelin, Céline Rozenblat, Pierre Dessemontet, Vincent Kaufmann, Urban Geography and Urban Sociology, UNIL- EPFL, Lausanne
	Small worlds and multi-scale city networks
	Questions

Federico Casalegno, Communication science, MIT Cambridge USA
	Designing connections: people, places and information
	Questions

Official dinner - Restaurant La Suite - Rue du Petit-Chêne 28
June 8th - 7.30pm

7.30 - 8pm

Pierre-Alain Rumley, Director of the Federal Office for Spatial Development in Switzerland
Network applications for territorial planning in Switzerland

Third session - Power and strategy in urban networks
June 9th - 9am - 12.30pm

John Allen, Economic Geography, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
	Powerful city networks: More than connections, less than domination and control
	Questions

10.30am - 11.00am Coffee break

Noshir Contractor, Communication science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
	From Disasters to WoW: Theorizing social processes in multidimensional network
	Questions

Fourth session - Networks of innovation and spatial clusters
June 9th - 1.30pm - 5pm

Christian Zeller, Economic Geography, University of Berne
	Urban spaces in the spider economy: Basel and the geography of selective, global value and knowledge flows
	Questions

3pm - 3.30pm Coffee break

Suren Erkman, Industrial Ecology, IPTEH UNIL Lausanne
	The emergence of eco-industrial networks within the framework of industrial ecology
	Questions

• Prof. François Bavaud, Mathematics, UNIL Lausanne
• Charles Albert-Bohan, UMR ESPACE - CEFRES, Geographer, Prague, Tcheque Rep.
• Marie-Noëlle Comin, UMR Geographie-Cités, Geographer, Paris, France
• Prof. Micheline Cosinschi, Urban Geography, UNIL Lausanne
• Prof. Antonio Da Cunha, Urban Geography, UNIL Lausanne
• Theophile Emmanouilidis, Computer scientist - philosopher, IGUL-UNIL Lausanne
• Prof. Florenzo Ferlaino, Instituto di ricerche economiche e sociali (IRES-Piemonte), Politec. di Torino
• Bérengère Gautier, Geographer, UMR ESPACE - IAMM, Montpellier France
• Prof. Jeffrey Huang, Architecture, Media and Design Lab', EPFL
• Prof. Michael Kanevski, Geomatics and Analysis of Risk, IGAR-UNIL Lausanne
• Pierre-Yves Koenig, Computer science, IAMM-Montpellier, France
• Alain L'Hostis, Urban Planner, INRETS, Lille
• Dr Jean-Christophe Loubier, Geographer, IGUL-UNIL
• Prof. Mario A. Maggioni, DISEIS Università Cattolica, Political Economy, Milano
• Guillaume Massard, Industrial Ecology, UNIL Lausanne
• Prof. Guy Mélançon, Computer science, INRIA- Bordeaux, France
• Dr Nicolas Nova, Architecture, Media and Design Lab', EPFL
• Prof. Jean-Bernard Racine, Urban Geography, UNIL Lausanne
• Dr Jonathan Rutherford, Urban-Planner, LATTS-ENPC
• Marie-Paule Thomas, Urban-Planner, LASUR-EPFL
• Prof. Alain Thierstein, Territorial and Spatial Development, Technical University of Munich
• Dr Patrice Tissandier, Geographer, Bordeaux
• Sandra Vinciguerra, Economic Geography, University Utrecht
• Gil Viry, Sociologist, UNIL-EPFL