Ocean-based urbanization: Speculative logics and utopian imaginaries

Abstract:
Of the over 150 new city projects underway around the world, about a third are being build at sea level or on the ocean itself. This research examines the ocean as a new frontier for urbanization, focusing on the creation of new cities built from scratch that are intended to be geographically and administratively distinct from established cities. In this presentation, I provide a broad introduction to the current city-building trend and focus on the varieties of coastal new city projects and the logics underpinning their creation, including the financialization of real estate, land and housing shortages, climate change adaptation, economic diversification, geopolitical strategy, and experimentations in urban governance. I suggest that the ocean is increasingly a frontier for builders of highly speculative and entrepreneurial new cities, who are producing utopian imageries that frame ocean-based urbanization as a solution to a range of urgent challenges.

Bio:
Sarah Moser is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her research examines the current wave of new city projects being built from scratch in Southeast Asia, the Gulf states, and Africa. She is particularly interested in the rhetoric and logic used to legitimize new city projects, their geopolitical dimensions, the role of new cities as nation-building and economic development strategies, and the ways in which religion shapes the architecture and design of new cities.