I’m reworking my capstone. As a first step, I’ve tried to generate as many research questions as possible. Clearly, I’ll have to distill them down a bit to get to a manageable project, but for now here it goes:
- In what ways can new-build eco-cities be considered utopian and/or iconic? What do these utopian landscapes suggest about our broader socioenvironmental values? What significance do they have for more conventional sustainable urban development initiatives (ie: retrofitting/expansion of actually existing cities)?
- What are the genealogical origins of new-build eco-city projects (Masdar, Tianjin, Eko Atlantic, Konza, Dongton,etc)? That is, what traditions in (utopian) architecture and urban planning do they build upon? What are the theoretical/philosophical underpinnings of these traditions, and in what historic contexts did they arise? Do eco-modernist utopias differ from modernist utopias in any significant ways (aside from the obvious environmental focus)?
- What are the goals of current new-build eco-city developments? Who is building them and to what ends? What relative weight do these cities place on each leg of the “three-legged stool” of sustainability? What assumptions about climate change/global environmental degradation are built into them? To what extent do they present a new mode of socio-environmental relations versus a continuation of business as usual?
- In what ways can current discourses around sustainability and climate change be characterized as “post-political”? What are the strengths and limitations of such a characterization in stimulating constructive action?