The Camp and the City: Territories of Extraction

Please join editors, Jeannette Sordi, Luis Valenzuela, and Felipe Vera for a discussion of their new book The Camp and the City: Territories of Extraction. They will be joined in a panel discussion with contributors, Maria Ignacia Arrasate, Sourav Kumar Biswas, and Agustina Gonzáles Cid.



Urbanization metabolizes territories surrounding cities as well as territories that are located far beyond the centers themselves and provide the needed resources and goods. Landscapes of extraction are probably one of the most evident examples of this: whole regions are exploited for their resources to ensure the development of others. However, while it is becoming evident that these territories could be considered as part of the urbanization process itself, they are still very marginal in the agenda of urban designers, planners, regional administrators, and political institutions. Territories of extraction are not paid enough attention as places for living themselves – they are in a way the negative of cities: they are what ensures the development, prosperity, and consolidation of cities, but are themselves the emblem of deployment and precariousness.

The Camp and the City book aims to articulate a discussion about territories of extraction in order to set up concepts and provide a general overview of their common challenges throughout different landscapes. Calama – the most important mining cluster in Chile and one of the most important hubs for copper extraction in the world – is presented as a case study in order to generate a more specific and evidence-based discussion, offering the ground for the development of a more projective critical view.

The Camp and the City: Territories of Extraction is edited by Jeannette Sordi, Luis Valenzuela, Felipe Vera, with essays by Pablo Allard, Maria Ignacia Arrasate, Mariana Barrera, Sourav Kumar Biswas, Diane Davis, Agustina González Cid, Rania Goshn, El Hadi Jazairy, Rahul Mehrotra, Flavio Sciaraffia, Jeannette Sordi, Ricardo Truffello, Luis Valenzuela, Felipe Vera.



This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the GSD and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.