Vertical: the city from satellites to bunkers

To mark the book’s publication, this event brings together scholars from urban studies and geography to explore how the vertical dimension relates to cities, politics and power in the contemporary world.

Vertical is a revolutionary reimagining of the cities we live in, the air above us, and what goes on in the earth beneath our feet. Today we live in a world that can no longer be read as a two-dimensional map, but must now be understood as a series of vertical strata that reach from the satellites that encircle our planet to the tunnels deep within the ground. In Vertical, Stephen Graham rewrites the city at every level: how the geography of inequality, politics, and identity is determined in terms of above and below. 

Peter Adey is Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway University of London and has been programme director for the MSc in Geopolitics and Security since 2012. His work lies at the intersection between space, security and mobility, with a particular interest in the geo-politics of air, emergency, militarism, and the futures of mobility. His latest books include Mobility; Levitation and he is working on a long term book project titled The Way We Evacuate.  

Stephen Graham is Professor of Cities and Society at the Global Urban Research Unit in Newcastle University's School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. Between 2004 and 2009 he was based at Durham University's Geography Department. Professor Graham has degrees in Geography (B.Sc.), Planning (Masters) and the sociology of technology (Ph.D) His research addresses two sets of related intersections: those between urban places, mobilities, technology, politics and urban planning on the one hand, and those between cities, militarization survieillance, security and war on the other.

Andrew Harris is a Senior Lecturer in Geography and Urban Studies at University College London. He is the convenor of the cross-disciplinary MSc Urban Studies programme and Co-Director of the UCL Urban Lab. He has a range of interests around vertical themes particularly with regards to high-rise London and elevated roads in Mumbai.

Fran Tonkiss is Professor of Sociology at the LSE. Her research focuses on urban inequalities, urban development and design, social and spatial divisions in the city, and the socio-economic organisation of urban space. Her publications include Cities by Design: the social life of urban form (2013) and Space, the City and Social Theory (2005). 

Romola Sanyal is Assistant Professor of Urban Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE.

The Department of Geography & Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.