CSSC Seminar “Variations on a theme of Urbanization: A Global Phenomenon”

Cities have traditionally been viewed as financial, commercial, and industrial entities, but their role as communicative environments has generally been overlooked. Cities are changing as civics and community are altered through the accelerated impact of digital media, mobile connectivity, and global accessibility. Urban, suburban, and rural are phenomenon in transition and function. It is predicted that within the next 20 years 70% of the world’s population will live in urban environments. The implications of such urbanization encompass health, community, and economics. Who we are and hope to be is enveloped in our image of the urban.

Gary Gumpert is Emeritus Professor of Communication at Queens College of the City University of New York and President of the Urban Communication Foundation. He is co-founder of Communication Landscapers, a consulting firm. Professor Gumpert’s publications include: Talking Tombstones and Tales of the Media Age; three edited volumes of Inter/Media: Interpersonal Communication in a Media Age published by Oxford University Press. He is series editor of the Urban Communication book series of Peter Lang Publishing Group. His primary research focuses on the nexus of communication technology and social relationships, particularly looking at urban and suburban development, the alteration of public space, and the changing nature of community. His most recent publication (with Susan Drucker) was “New York as Global City and Local Community: The Paradigm of Urban Communication” published by the Shanghai People’s Municipal Government Development Research Center.

Susan J. Drucker, is a Professor in the Department of Journalism/ Media Studies, School of Communication, Hofstra University. She is the treasurer of the Urban Communication Foundation and a partner in Communication Landscapers, a consulting firm. She is an attorney, and Series editor of the Communication and Law series for Peter Lang Publishing Group. She is the author and co-editor of 9 books including The Urban Communication Reader I and II, Voices in the Street: Gender, Media and Public Space, Regulating Convergence (2010) and two editions of Real Law @ Virtual Space: The Regulation of Cyberspace (1999, 2005) with Gary Gumpert. Her work examines the relationship between media technology and human factors, particularly as viewed from a legal perspective.

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