Metropolitan Research: Methods and Approaches

Metropolitan research requires multidisciplinary perspectives in order to do justice to the complexities of metropolitan regions. This volume provides a scholarly and accessible overview of key methods and approaches in metropolitan research from a uniquely broad range of disciplines including architectural history, art history, heritage conservation, literary and cultural studies, spatial planning and planning theory, geoinformatics, urban sociology, economic geography, operations research, technology studies, transport planning, aquatic ecosystems research and urban epidemiology. It is this scope of disciplinary – and increasingly also interdisciplinary – approaches that allows metropolitan research to address recent societal challenges of urban life, such as mobility, health, diversity or sustainability.

Jens Martin Gurr, geb. 1974, ist Professor für britische und englischsprachige Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft an der Universität Duisburg-Essen. Er ist Mitbegründer und Sprecher des Kompetenzfeldes Metropolenforschung in der Universitätsallianz Ruhr (KoMet). Zu seinen Forschungsschwerpunkten gehören Literarische Stadtforschung, Theorien und Methoden der Stadt- und Metropolenforschung, Modelltheorie, Literatur und Klimawandel sowie die britische Literatur des 17. bis 21. Jahrhunderts und die zeitgenössische US-Literatur.

Rolf Parr ist emeritierter Professor für Germanistik (Literatur- und Medienwissenschaft) an der Universität Duisburg-Essen.

Dennis Hardt (Dipl.-Geogr.), born in 1984, is an urban geographer and regional planner in the Department of Regional Development at Regionalverband Ruhr. Before, he was coordinator of the Competence Field Metropolitan Research in the University Alliance Ruhr (KoMet) and researcher in the Department of Spatial Planning and Planning Theory at Technische Universität Dortmund. His research areas include strategic planning, regional and metropolitan governance, housing and spatial analysis.