In this guest post, Dr Joseph Hongsheng Zhao, Dr Aviral Marwal, and Dr Qiumeng Li share the vision and objectives behind their 2025 USF-funded Seminar Series Award Mapping opportunities for healthy and sustainable urban transitions in post-industrial cities. A series of events will unfold from September 2025 through April 2027, including international seminars, training sessions, and a community mapping workshop, taking place across the UK, India, China, and online. Stay tuned for opportunities to engage.
Clear your mind for a moment and consider the word “post-industrial.”
What images does it conjure?
Abandoned factories, dilapidated housing, ageing populations plagued by health issues, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness? If so, you are not alone.
In mainstream media and academic discourse, post-industrial cities are frequently portrayed as toxic and polluted, economically stagnant, and spatially shrinking. They are often associated with population decline, brain drain, and social fragmentation. Described as “dilapidated and unsafe,” these cities are depicted as places with bleak landscapes—symbols of decline rather than opportunity. Especially in developed countries, many once-thriving industrial cities and mining towns are now seen as forgotten, marginalised, or even dystopian.
But must this always be the case?
Is it possible to reimagine these former industrial heartlands as the foundations for a new generation of healthy, sustainable, and inclusive urban environments? As many developing economies now also begin to experience deindustrialisation, this question becomes more urgent. It is not only about the fate of specific cities—it is about the broader possibilities for the collective urban future, and for hope.
Funded by the Urban Studies Foundation (USF), the seminar series “Mapping Opportunities for Healthy and Sustainable Urban Transitions in Post-Industrial Cities”—led by Dr Joseph Hongsheng Zhao (Division of Engineering, University of the West of Scotland, Scotland), Dr Aviral Marwal (Department of Humanities and Social Science, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India), Dr Qiumeng Li (Urban Governance and Design, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China)—seeks to explore, identify, and leverage the untapped potential of post-industrial cities across diverse global contexts in Indian, China and the UK in pursuit of healthier and more sustainable urban futures.
This seminar series is structured around three interrelated dimensions that are central to understanding and shaping post-industrial urban transitions:
Source: Author-own from fieldwork, May 2025.
The first dimension is Human mobility, both within and beyond post-industrial cities. This includes local transportation infrastructure as well as regional and international migration patterns. Particular attention is given to emerging urban design concepts such as the 15-minute city, which has gained renewed interest in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Secondly, Healthy ageing in urban environments that are often marked by economic stagnation and infrastructural decline. Drawing on the World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly Cities Framework, the series examines how ageing populations in post-industrial settings can be better supported to live healthier, more engaged lives.
The third theme is Place attachment and urban identity in communities shaped by deindustrialisation. Despite the socio-economic challenges these cities face, a strong sense of belonging and cultural continuity can play a critical role in fostering resilience and adaptive capacity during times of rapid urban transition.
Through a series of interdisciplinary discussions and case studies, this seminar initiative seeks to generate new insights and foster a global dialogue on how post-industrial cities—so often framed through narratives of economic decline and social deterioration—can instead be reimagined as sites of opportunity, wellbeing, and urban innovation.
Our inaugural Colloquium will take place in September 2025, hosted in a hybrid format to maximise accessibility and engagement. The event will be held both in person at the University of the West of Scotland’s Paisley Campus – located right at a centre of Scotland’s largest post-industrial town and online, inviting participation from a broad spectrum of international scholars and practitioners working on post-industrial urbanism.
Over the following two years, the seminar series will feature a variety of interactive components, including 2 workshops, 2 training sessions and a dedicated two-day community mapping workshop. These activities aim to generate a diverse range of cognitive and digital mapping outputs—including hand-drawn contours, mental maps, and spatial narratives. With full consent from contributors, these maps will be digitised and made freely available through our project website, forming a dynamic open-access repository for community-based and participatory urban research.
Source: Author-own from fieldwork, May 2025.
This seminar series aspires to become a catalyst for international exchange, convening early career researchers, senior academics, urban planners, and community activists working in or on post-industrial cities such as Glasgow, Delhi, and Guangzhou. Once our network reaches 100 members, we will formally launch a dedicated mailing list to facilitate sustained collaboration, share opportunities, and co-develop new research agendas.
Importantly, this platform will also create an inclusive and open space for dialogue, bringing together multidisciplinary urban scholars, former industrial workers, local activists, policymakers, and regional planning practitioners. Through these conversations, we aim to critically engage with foundational questions: What does “industrialisation” mean today? How should we understand “post-industrial” cities and communities? What does a just and sustainable urban transition truly look like across different global contexts?
By bridging diverse experiences and knowledges from both the Global South and Global North and drawing on perspectives from a wide range of cities and neighbourhoods, this initiative will work toward synthesising a multidirectional and collective vision—one that informs the building of healthy, inclusive, and sustainable urban futures from the remnants and realities of cities and communities’ industrial pasts.