Dr Joseph Hongsheng Zhao, Dr Aviral Marwal, and Dr Qiumeng Li
Funding period: 1 September 2025 – 1 April 2027
Type of funding:
Seminar Series
Partner organisations: University of the West of Scotland (United Kingdom); Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (India); Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou (China)
Events: seminar one and inauguration event (September 2025, Paisley, United Kingdom and virtual), seminar two (December 2025, Roorkee, India, and online), seminar three (April 2026, Guangzhou, China, and Online), training session one (May 2026 and online), training session two (December 2026 and online), community mapping workshop (April 2027, Pasiley and Glasgow, United Kingdom).
Lead organisers: 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)
Team members: Dr Sohail Ahmad, University of the West of Scotland; Dr Marco Spada, University of Suffolk; Professor Ye Liu, Sun Yat-sen University; and Dr Tugba Basaran, University of Cambridge
Contact: Dr Joseph Hongsheng Zhao
Abstract:
Post-industrial cities and communities 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. In developed regions, many once-thriving industrial cities and mining towns are now seen as forgotten, marginalised, or even dystopian. As many developing economies now also begin to experience deindustrialisation, this question becomes more urgent.
Our seminar series aims to reimagine these former industrial heartlands as the foundations for a new generation of healthy, sustainable, and inclusive urban environments focusing on human mobility, healthy ageing and place attachment. We aim to critically engage with foundational questions: What does ‘(post-)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, we 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.