Dr Benjamin Vis, Eastern ARC Research Fellow (Digital Humanities) in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has just published a new book entitled Cities Made of Boundaries: Mapping Social Life in Urban Form (UCL Press, 2018). The book has been made freely available for all through Open Access.
The book presents the theoretical foundation and concepts for a new social scientific urban morphological mapping method, Boundary Line Type (BLT) Mapping. Its vantage is a plea to establish a frame of reference for radically comparative urban studies positioned between geography and archaeology. Based in multidisciplinary social and spatial theory, a critical realist understanding of the boundaries that compose built space is operationalised by a mapping practice utilising Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
He gives a precise account of how BLT Mapping can be applied to detailed historical, reconstructed, contemporary, and archaeological urban plans, exemplified by 16th to 21st-century Winchester (UK) and Classic Maya Chunchucmil (Mexico). This account demonstrates how the functional and experiential difference between compact western and tropical dispersed cities can be explored.
The methodological development of Cities Made of Boundaries will appeal to readers interested in the comparative social analysis of built environments, and those seeking to expand the evidence-base of design options to structure urban life and development.
For full details, to either purchase copy or download an Open Access PDF, please see the publisher’s page here:
www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/cities-made-of-boundaries