Cities of Sand: Recent Episodes
Kate Dawson
Every week, 3 million people migrate to cities (UN-Habitat 2015). Underpinning these diverse spaces – host to many futures all at once – is one shared material: sand. Sand forms the fabric of roads, buildings, glass and land itself and is extracted at such vast scales, that, with gravels, it constitutes the largest volume of solid material extracted on the planet (UNEP, 2014). In this very real way, our cities – big or small – are to a large degree, built on sand. This podcast series engages with researchers, activists and policy-makers, to unearth the dynamic relationships between urbanisation and sand. Excavating issues of ecological damage and community displacement in the context of the present need and desire for concrete development – with its many health, social and economic benefits – the series gets to the core of the complex relationships embedded in cities of sand. The podcast ends with a call to look beyond sand to alternative, more inclusive materials – and ultimately just ways of inhabiting our urbanising planet.
Edits and soundtrack by Emma Hanson. Edits by Robbie Mortimer.
In this two-part episode, I welcome Kiran Pereira of Sand Stories back to the podcast as co-host. Kiran leads the way towards the end of Part 1 and takes the floor in Part 2. In Part 1, I speak with Dr Philip Oldfield and Dr Anna Mavrogiannia to critically consider the way we build our environments and the kinds of models that might enable us to do things differently. We then speak with Alia Bengana who spotlights alternative materials for construction and the challenges of shifting perceptions around natural material use. In Part 2, we welcome Craig White, Shriti Pandey, Jukka Nieminen and Dr Ralf Jung, who deliver fascinating insights into their ground-breaking approaches to construction and recycling – offering inspiring ways forward for building cities beyond sand.
In this two-part episode, I welcome Kiran Pereira of Sand Stories back to the podcast as co-host. Kiran leads the way towards the end of Part 1 and takes the floor in Part 2. In Part 1, I speak with Dr Philip Oldfield and Dr Anna Mavrogiannia to critically consider the way we build our environments and the kinds of models that might enable us to do things differently. We then speak with Alia Bengana who spotlights alternative materials for construction and the challenges of shifting perceptions around natural material use. In Part 2, we welcome Craig White, Shriti Pandey, Jukka Nieminen and Dr Ralf Jung, who deliver fascinating insights into their ground-breaking approaches to construction and recycling – offering inspiring ways forward for building cities beyond sand.
In this episode, I speak with Dr Jerry Zee, Dr Ben Mendelsohn and Dr Joana Gaspardefreitas, to discuss what the prism of sand offers to the study of cities. Shifting across political economy, the environmental humanities and environmental history, we discuss deserts, dust, dunes and land extensions as they pertain to urban geographies in Beijing, Lagos and the coasts of Portugal and the UK.
In this episode, I speak with an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners whose work engages with the multiple connections between sand, cities and various forms of in/security. With contributors offering rich insights from Morocco, Brazil, Kenya, Ghana and the India-Nepal, this episode offers a comparative view of the many forms of social, ecological and political in/security manifesting at the intersection of sand extraction and urbanisation. Contributors in order of appearance: Abdelkader Abderrahmane, Halinishi Yusuf, Frank Müller, Saumya Pandey, Kofi Asare, and Katharina Hemmler.
In this second episode, I speak with Dr Will Jamieson, Jean-Yves Mertenat, Dr Chris Hackney and WWF’s Marc Goichot. They share their research on sand extraction, urbanisation and natural resilience across the vast region of Southeast Asia, discussing the growth of Singapore, extraction in the Mekong Delta, river system thresholds, urban sustainability and the use of technology to better understand these complex dynamics.
In this first episode, I speak with pioneering journalist Vince Beiser, innovative policy maker Dr Louise Gallagher and eminent storyteller and changemaker, Kiran Pereira. We draw out some of the relationships between sand and cities, thinking about concrete, glass and paints; discuss some of the implications of this vast extraction; unpick the value of storytelling and trace out some of the biggest shifts surrounding sand and sustainability in the sphere of global policy.