Dr Christos Filippidis

Independent Scholar Fellow 2022-23

Building (in) a New World: Constantinos Doxiadis, Urban Development and the Pacification of the “Third World”

This research will focus on various U.S. urban development initiatives in selective regions of the capitalist “periphery” during the Cold War. The Greek architect and urban planner Constantinos Doxiadis was from the very beginning at the centre of these initiatives. The aim of this project is to investigate Doxiadis’ role, examining his relations with the U.S. staffs, exploring the basic principles of his theory and evaluating his work not only in terms of applied architecture and urban planning but firstly in terms of its ideological-political context.

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Areas of interest

Architecture Urban Studies Urban Politics Political Geography Securitisation Militarisation Counterinsurgency Necropolitics Biopolitics Policing Food Security Pacification Law Enforcement International Development

Cohort

ISF8

Biography

Christos is an Athens-based architect, with a research background in urban studies and urban geopolitics. Over the past years he has critically investigated issues related to urban securitisation and militarisation. He is particularly interested in counterinsurgency theories and practices, highlighting topics that lie at the point where the police/war apparatus, bio/necropolitics and the urban phenomena intersect. His latest field research focused on the pacification operations conducted in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. More specifically, it historically examined the link between counterinsurgency and the food question, reading the notion of food (in)security within the context of the implemented pacification programme and understanding its dynamics through a particular nexus formed by law enforcement, sustainable development, and green governmentality. He is currently investigating the urbanisation processes in the Global South within the Cold War context, through the lens of modernization theory, international development policies and counterinsurgency agenda.

Biographical details correct as of 18.09.24