IRN-CNRS RUPTuRS (2026 - 2030)

Rethinking Urban Planning and Transitions under Resource Scarcity: Indo-Pacific cities within planetary limits

In the Indo-Pacific region, cities and urban areas are confronted with the simultaneous acceleration of economic, environmental, and geopolitical changes. These dynamics profoundly affect their urban development trajectories as well as their capacity to anticipate, plan, and govern the future. The ongoing restructuration of the Indo-Pacific region have given rise to new multi-scale interdependencies that link regional and urban dynamics, resource flows, and modes of governance. This regional ensemble is characterized by a wide diversity of geographical, political, economic, and cultural contexts, making it a privileged site for studying how urban and environmental transitions are conceived and implemented. These interdependencies are reshaping regional dynamics by revealing both the heterogeneity of local trajectories and the intensification of transnational circulations of norms, capital, and materials. These new interdependencies must be analyzed in light of planetary limits, as they highlight how the sustainability of urban and regional trajectories depends on flows of resources and norms that extend far beyond the local scale.

This 5-year IRN, funded by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) will study how Indo-Pacific cities address urbanization, resource limits, climate change, and geopolitical tensions. More broadly, it will analyze how these urban regions respond to the challenges and issues. Co-sponsored by the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC) and the French Research Institute on Japan (IFRJ), the consortium brings together 10 research partners in Asia, including French Research Institutes abroad (UMIFRE) and Asian universities. This partnership combines expertise in urban studies, geography, planning, and environmental governance, facilitating comparative research on urbanization, sustainability, and resource management across varied territorial and socio-political contexts.

Coordination of the project : 

• Gabriel Facal, IRASEC
• Elisabeth Peyroux, CNRS, IRASEC-CNRS@CREATE, Prodig
• Raphaël Languillon-Aussois, French Research Institute on Japan, Expertise France

Partner institutions : 

• Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia, IRASEC-UMIFRE 22, Thailand
• French Research Institute on Japan, IFRJ-UMIFRE 19
• Japan University of Tsukuba, Japan
• CNRS@CREATE, CNRS, Singapore
• Universiti Sains Malaysia, Geography section, School of Humanities, Malaysia
• National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute, Singapore
• Institut Teknologi Bandung, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering/Center for Environmental Studies, Indonesia
• Thammasat University, The Urban Futures & Policy Research Unit, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thailand
• National University of Seoul, Center for Asian urban society, South Korea
• French Institute of Pondicherry-UMIFRE 21-UAR 3330 « Indian Knowledges and Worlds », India
• Center of Social Sciences of New Delhi-UMIFRE 20UAR 3330