Title/Position: Honorary Professor of Sociology
Department/Faculty/Institution: ETH Studio Basel; Department of Architecture, Institut Stadt der Gegenwart (Contemporary City Institute)
Degree(s)/School(s): PhD (Friedrich Schiller University)
E-mail: schmid@arch.ethz.ch
MCRI Projects: B1: New Suburban Forms; C3: Europe.
Background: Christian Schmid has authored, coauthored, and coedited numerous publications on Zurich’s urban development, on urban and regional planning in international comparison, and on theories of the city and of space. In 1991, he was cofounder of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA). In 1993–94, he did research work at the Laboratoire de Géographie Urbaine, Université Paris X Nanterre, and from 1997–2001 he was an assistant lecturer at the Geographical Department of the University of Bern. In 1999, he became the scholarly director of the project Switzerland: An Urban Portrait at ETH Studio Basel. Since 2001, Christian has been a lecturer in Sociology at the Department of Architecture of the Swiss Federal Polytechnic (ETH Zurich). In 2003, he received his Ph.D. from the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. His dissertation, “Stadt, Raum und Gesellschaft: Henri Lefebvre und die Theorie der Produktion des Raumes”, was published by Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart. Since 2007, Christian Schmid has also been a lecturer at ETH Studio Basel. In 2009, he became a professor at ETH Studio Basel in Zurich.
Research Interests: Urban Development; Social Movements; Regulation Theory; and Urban Social Theory.
Selected Publications:
Brenner, N. & Schmid, C. (2012). Planetary urbanization. In M. Gandy (ed.) Urban Constellations. Berlin: Jovis Verlag, pp. 10–13.
Schmid, C. (2012). Henri Lefebvre, the right to the city, and the new metropolitan mainstream. In N. Brenner, P. Marcuse & M. Mayer (eds.), Cities for people, not for profit: Critical urban theory and the right to the city. New York: Routledge, pp. 42–62.
Schmid, C. (2012). Travelling Warrior and Complete Urbanization in Switzerland: Landscape as Lived Space. In G. Girot & F. Truniger (eds.) Landscript 1: Landscape, Vision, Motion. Berlin: Jovis, pp. 138–155.
Schmid, C. (2012). Images of Urbanization in Switzerland. In U. Görlich & M. Wandeler(eds.) Auf Gemeindegebiet – On Common Ground. Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess, pp. 168–172.
Schmid, C. (2012). Patterns and Pathways of Global Urbanization: Towards Comparative Analysis. In J. Acebillo et al. (eds.) Globalization of urbanity, Academia di Architettura. Università della Svizzera Italiana. Barcelona: Actar, pp. 51–77.
Schmid C. (2012). Vers de nouvelles formes de ville. In L. Coen & C. Lambelet (eds.) L’Ouest pour horizon. Schéma directeur de L’Ouest Lausannois, Infolio, Gollion, pp. 253–255.
Boltshauser, R., Lampugnani, V. M. & Schmid, C. (2012). Die Agglomeration ist die neue Stadt, aber welche? Ein Gespräch, geführt von Siham Balutsch und Yvonne Michel. Trans 20. Zürich: Relevanz, pp. 94–103.
Schmid, C. (2010). Stadt, Raum und Gesellschaft: Henri Lefebvre und die Produktion des Raumes. Franz Steiner Verlag.
Schmid, C. (2008). Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space: Towards a three-dimensional dialectic. In K. Goonewardena, S. Kipfer, R. Milgrom & C. Schmid (eds.) Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Reading Henri Lefebvre. New York: Routledge, pp. 27-45.
Diener, R., Herzog, J., Meili, M., de Meuron, P. & Schmid, C. (2006). Switzerland: An Urban Portrait. Bsel: Birkhäuser – Verlag AG.
Schmid, C. (2006). Global city Zurich: Paradigms of urban development. In N. Brenner & R. Keil (eds.) The Global Cities Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 161-169.
