Deen Sharp: Urbicide cannot be discussed without reference to concept of genocide

The concept of urbicide is becoming increasingly relevant amid the rise in armed conflicts and urban devastation worldwide, Deen Sharp, Visiting LSE Fellow in Geography and the Environment at the London School of Economics (LSE), said at WUF13 in Baku, Report informs.

He stated that the concept of urbicide is closely linked to broader categories of violence, including genocide and ecocide, and reflects the deliberate destruction of the urban environment in wartime.

"Urbicide cannot be discussed without reference to the concept of genocide, which carries enormous moral weight as a crime of crimes," Sharp noted.

He emphasized that the term emerged roughly simultaneously with the concept of ecocide, but received widespread academic recognition much later - only in the early 2000s.

According to the researcher, this is due to the fact that cities have long been perceived as resilient structures, despite their historical association with war and defense.

"Historically, cities were created as fortified spaces, including defensive walls, and were closely linked to the logic of war," he said.

Sharp noted that the modern understanding of urbicide extends far beyond the physical destruction of buildings and infrastructure.

According to him, today the concept also encompasses an analysis of how planning and construction processes are implicated in armed conflict.

He emphasized that the growing number of such cases requires a rethinking of the relationship between urban development and war, as well as the development of new approaches to urban policy and governance.