What does the metaphorical title really mean? Patchwork Cities: Urban Ethnic Clusters in the Global South During the Age of Steam, conjures more questions of migration, cities and the history of segregation than a passion for steam engines. It leads to a fundamental alchemy of the habitat of cities and urban spaces and delves into the historical reasons for, and the meaning of, ethnic residence patterns in port cities of the Global South, 1850–1930.
In this podcast, part of the Fields podcast series of the Graduate Institute’s research office, Prof. Michael Goebel, historian, invites us to better understand the construction of segregation in Port cities around the world at the end of the 19th century. A steamboat trip that takes us to the beginning of economic globalization.