ISUF—A Different Type of Academic Society?

The purpose of this chapter is to reflect on the nature of the International Seminar on Urban Form (henceforth, ISUF) as an academic association. Vitor Oliveira has provided a detailed account of the early development of urban morphology as a field of study and, against this background, the creation of ISUF as an organisation. Inevitably, this chapter will, to some degree, contemplate the content of urban morphology as a field of study, but its primary purpose is to consider some broader issues, concerning the changing nature of ISUF and attempting to identify the association’s distinctive characteristics. There is a significant literature on the origins, development, and impact of scientific societies and associations (Ocaso et al. 2016; Stichweh 1992). Although there is, inevitably, much variation related to the nature of the subject area, a number of generic features have been recognised. There is, in other words, a sociology of academic scientific societies. Scholars in this sociology of academic organisations argue that learned societies are of key importance in the emergence and development of new disciplines, but subsequent activities, such as hosting International Conferences and launching an international journal, are a sign of maturity and recognition. The extent to which ISUF conforms to such general characteristics will be explored but also, and more significantly, the ways in which ISUF varies from the overall patterns exhibited by academic societies. The chapter will thus highlight the extent to which ISUF displays different and sometimes unique features. These relate to the manner in which ISUF was initially created and its subsequent trajectory of development. For example, in discussing how truly ‘international’ many academic journals bearing that title really are, Whitehand (2005a, 2005b) observed that ISUF could claim to qualify for such an appellation, largely due to the association’s ‘distinctive origins’. The origins were truly international, initially formally instituted in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1994 primarily with input from Swiss, American, Italian, French, and British delegates and, at the second Conference in 1995, also in Lausanne, joined by representatives from Japan, Germany, Ireland, and Australia (Kropf 1997a). As we shall see, the degree and character of ‘internationalization’ of ISUF have been a recurrent theme subsequently.