New technologies, emerging consumer markets, and political reforms have reshaped the global economy in the past half-century; in doing so, they have given rise to a new generation of 'instant cities' that are home not only to great poverty but also to great wealth, and whose form and function take many cues from the post-industrial suburban landscape of North America.  This talk considers these landscapes in comparative historical context, considering examples from the United States, China, and India.

Author of Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley, Margaret Pugh O'Mara is Visiting Assistant Professor in History at the University of Washington and a research scholar at the Bill Lane Center for the North American West at Stanford University. She is now studying the seeding of Silicon Valleys around hte world.