Developments in transportation, communication and networking technologies in recent decades have instigated unprecedented flow of people, goods, and information across the globe, a phenomenon that has shaped the all-powerful thrust of globalization. This phenomenon led a drive for taking a universal outlook on social, economic, and environmental issues, but at the same time, instigated a wave of criticism. With its tendency to blur the boundaries among nations and cultures, globalization is seen as benevolent and progressive by some, and malevolent and regressive by others. While one camp promises economic prosperity for partners of global exchanges, the counterpart protests the potential of the exchanges to breed erosion in societal identities of regions and nations. The opposing views tackle all aspects of human living, and as such, spread broadly to the academia and the professions where heated debates on global issues are now enduring.

CSAAR 2007 conference addresses regional architecture and identity in the built environment in the context of globalization. The conference will focus on the study of increasing contradictions between the "modernization" of regions on the one hand and the cultural identity of these places on the other.