In some cities, “I love Paris” (Jazz Song), we admire the “breath-taking” large corridors, right in the centre of the city. This has been the outcome of the urban planning in the 18th century. Haussmann designed large parts of Paris with huge corridors despite the medieval narrow streets in some of the arrondisements”. Ease of traffic, fewer riots and representative housing became the new mantra of urban planning and superb boulevards.
In the 21st century it is about time to question the notion and social process of corridorisation. This has been accomplished in a paper by Fatima Tassadq et al. (2025). Modern infrastructure like fibre-optic cables, energy or water networks are easiest to deploy in urban spaces with large corridors than the complex narrow inner cities with supposition of different kinds of network layers. The grand ideas of the 18th century should be questioned from time to time and some districts that have escaped the corridorisation might well have a particular charm about them, maybe just because they seem to escape the rational approach of making and structuring space by means of large corridors. Large corridors separate city districts and they are a major driving force of gentrification.
The rationality of corridors has some roots in maths or physics of complexity. A recent paper by Shanshan Wang et al. (2024) reports the surprising finding that the transport corridors in several cities across the globe allow for a 1.3 times the distance of transport networks compared to the so-called direct linear “bird’s flight line”. Hence, corridorisation is (has been) a rather pervasively applied model of urban planning.
Alternative approaches advocate in favor of the 15-minutes walking distance city. All amenities like shops, schools, maybe work and services should be reachable within a 15 minutes walk. This does include “walking corridors” that facilitate (social) connectivity in inner cities. Cyclists also claim their corridors or fast lanes across cities, which underlines the pertinence to take corridorisation seriously and apply the concept with care.
In any case, social connectivity is key. The big social media platforms operate similar to the traffic infrastructure in the 21st century and provide huge corridors to knowledge and people. We only realize this once a service (for example tiktok) or the internet altogether gets disconnected. We have moved from (social) categorisation to (social) corridorisation as technology and rationalisation have taken the upper hand to structure our (social) lives. 
Artists networking
Creating a network between rather idiosyncratic artists is no easy task. The more they develop a unique style separate from other painters mixing with other artists can be a challenge because you might find yourself in the position to continually defend your new style. Therefore, building a network of artists that understands the concept or emotion that drives you is a great advantage. In the catalog of the Caillebotte exhibition in the Musée d’Orsay Paris the map of living and working spaces of Caillebotte and his artists’ friends like Claude Monet is a great way to demonstrate the degree of networking and creative spaces that propelled the impressionist movement. The galleries and greater exhibitions of the impressionists took place in the vicinity of the established art institutions, but were not admitted into the traditional exhibition centers like the Louvre. The map from the catalog provides insights into the cognitive map of Paris which Caillebotte had in mind at his time. Artists see cities as opportunity spaces which facilitate or impede the creative processes. 
Superstates reloaded
We live in an age of superstates. Such is the conclusion of Alasdair Roberts (2023). China(1.4), India (1.2), USA (0.33) and the EU (0.45) in billions of people jointly host about 40% of the world’s population (UN data). The Russian Federation with a population of 0.15, Japan 0.13 rank further behind, for example Pakistan 0.24 and Indonesia 0.27. Nothern, Eastern and Western Africa (0.25;0.46;0.42 respectively) have a huge unfulfilled potential that does not reach the impact it deserves.
These big and populated entities contrast with the increasing number of small states that have become new members of the United Nations. The institution of the United Nations, through its setup as an international rule based governance structure, has facilitated small states to seek voice and influence in the international arena of politics. The UN had 51 members in 1945 and has now a membership of 193 of all listed states of 237 on the globe. The increase in membership is due to many small states joining the UN after independence from big imperial powers. The international power relations, however, are only partially determined by population size but economic and military factors. The so-called superstates reach power through their power of direct and indirect “persuasion. Therefore the relationship between small and big states remains a delicate balance of power. Russia attempted to grab Ukraine and its population of 410 millions to remain in the league of superstates by population size and has suffered a hefty setback which further unsettles the disequilibrium of its male (68) and female (78) population with predominantly male soldiers’ lives lost.
Whereas we have seen the small states’ numbers on the rise in the last few decades, the expansion of superstates from Russia, China, India or Pakistan remain a threat to peace on the globe. The crystallization of a multi polar world order is on its way, but the stakes are high and unsettling in many respects. The fallout of war stalls the adaptation to climate change and increases the millions of starving people on the globe. the attempt to reach superstate status by already big states is probably the greatest danger we shall face for the coming years. Preparing for the instability of the world in transition to an increasing multi polar world order will dominate the political agenda of many intermediate powers as well as smaller states. (Image Globe Moscow 1994, displayed Stabi Berlin 2024)
Geologie
Mehr GeologInnen braucht das Land. In der Schweiz beunruhigen derzeit zunehmende geologische Risiken. Der Klimawandel lässt Permafrost in den Höhen schmelzen, der jahrhundertelang Gestein zusammenhielt Gleichzeitig sinkt die Schweiz, nicht die Aktienkurse, selbst die Credit Suisse ist bereits untergegangen, aber rein geologisch, nüchtern betrachtet (NZZ, 2023 „Die Schweiz sinkt“). Das verlangt nun doch einige gründliche wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen. GeologInnen messen bereits mit unzähligen Messstationen die Bewegungen der Erdkrusten. In der Schweiz lässt sich sicherlich mit dem zunehmenden Abschmelzen der Gletscher und der Veränderung der (mehr) Regenfälle statt Schneefälle in den frühen Wintermonaten eine neue Gefahrensituation aufzeigen, nicht nur für den Tourismus. Die üblichen Reflexe: mehr Investieren in Schutz und neue Versicherungen wird alleine nicht mehr helfen. Biodiversität auf den unteren Skipisten ist eh Fehlanzeige, aber die Baumgrenze steigt. Das könnte genutzt werden, statt die vielfach kranken Fichten, die wegen ihrer kurzen Wurzeln kaum ein Gewitter überstehen (Ruinaulta vom 4.8.2023 S.6 und S.16-18). Diese Gewitter werden durch den Klimawandel wahrscheinlich häufiger werden. Noch mehr Versicherungen werden die Welt nicht retten können. Wir werden umdenken müssen auch wenn Verhaltensänderungen sehr schwerfallen.
Das Abbrechen von Bergspitzen, wie am Kantersteg (BE) oder der Bergsturz am Piz Cengalo 2017 in Graubünden, ereignen sich dann eher in den wärmeren Sommertagen. Die GeologInnen werden viele Arbeitsstellen haben (nicht nur im Geopark Sardona UNESCO Welterbe) und gehören zu den Berufen mit höherer Nachfrage durch den Klimawandel. 