Conclusion: Transforming Cities Through Temporary Urbanisms

Abstract

This conclusion chapter summarises and highlights the key contributions and conceptual themes of this edited collection. The main contributions of the chapters included in this book are outlined in three aspects. First, this book argues for and puts forward a research agenda for temporary urbanism. It especially highlights the need for identifying temporary urbanism as an overarching concept to further understanding of the relationship between time and the (re)production of urban space. Second, this edited collection demonstrates the diversity of temporary urbanisms through both covering a wide range of geographical areas and probing into various forms and functions that temporary urbanism assumes. Third, the chapters in this book collectively emphasise the complexity of temporary urbanisms as a result of their boundary-traversing and context-based nature. This chapter also identifies two main conceptual themes that connect all the chapters: on the one hand, the examinations of temporary urbanisms in this book provide more in-depth and nuanced understanding of time and temporality in cities; and on the other hand, the various conceptualisations of time, temporality and temporariness presented in the chapters allow us to examine further the meaning and function of temporary urbanisms for urban planning, governance, and politics.