Multiple and regionally specific organisational forms of urban studies?

Abstract

This short contribution comments on Bas van Heur's article ‘What, where and who is urban studies? On research centres in an unequal world’, a highly original analysis of the state of the art in urban studies complemented by provocative propositions to challenge existing global hierarchies of knowledge production. While I am enthusiastic about this work, I also propose considering in greater detail the interpretational risks associated with van Heur's operationalisation of urban studies as the publication production of multidisciplinary research centres. Specifically, I underline the observation that the article already implicitly contends that the organisational form of multidisciplinary and cross-university urban studies centres may be less likely to emerge in some contexts than in others. Thus, mapping various organisational forms that urban studies take across the world, as well as their history, might usefully complement the project. Yet, the critical question remains – how to do this?