Global Urban Studies Research Articles

Making of the marginal: gender in a new education city

ABSTRACT Global urban studies are undergoing a paradigm shift recognizing the link between urban and rural studies. In this sense, ‘agrarian urbanism’ has become the research focus, especially in the Global South. This paper analyses the changing social relations in Sonipat (Haryana, India) after it was developed as an ‘Education city’. The focus is gender relations with analysis under two categories: ‘locals’ and ‘outsiders’. While urbanization was thought of as a linear process where surplus production in the rural areas would naturally lead to cities, in the global south capitalist real estate-led development has meant that urbanization is often superimposed on existing rural societies, pushing them towards marginalization in favor of gated enclaved urban infrastructure. Employing qualitative interviews, I hypothesize that the private capital-driven urbanization in Sonipat not only geographically marginalizes the existing villages but also engenders dissonant experiences of local and outsider women. The fault lines between the two mean that interaction between them is defined by exploitation and mutual suspicion. Further, I argue that within this dichotomy, women bear the brunt of social control, restricted movement and potential violence.

Generating new concepts in global urban studies: Thinking through (and beyond?) gentrification

Generating new concepts in global urban studies: Thinking through (and beyond?) gentrification

When we were young: Inequality revisited, a commentary on Geoffrey Deverteuil's essay

Not very long ago, the world had a different shape. The cities were shaped differently too. Anglophone geographies brought into life theories about what all this meant. Global Urban Studies was a little prince world. A world in which each prince, each scholar, created their own theory. Theories were plentiful. In Le Petit Prince the Geographer is ‘…too important to go wandering about. He never leaves his Study.’ 1 He believes that geography books are ‘…the finest books of all. They never go out of fashion.’ The geographical scholar (who Antione de Saint-Exupéry had brought to life) distained the ephemeral, that ‘which is threatened by imminent disappearance.’ That particular little prince world is no more. The 1990s theories turned out to be ephemeral. Geoffrey DeVerteuil's essay breathes a little life back into some of them, arguing for not forgetting – not becoming too distracted by the new, especially not by the more obviously ephemeral ideas that often dominate today.

Review of “Emerging global cities: origin, structure and significance”

The authors challenge the “global city literature” school of urban studies thought advanced by such authors as Saskia Sassen, which empirically rank-orders world cities based on their concentration of business activity and confers higher power and importance to cities atop this hierarchy. The book advances a critique of the global city literature alongside scholars such as Neil Brenner and Jennifer Robinson, arguing that such hierarchical conceptions of world cities ignore third world or Global South cities, instead treating higher-ranked cities as ideal and merely reproducing North American and Eurocentric views of urban life. As opposed to the orthodoxy of global city literature, the authors suggest that “emerging global cities” such Dubai, Miami, and Singapore emerged from a position of insignificance to prominence, without “sponsorship” from the supposed global elite cities atop the world city hierarchy. The book contributes a novel set of characteristics explaining this ascendance, which can most directly benefit global urban studies focused on cities in the Global South: a legal system that investors are confident with, a pro-business yet non-corrupt government bureaucracy, local political leaders motivated to make their city globally competitive, including the use of city branding, and the inward migration of foreign labor to fuel growth in globalizing formal economic sectors. These factors contribute novel criteria missing from the global city literature to explain the flexibility for peripheral cities to ascend.

Global development and urban studies: tactics for thinking beyond the North–South binary

Recent calls to shift from an “international” to a “global” development paradigm have sought to challenge global North–South binaries. This has provoked lively debate, with criticisms focusing on two issues: the empirical question of North–South convergence since 1990, and the political-theoretical basis of the proposed paradigm. In response, this paper draws on innovations in postcolonial and comparative urban studies to propose three “tactics” for thinking globally about development: thinking from the South to understand the North; comparing across difference; and exploring transnational flows, circuits and relationships. These tactics demonstrate how it is possible to disrupt geographical binaries while also addressing the two major criticisms of the global development approach. First, they demonstrate that establishing convergence is not a prerequisite to thinking about development across the global North–South distinction. Second, they are informed by critical theoretical approaches that animate a deep commitment to transforming the structural causes of inequalities globally.

Theorising urban development in China: ‘State entrepreneurialism’ from the ground up

Instead of generating a grand theory from urban China, I have a rather modest aim – how we might use the political-economic perspective to better understand China's urban development politics. Rather than treating empirical materials and theoretical insights as discrete entities, describing China should itself be regarded as a process of theorisation, contributing to a more global Urban Studies. We illustrate how ‘state entrepreneurialism’, as a quite peculiar form of governance, is generated from the conjunctural development of global capitalism and its crises. Hence, the role of the state is not a starting point for theoretical enquiry but rather a historical and material development of China's political economy.

Freshwater insect communities in urban environments around the globe: a review of the state of the field

Urbanization is a key stressor of freshwater habitats, possibly contributing to global insect declines. However, scientific understanding of urbanization's effects on aquatic insect communities has largely been based on studies of temperate streams. We reviewed global urban freshwater macroinvertebrate community studies, classifying habitat type, location, urbanization metrics, biodiversity metrics, and focal taxa, drawing from 114 studies in 32 different countries. Our goals were to: (1) investigate the extent of research on urbanization across a variety of freshwater habitats, (2) examine the representation in empirical literature across the globe by comparing cities in different geographic regions, and (3) highlight how study approaches including taxonomic resolution and the inclusion of trait data impact interpretation of these patterns. Most studies were conducted in North America and Europe, but there is growing representation from other continents. Additionally, lentic environments were underrepresented in the literature on community responses to urbanization compared to lotic studies. Therefore, we suggest that lentic habitats should be investigated more thoroughly. We suggest that future empirical studies should incorporate traits of the taxa investigated to better predict how communities respond to urban stressors. The lack of consistent results from the reviewed studies showed that there is no single, predictable effect of urbanization, indicating that future meta-analyses and review papers should consider the potential context-dependency of freshwater insect responses to anthropogenic pressures. Our goal in highlighting understudied environmental and regional contexts is to move toward holistically addressing the ongoing challenges of urban freshwater insect conservation and freshwater ecology research.

Thinking ‘with’ China: Material and conceptual challenges

Urban studies have been roiled by a lively debate over the roles of generalization and particularity in advancing theory about cities and urbanization. Also at stake are questions of epistemology, method, inclusion, representation, and power in knowledge production. Teo, Chung, and Wang have proposed a set of methodological propositions aimed at ‘building theory in and through urban China’ as a contribution to the larger ongoing discussion about urban theory and global urban studies. In this commentary, I present a critique of their methodological proposals by highlighting issues originating from within and outside the field of urban Chinese studies.

Theorising with urban China: Methodological and tactical experiments for a more global urban studies

Despite global academic interest, the field of urban China continues to be dominated by exceptionalist theorising. Given that the unique properties of Chinese urbanisation present rich cases for an engaged pluralism in urban studies, we argue for theorising with urban China based on two methodological grounds: ‘thinking cities through elsewhere’ and conjunctural analysis. This opens space for mid-level theorisation, which has the potential to contribute to the revision of existing theoretical frameworks and/or create new starting points for analysis and conceptualisation between urban China and a wider range of contexts. We propose three tactics for mid-level conceptualisation with urban China cases: generating concepts through bespoke comparisons between cases in urban China and elsewhere; conceptualising from a single urban China case by placing two theoretical frameworks into conversation; and launching concepts developed from inductive research in urban China to develop novel analytical frameworks. We conclude by arguing that theorising with urban China can benefit from collaborative research across borders, with the need to include researchers who are deeply embedded in the field.

Overlooked cities: Shifting the gaze in research and practice in global urban studies

There is growing scholarly attention to secondary and intermediary cities as their relevance for global urban development is increasingly recognised. We call urban academics, scholars, policymakers and practitioners to situate debates on these cities critically with the notion of “overlooked cities” to understand how knowledge from such cities is produced, circulated and negotiated in urban research and practice. This commentary aims to foreground the value, urgency and disruptive agency of individual and collective “overlooked cities” vis-à-vis the historical and contemporary debates to pave the way for alternative agendas for global urban studies.

Refracting Eurocentrism, operationalizing complicity: The Swiss Sonderfall as a vantage point

Critiques of the parochialism of urban theory have resulted in appeals for more global urban studies. Yet, the fruitful responses to postcolonial work frequently remain sequestered, reflecting the persistence of Eurocentrism as a burden shouldered largely by the so-called “South”. This paper aims to shift the work implied by critiques of Eurocentrism – from the labor of translation to the chore of representation – to those whom Eurocentrism serves. We argue that recognizing the ways academics are always already complicit in Eurocentrism by working within the academy is an important starting point. Can the functions of complicity also serve to redistribute the burdens of redress and allow cultivating new possibilities to respond? To understand the functions of complicity, we take inspiration from the historical position of Switzerland on “the margins” of colonialism. Scrutinizing the history of a formally non-colonizing country reveals multiple forms of taking part in, benefitting from and assisting in colonial efforts. Applying these learnings to institutional and epistemological possibilities of working with complicity in the academy, we interrogate the potentials and limits of these functions to address the reproduction of Eurocentrism.

Constructing comparisons: Reflecting on the experimental nature of new comparative tactics

In this commentary I reflect on experimental approaches to comparative urbanism emerging in recent papers. Drawing on the methodological approaches employed in the special issue on Comparative Methods for Global Urban Studies, I highlight the way in which a more reactive and responsive approach – to both pre-existing conditions and understandings of urban development, as well as realities faced during fieldwork and analysis – have elucidated new ways of thinking with and through different cities to productively push forward the comparative urbanism agenda. In doing so I build on the long history of comparative approaches in urban studies to argue that experimenting with how we put new places into existing conversations, within a particular project or beyond, can be hugely powerful in transforming the way in which comparison is conducted in urban studies and geography.

Introduction: Generating concepts of ‘the urban’ through comparative practice

This Introduction to the special issue, ‘ Comparative Methods for Global Urban Studies’, outlines the basis for a reformatted comparative method inspired by the complex spatialities of the urban world. The articles in the volume each bring forward innovative approaches to comparative methods which support wider conceptualisations of urban processes and urban experiences. The articles in this volume consider a wide range of urban contexts and collectively move beyond geopolitically imprecise propositions of ‘southern’ urbanism to embrace the wider comparative agenda of thinking with both the diversity and the profound interconnectedness of the urban globally. The articles contribute to decentring urban studies, opening conceptualisation to a range of different contexts and differently positioned writers. They also speak to the analytical and methodological challenges posed by current trends in global urbanisation, as dispersed, fragmented and extending over vast territories. Thinking with the multiple elsewheres of any urban context invites a comparative imagination – this introduction draws together the creative ways in which authors in this volume have responded to this potential. Processes of conceptualisation both emerge from and more acutely reveal the spatiality and nature of the global urban: comparative method, then, also proposes a certain mode of theorisation of the urban.

A more global urban studies, besides empirical variation

An expanded set of sites, a more differentiated set of references and linguistic diversification have been discussed as needed changes in urban studies. The critiques of the limitations of urban studies, in terms of both the scholarship and the scholars, offer important and concrete responses to expanding the scope of the field. Yet this tremendous special issue on ‘Comparative Methods for Global Urban Studies’ with 10 papers cutting across a range of sites and topics is decidedly not only about empirical variation; this is an important distinction worth drawing more attention to. The creativity expressed in these papers comes at an auspicious time in urban studies where new routes for doing urban theory are needed to move past debates about singular versus plural epistemologies of the urban. As a kind of research that demands more translation, exchange and collaboration, perhaps comparative urban research as a mode of theory-building can help to humble the chest-pounding, posturing, privilege of thinking and speaking the language of theory. The theoretical ambitions of these very different papers show how urban theory need not only be about better understanding urbanisation within the epistemological confines of late capitalism. Rather than reifying a shared grammar of urbanisation as a necessity to understand each other, they may entice scholars everywhere to develop a broader vocabulary and perhaps even learn another language.

A 90th birthday tributeAnthony D. King: an appreciation

ABSTRACT The work of Anthony D. King is among the very best of recent urban and global studies. This essay is a tribute in appreciation of Tony King as a scholar, mentor, and friend. It discusses some of his major contributions in the fields of global cities research, colonial and postcolonial urban studies, as well as his views on knowledge and positionality in relation to the location within which he is embedded. It is a mix of anecdotal and analytical notes written as a tribute to a great teacher who has reached a milestone - 90 years old.

Disassembling connections: A comparative analysis of the politics of slum upgrading in eThekwini and São Paulo

This paper presents an innovative comparison that works creatively with the entangled spatialities of policy mobilities, drawing on a city-to-city cooperation between São Paulo (Brazil) and eThekwini (South Africa) municipalities for the exchange of slum upgrading expertise. The proposed comparative tactic entails tracing the establishment of this connection in order to disassemble the constituent flows and localities merged within it. Subsequently, by posing questions to one another, a relational comparison of the trajectory of slum upgrading policy in each locality is composed, unearthing the political and institutional conditions that preceded the existence of the connection per se. In that sense, both eThekwini and São Paulo are considered equivalent starting points from which local actors engaged in circulating ideas and mobilised slum upgrading policies. This paper not only brings a fresh approach to comparative methods – incorporating political contexts and their extensive overlapping networks of relations alongside a focus on particular policy trajectories – but also contributes to furthering global urban studies in two other ways. First, it provides insight into the processes by which policies are put on the move and localised (or not). Second, it demonstrates how repeated instances of urban practice may be unravelled by allowing each context of policy formation, with its distinctive trajectory of slum upgrading, to speak to one another. In this regard, the comparative analysis identified how, in both São Paulo and eThekwini, the consolidation of democracy was followed by the development of more technocratic approaches to the detriment of earlier slum upgrading initiatives focussed on community empowerment.

Toward a sociology of global comparative placemaking

AbstractI call for a globally informed sociology of comparative placemaking that integrates historical and contemporary processes and includes the ephemeral, institutional, and personal. By placemaking, I am referring to the explicit or tacit cooperation among people to create, maintain, and give meaning to places in space through bodily occupation given differential resources and constraints. I review select place, space, and community‐based literature about urban, Black, migrant, LGBTQ, and international populations to think about how we can build upon and integrate multiple theoretical, methodological, and epistemological insights to form an explicit placemaking research agenda. A US focus on neighborhoods contrasts with a comparative examination of global urban networks, social polarization, and transformation of the built environment in the interdisciplinary field of global urban studies (Ren, 2018). I argue for a placemaking research agenda that bridges insight from US Urban Sociology with Global Urban Studies to consider how various structures and actors constrain and facilitate place projects. With a globally reaching and comparatively informed sociology of placemaking, we can illuminate our multi‐structured story of place and agency in context. We can answer questions about how and why we co‐create and are simultaneously disciplined by the process of creation.

Exceptionalism and theorizing spatial inequality: Segregation research on cities in China

ABSTRACT The transformation of Chinese cities has engendered new forms of spatialized urban inequality. Research on these processes of segregation has captured the attention of urban researchers, generating a large and varied body of work. Yet its influence on urban theory remains constrained, reflecting the concern with the parochialism of urban theory. A review of segregation research on Chinese cities presents several intertwined findings: Chinese cities are framed in terms of their difference, mostly in contrast to Euro-American cities. This framing renders findings intelligible for an audience familiar with Chicago, but perhaps not Shenzhen. In translating the findings, the research often resorts to a methodological nationalism, which contextualizes Chinese cities in terms of their “Chinese-ness,” a reductionist heuristic that elides the diversity of these cities and construes residential segregation as incommensurate with the experience of cities elsewhere. The effect of this is to limit the potential of this research to contribute to a “more global urban studies,” by inscribing a kind of exceptionalism into Chinese cities.

The Peripheral Turn in Global Urban Studies: Theory, Evidence, Sites

The field of global urban studies has witnessed a “peripheral” turn since the 1990s, first led by the Los Angeles School of urban geographers, with a more diverse group of urban scholars who study the global South following. Challenging the city-centric view, as exemplified by the Chicago School’s concentric model of urban growth, these scholars train their lens on urban peripheries, such as suburbs, small towns, and the sprawling hinterlands outside metropolitan regions. This essay discusses what can be gained from shifting the analytical lens from the city center to the periphery, and from Western cities to cities in the global South. Drawing upon the new scholarship on urban peripheries in India, it also identifies three major avenues for further investigation—the comparative method, center-periphery relations, and ways of life.

Articulating corruption of infrastructural upgrading projects in Rio de Janeiro

Residents of Brazilian low-income communities have long called actions of the state “corrupt,” rhetoric that has arguably intensified in the wake of large-scale infrastructural upgrading decisions. Inspired by a new wave of critical corruption studies, in this paper I ask: how is infrastructural upgrading a key site of politics and political understandings of the state for residents in Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro? How do discourses about corrupt decision-making mechanisms and money appropriation produce common sense notions of how the political system operates? And what work do these narratives do for demonstrating agency of the people living in Complexo? In answering these questions I contribute to an emerging conjunctural research agenda in global urban and corruption studies. I draw on the dual notion of articulation as central to the conjuncture: how the conjoining of political forces alongside discursive enunciations are crucial to crafting hegemonies of corruption and understandings of political and civil society. I add to this Gramscian understanding of the conjuncture a focus on how residents constitute themselves as agential subjects through discourses of corruption. By focusing on the brewing frustrations of Complexo residents, the paper argues that articulations of corruption materialized an articulated political bloc against which community members could express frustration but also, importantly, constituted a civil society demonstrating a constrained agency.