
About Us
Urban Studies Online
Urban Studies Online (USO) is the new web presence of Urban Studies journal.
Through this online facility, we aim to better connect, inform and assist the world-wide urban studies community. Through USO, the Journal will provide news to that community regarding journal activities and initiatives but also of wider developments in the field in general. We hope that USO will in time become a central resource for those with an interest in urban issues; a platform through which its members can more effectively explore, debate and shape the future of urban studies and of cities.
Our intention is to develop USO over time so as to offer increasing opportunities for registered members to interact, and to identify practical tools to assist members in their pursuit of urban knowledge. We welcome any and all suggestions our members might have in these regards and invite you to submit these and any other relevant thoughts and comments here.


Aims and Scope
Urban Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal for urban scholarship. We welcome all original submissions that further our understanding of the urban condition and the rapid changes taking place in cities and regions across the globe. Contributions are welcome from across the full range of social science disciplines and are expected to advance empirical and theoretical knowledge of the urban from both positive and normative perspectives. Such contributions may be formatted in a variety of ways:
- As standard research articles of between 6,000 and 8,500 words.
- As debates papers of between 8,000 and 10,000 words.
- As critical commentaries of between 4,000 and 6,000 words.
- In the form of guest edited special issues, comprising 10-12 thematically related contributions (of any of the above noted types) supported by an editorial introduction of around 5,000 words and reflective commentaries of around 3,000 words.
The Journal favours contributions which move beyond the profiling of specific cities or phenomena that are relevant only to single or an extremely limited number of locations. Rather the Journal seeks contributions that focus on matters that are intrinsically urban in nature and studies into urban process and urban outcomes that, while grounded in specific locations, contribute to a wider urban theoretical and conceptual understanding.
Urban Studies, which is published in association with Urban Studies Journal Limited, is committed to assisting the greatest practical extent of knowledge mobilisation of the material it publishes, including through social media, blogging and its website. The Journal also publishes book reviews for relevant and significant new publications.
Read more about our Journal’s article types, review process and guidelines here.
Our People
Yingling Fan
Editor in ChiefProfessor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Humphrey …
Michele Acuto
Managing EditorPro-Vice Chancellor (Global Engagement) of the University …
Jon Bannister
Managing EditorProfessor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology at …
Alison Bain
EditorAssociate Professor of Geography at York University in …
Karen Coelho
EditorRetired Associate Professor at the Madras Institute of …

Creighton Connolly
EditorAssistant Professor in HKU’s Department of Urban Planning …
Chris Leishman
EditorProfessor of Housing Economics at the University of …
Markus Moos
EditorProfessor in the School of Planning at the University of …
Scott Orford
EditorProfessor in GIS and Spatial Analysis in the School of …
Catalina Ortiz
EditorProfessor of Critical Urban Pedagogy at the Bartlett …

Astrid Wood
EditorSenior Lecturer in Economic Geography, Newcastle University,…
Ruth Harkin
Editorial AssistantManages the editorial office, oversees our Special Issues …
Marion Laughtland
Editorial AdministratorProcesses new submissions, enquiries and Pre-Production …
Julia Macbeth
Editorial AdministratorProcesses enquiries, submissions and web/social media …

Yingling Fan
Yingling Fan is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Her research examines human emotions in everyday urban environments. She strives to identify urban infrastructure solutions that can foster shared happiness in the city. She joined Urban Studies as an editor in 2018 and became a Managing Editor in 2020.

Michele Acuto
Michele Acuto is Pro-Vice Chancellor (Global Engagement) of the University of Bristol, where he is also Professor of Urban Resilience in the School of Geographical Sciences. Michele’s work centres on how cities confront global challenges, and the international dimensions of urban governance. Working closely with (and in) policy and multilateral organisations, Michele has focused on the climate crisis, urban health and pandemic response, urban inequality, the night-time economy, and resilience to major hazards and disasters. In doing so Michele’s work is also reflectively centred on the role of urban science and innovation. Ahead of joining Bristol Michele worked at University of Melbourne, University College London, University of Oxford and the Australian National University, and outside academia in the United Nations and the World Bank. Michele became Reviews Editor for Urban Studies journal in 2022 and a Managing Editor in 2024.

Jon Bannister
Jon Bannister FAcSS is Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he directs the Crime and Well-Being Big Data Centre, and a Professorial Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He is Managing Editor of Urban Studies journal. His research interests are in urban criminology, policing, evidence-based policy, advanced quantitative methods and knowledge mobilisation (inclusive of co-production). Specifically, Jon’s research examines the interplay of urban processes and behaviours (urban transformations) upon crime and disorder. He recently participated in the Economic and Social Research Council funded Applied Quantitative Methods Network research programme and currently leads a programme of research interrogating the drivers of the spatio-temporal patterning of crime across diverse metropolitan areas. He has published widely across international social science journals and his most recent work ‘Crime and the city: Urban encounters, civility and tolerance’ (with John Flint) is forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Criminology.

Alison Bain
Alison Bain is an Associate Professor of Geography at York University in Toronto. Alison completed all of her degrees in Geography, receiving her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2002. An urban social geographer who studies contemporary urban and suburban culture, her work examines the complex relationships of cultural workers and LGBTQ populations to cities and suburbs with particular attention to questions of identity formation, artistic practice, spatial politics, and urban change. Alison became an editor for Urban Studies journal in 2017 and Critical Commentaries Editor in 2024.

Karen Coelho
Karen Coelho is a retired Associate Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) based in Chennai, India. She is an anthropologist with a Ph.D from the University of Arizona at Tucson in 2004. She has researched the city of Chennai for nearly twenty years, focusing on ethnographic and critical examinations of urban infrastructure (including water and housing), informal settlements and resettlement schemes, and the eco-restoration of rivers, canals and tanks. She serves on the editorial advisory board of the Review of Urban Affairs of the Economic and Political Weekly of India, and is a co-editor of the book Participolis: Consent and Contention in Neoliberal Urban India, (2013, Routledge India). She joined Urban Studies Journal as an International Corresponding Editor in 2019.

Creighton Connolly

Chris Leishman
Chris Leishman has recently moved as Professor of Housing Economics at Heriot-Watt University to the University of Adelaide in Australia, and previously held a Professorial appointment at the University of Glasgow. He has led major studies of housing supply and affordability for the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, and has carried out studies of housing supply, developer behaviour and housing market dynamics for the UK Government (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister / Department of Communities and Local Government, and the former National Housing and Planning Advice Unit). Chris joined Urban Studies journal as an editor in 2016.

Markus Moos
Markus Moos is Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He is also a registered professional planner and has worked with local governments and community organisations on housing, local economic development, and transit affordability projects. Moos’ research is on the changing economies, social structures, demography, housing markets, and sustainability of cities and suburbs, young adults’ changing housing and location patterns, and the youthification of inner cities. He joined Urban Studies journal as an editor in 2019.

Scott Orford
Scott Orford is Professor in GIS and Spatial Analysis in the School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, and is the Data Director of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) and he also directs the data programme of work in the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD). His research interests are in mapping, spatial analysis and statistical modelling, and the role of neighbourhood and accessibility in understanding and explaining socio-economic processes, particularly in the field of housing and housing markets. He also has interests in how new forms of data and link-data can be used to address urban issues, with an emphasis on geographical analysis and the built environment. He joined Urban Studies journal as an editor in 2019.

Catalina Ortiz
Catalina Ortiz is a Professor of Critical Urban Pedagogy at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at the University College London. She is a Colombian urbanist and educator passionate about spatial justice. She is committed to an ethics of care and an engaged scholarship to trigger radical spatial imagination for a negotiated co-production of space. She uses decolonial and critical urban theory through creative methodologies to study the politics of space production to foster more just cities and the recognition of multiple urban knowledges. Her work revolves around critical urban pedagogies, planning for equality, and southern urbanisms. She is the Director of the UCL Urban Lab and joined the Urban Studies journal as an editor in 2024.

Astrid Wood

Ruth Harkin
Ruth is the Editorial Assistant and has been with the journal since 2009, previously carrying out a similar role for the British Accounting Review. Ruth first studied Chemistry at Glasgow University and then, after gaining a Diploma for Graduate Secretaries, worked in a number of private and public sector administrative positions before taking an extended break to raise her family. Ruth manages the editorial office, oversees our Special Issues and handles the journal’s finances.

Marion Laughtland
Marion is the Editorial Administrator and started working with Urban Studies Journal in 2014. Marion completed a MA in Applied Social Science at the University of Glasgow and went on to work for three years in an independent research consultancy before taking a position as Research Assistant in the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, where she also held an honorary NHS contract. Marion processes new submissions to the Journal, helps potential authors with their enquiries and assists with the Pre-Production process of the Journal, preparing manuscript submissions for the Publisher.

Julia Macbeth
Julia is the Editorial Administrator and has been with the journal since 2017. Julia completed a MA in Chinese and Japanese at the University of Edinburgh and spent two years studying and working in China and Japan. She has worked in a variety of administrative roles in Glasgow and Dundee and once worked in a circus school in Rio de Janeiro. Julia liaises with authors, reviewers and editors to process submissions to USJ, manages content on Urban Studies Online, is jointly responsible for @USJ_online X account, assists with conference activities, and deals with enquiries.
International Corresponding Editors

Hillary Angelo
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of California Santa Cruz, United States

Sarah Barns
International Corresponding EditorRMIT University, Australia

Evelyn Blumenberg
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of California, Los Angeles, United States

Anthony Miro Born
International Corresponding EditorLondon School of Economics, UK; Goethe University, Germany

Himanshu Burte
International Corresponding EditorIndian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

Vanesa Castán Broto
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Liza Rose Cirolia
International Corresponding EditorUniversity Cape Town, South Africa

Patrick Cobbinah
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Melbourne, Australia

Agustín Cocola-Gant
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Lisbon, Portugal

Jason Corburn
International Corresponding EditorUC Berkeley, United States

Sylvia Croese
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Jonathan Davies
International Corresponding EditorDe Montfort University, UK

Richardson Dilworth
International Corresponding EditorDrexel University, United States

Henrike Donner
International Corresponding EditorGoldsmiths, University of London, UK

Heather Dorries
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Toronto, Canada

Canfei He
International Corresponding EditorPeking University, China

Phil Hubbard
International Corresponding EditorKing’s College London, UK

Mo Hume
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Glasgow, UK

Guillermo Jajamovich
International Corresponding EditorUniversidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Lalitha Kamath
International Corresponding EditorTata Institute of Social Sciences, India

Lily Kong
International Corresponding EditorSingapore Management University, Singapore

Kerstin Krellenberg
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Vienna, Austria

Taibat Lawanson
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Lagos, Nigeria

Anant Maringanti
International Corresponding EditorHyderabad Urban Lab Foundation, India

Evert Meijers
International Corresponding EditorUtrecht University, The Netherlands

Sergio Montero
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Toronto, Scarborough, Canada
Tony O’Sullivan
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Glasgow, UK (retired)

Michael Leo Owens
International Corresponding EditorEmory University, United States

Karin Pfeffer
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Twente, The Netherlands

Deen Sharp
International Corresponding EditorLondon School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Yong Tu
International Corresponding EditorNational University of Singapore, Singapore

Stephanie Wakefield
International Corresponding EditorLife University, United States

Lan Wang
International Corresponding EditorTongji University, China

Heather Whiteside
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Waterloo, Canada

Rebecca Wickes
International Corresponding EditorGriffith University, Australia

Japhy Wilson
International Corresponding EditorBangor University, UK

Lei Zhang
International Corresponding EditorOld Dominion University, United States
Guozhong Zhu
International Corresponding EditorUniversity of Alberta, Canada

Hillary Angelo

Sarah Barns

Evelyn Blumenberg

Anthony Miro Born

Himanshu Burte

Vanesa Castán Broto

Liza Rose Cirolia

Patrick Cobbinah

Agustín Cocola-Gant

Jason Corburn

Sylvia Croese
Jonathan Davies

Richardson Dilworth

Henrike Donner

Heather Dorries

Canfei He

Phil Hubbard
Mo Hume

Guillermo Jajamovich

Lalitha Kamath

Lily Kong

Kerstin Krellenberg

Taibat Lawanson
Anant Maringanti

Evert Meijers

Sergio Montero

Tony O’Sullivan
Tony O’Sullivan is a housing economist. Following his doctoral studies at the University of Sussex, he began his professional career as a lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 1983. Beginning in 1989, he spent 13 years at the Scottish national housing agency in a number of roles, including Chief Economist and Head of Research & Planning. Between 2003-2013, he ran his own research consultancy company. Over the course of his career, Tony has maintained strong academic links with the University of Glasgow where, since 2010, he has been Honorary Professor of Urban Studies in the Department of Urban Studies. He became a Managing Editor at Urban Studies journal in 2013. He became an International Corresponding Editor in 2025.

Michael Leo Owens

Karin Pfeffer

Deen Sharp

Yong Tu

Stephanie Wakefield

Lan Wang

Heather Whiteside

Rebecca Wickes

Japhy Wilson

Lei Zhang

Guozhong Zhu
University of Alberta, Canada