Latest Updates on Urban Studies

7th Jan 2019

Latest articles on OnlineFirst

Tacit networks, crucial care: Informal networks and disaster response in Nepal’s 2015 Gorkha earthquake by Rocio Carrero, Michele Acuto, Asaf Tzachor, Niraj Subedi, Ben Campbell and Long Seng To

This paper is part of the forthcoming Special Issue: Transcending (in)formal urbanism.

New article explores the underexplored but crucial role of informal social networks and actors in the catering for human needs in disaster circumstances by examining the mechanisms of aid provision in the aftermath of 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal.

Contests over value: From the informal to the popular by AbdouMaliq Simone

This paper is part of the forthcoming Special Issue: Transcending (in)formal urbanism.

In this Special Issue commentary AbdouMaliq Simone argues that ‘what passes itself off as informality is an amalgam of efforts on the part of the urban majority to constantly re-open the question of value—what is to be valued, by whom, and how?’

Formality as exception by Andy Pratt

This commentary is part of the forthcoming Special Issue: Transcending (in)formal urbanism.

In this commentary Andy Pratt ‘puts forward the suggestion of viewing formality as exception and informality as the norm, for it is difficult to imagine a totally formal activity with no informality.’ 

Urbanising territory: The contradictions of eco-cityism at the industrial margins, Duwamish River, Seattle by Nik Janos

This paper is part of the forthcoming Special Issue: Why does everyone think cities can save the planet?

The concept of the city should shift from a description of the agglomeration of things in space towards projects of territory making, and sovereignty claims. Find out how territory enables and constrains the democratising of the production of space. 

Book reviews now available on Urban Blog

Book review: Subaltern Urbanisation in India: An Introduction to the Dynamics of Ordinary Towns Edited by Eric Denis & Marie-Hélène Zérah and reviewed by Gregory F Randolph “Recognising the importance of small towns (…), Subaltern Urbanisation in India is a welcome corrective to the dominant narrative that imagines Southern urbanisation as a uniform process of villagers flooding into cities”