Best Article Prize
The Urban Studies Best Article is awarded by the editors to the author(s) of what they consider to be the most innovative and agenda-setting article published in a given year.
Below is a list of the articles awarded the Urban Studies Best Article Prize by year.
Read all of the Urban Studies Best Article Prize winning papers here.
2023
The editors are pleased to announce that two of the shortlisted papers have been selected as joint winners of the Urban Studies Best Article for 2023. Our congratulations to the authors: Anthony Miro Born, for “The long shadow of territorial stigma: Upward social mobility and the symbolic baggage of the old neighbourhood“; and Japhy Wilson, for “Apocalyptic urban surrealism in the city at the end of the world“.
Born AM (2023) The long shadow of territorial stigma: Upward social mobility and the symbolic baggage of the old neighbourhood. Urban Studies 60(3): 537–553.
Wilson J (2023) Apocalyptic urban surrealism in the city at the end of the world. Urban Studies 60(4): 718–733.
Shortlisted articles
Seven other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Finlay J, Jang J, Esposito M, McClure L, Judd S and Clarke P (2023) ‘My neighbourhood is fuzzy, not hard and fast’: Individual and contextual associations with perceived residential neighbourhood boundaries among ageing Americans. Urban Studies 60(1): 85–108.
Giménez-Nadal JI, Echeverría L and Molina A (2023) Citizen security and urban commuting in Latin America. Urban Studies 60(13): 2585–2611.
Gray N and Kallin H (2023) Capital’s welfare dependency: Market failure, stalled regeneration and state subsidy in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Urban Studies 60(6): 1031–1047.
Lawhon M, Nsangi Nakyagaba G and Timos Karpouzoglou T (2023) Towards a modest imaginary? Sanitation in Kampala beyond the modern infrastructure ideal. Urban Studies 60(1): 146–165.
Lee S and Wang S (2023) Impacts of political fragmentation on inclusive economic resilience: Examining American metropolitan areas after the Great Recession. Urban Studies 60(1): 26–45.
Mleczko M and Desmond M (2023) Using natural language processing to construct a National Zoning and Land Use Database. Urban Studies 60(13): 2564–2584.
Wiesel I, de Bruyn J, Meekes J and Chandrashekeran S (2023) Income polarisation, expenditure and the Australian urban middle class. Urban Studies 60(14): 2779–2798.
The full announcement can be found here.
2022
The editors are pleased to announce that Dr Stephanie Wakefield, Life University, is the winner of the Urban Studies Best Article 2022 for her article, “Critical urban theory in the Anthropocene“.
Wakefield S (2022) Critical urban theory in the Anthropocene. Urban Studies 59(5): 917–936.
Shortlisted articles
Seven other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Su L, Zhou S, Kwan M-P, Chai Y and Zhang X (2022) The impact of immediate urban environments on people’s momentary happiness. Urban Studies 59(1): 140–160.
Meen G, Mihailov A and Wang Y (2022) On the long-run solution to aggregate housing systems. Urban Studies 59(1): 178–196.
Kong L, Woods O and Zhu H (2022) The (de)territorialised appeal of international schools in China: Forging brands, boundaries and inter-belonging in segregated urban space. Urban Studies 59(1): 242–258.
Jonnalagadda I (2022) Of political entrepreneurs: Assembling community and social capital in Hyderabad’s informal settlements. Urban Studies 59(4): 717–733.
Bloch S and Phillips SA (2022) Mapping and making gangland: A legacy of redlining and enjoining gang neighbourhoods in Los Angeles. Urban Studies 59(4): 750–770.
Xu W (2022) The contingency of neighbourhood diversity: Variation of social context using mobile phone application data. Urban Studies 59(4): 851–869.
Brill F (2022) Governing investors and developers: Analysing the role of risk allocation in urban development. Urban Studies 59(7): 1499–1517.
The full announcement can be found here.
2021
The editors are pleased to announce that there are two joint winners of the Urban Studies Best Article 2021. They wish to congratulate Gerhard Bruyns, Christopher Higgins and Darren Nel for their article, “Urban volumetrics: From vertical to volumetric urbanisation and its extensions to empirical morphological analysis“; and Romit Chowdhury for “The social life of transport infrastructures: Masculinities and everyday mobilities in Kolkata“.
Bruyns GJB, Higgins CD and Nel DH (2021) Urban volumetrics: From vertical to volumetric urbanisation and its extensions to empirical morphological analysis. Urban Studies 58(5): 922-940.
Chowdhury R (2021) The social life of transport infrastructures: Masculinities and everyday mobilities in Kolkata. Urban Studies 58(1): 73-89.
The editors also wish to congratulate Murtah Shannon, Kei Otsuki, Annelies Zoomers and Mayke Kaag for their article, “On whose land is the city to be built? Farmers, donors and the urban land question in Beira city, Mozambique“, which is the runner-up for the 2021 award.
Shannon M, Otsuki K, Zoomers A and Kaag M (2021) On whose land is the city to be built? Farmers, donors and the urban land question in Beira city, Mozambique. Urban Studies 58(4): 733-749.
Shortlisted articles
Seven other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Bradley Q (2021) The financialisation of housing land supply in England. Urban Studies 58(2): 389-404.
Ferm J, Clifford B, Canelas P and Livingstone N (2021) Emerging problematics of deregulating the urban: The case of permitted development in England. Urban Studies 58(10): 2040-2058.
Johnsen S, Watts B and Fitzpatrick S (2021) Rebalancing the rhetoric: A normative analysis of enforcement in street homelessness policy. Urban Studies 58(2): 355-371.
Ley D (2021) A regional growth ecology, a great wall of capital and a metropolitan housing market. Urban Studies 58(2): 297-315.
Nielsen M, Sumich J and Bertelsen BE (2021) Enclaving: Spatial detachment as an aesthetics of imagination in an urban sub-Saharan African context. Urban Studies 58(5): 881-902.
Pallagst K, Fleschurz R, Nothof S and Uemura T (2021) Shrinking cities: Implications for planning cultures?. Urban Studies 58(1): 164-181.
Preis B, Janakiraman A, Bob A and Steil J (2021) Mapping gentrification and displacement pressure: An exploration of four distinct methodologies. Urban Studies 58(2): 405-424.
Vandecasteele L and Fasang AE (2021) Neighbourhoods, networks and unemployment: The role of neighbourhood disadvantage and local networks in taking up work. Urban Studies 58(4): 696-714.
The full announcement can be found here.
2020
The editors are pleased to announce that Dr Mary Lawhon, University of Edinburgh, and Professor Yaffa Truelove, University of Colorado Boulder, are the winners of the Urban Studies Best Article 2020 for their article, “Disambiguating the southern urban critique: Propositions, pathways and possibilities for a more global urban studies“.
Lawhon M and Truelove Y (2020) Disambiguating the southern urban critique: Propositions, pathways and possibilities for a more global urban studies. Urban Studies 57(1): 3-20.
Shortlisted articles
Ten other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Choplin A (2020) Cementing Africa: Cement flows and city-making along the West African corridor (Accra, Lomé, Cotonou, Lagos). Urban Studies 57(9): 1977–1993.
Courtioux P and Maury T-P (2020) Private and public schools: A spatial analysis of social segregation in France. Urban Studies 57(4): 865–882.
Cuignet T, Perchoux C, Caruso G, Klein O, Klein S, Chaix B, Kestens Y and Gerber P (2020) Mobility among older adults: Deconstructing the effects of motility and movement on wellbeing. Urban Studies 57(2): 383–401.
Governa F and Sampieri A (2020) Urbanisation processes and new towns in contemporary China: A critical understanding from a decentred view. Urban Studies 57(2): 366–382.
Igudia EO (2020) Exploring the theories, determinants and policy options of street vending: A demand-side approach. Urban Studies 57(1): 56–74.
McKenzie R and Atkinson R (2020) Anchoring capital in place: The grounded impact of international wealth chains on housing markets in London. Urban Studies 57(1): 21–38.
Miller B and Mössner S (2020) Urban sustainability and counter-sustainability: Spatial contradictions and conflicts in policy and governance in the Freiburg and Calgary metropolitan regions. Urban Studies 57(11): 2241–2262.
Monkkonen P, Montejano J, Guerra E and Caudillo C (2020) Compact cities and economic productivity in Mexico. Urban Studies 57(10): 2080–2097.
Turnbull GK and Zahirovic-Herbert V (2020) Private government, property rights and uncertain neighbourhood externalities: Evidence from gated communities. Urban Studies 57(4): 711–730.
Yang J and Zhou P (2020) The obesity epidemic and metropolitan-scale built environment: Examining the health effects of polycentric development. Urban Studies 57(1): 39–55.
The full announcement can be found here.
2019
The editors are pleased to announce that Professor Rachel Pain, Newcastle University, is the winner of the Urban Studies Best Article 2019 for her article, “Chronic urban trauma: The slow violence of housing dispossession“.
Pain R (2019) Chronic urban trauma: The slow violence of housing dispossession. Urban Studies 56(2): 385-400.
Shortlisted articles
Ten other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Durst NJ (2019) Informal and ubiquitous: Colonias, premature subdivisions and other unplanned suburbs on America’s urban fringe. Urban Studies 56(4): 722-740.
Flint J (2019) Encounters with the centaur state: Advanced urban marginality and the practices and ethics of welfare sanctions regimes. Urban Studies 56(1): 249-265.
Gray D (2019) Medium-term cycles and housing: Is regional integration different?. Urban Studies 56(9): 1786-1800.
Herlambang S, Leitner H, Tjung LJ, Sheppard E and Anguelov D (2019) Jakarta’s great land transformation: Hybrid neoliberalisation and informality. Urban Studies 56(4): 627-648.
Hoolachan J and McKee K (2019) Inter-generational housing inequalities: ‘Baby Boomers’ versus the ‘Millennials’. Urban Studies 56(1): 210-225.
Howell J (2019) Neighbourhood effects in cross-Atlantic perspective: A longitudinal analysis of impacts on intergenerational mobility in the USA and Germany. Urban Studies 56(2): 434-451.
Johnson C, Baker T, Collins FL (2019) Imaginations of post-suburbia: Suburban change and imaginative practices in Auckland, New Zealand. Urban Studies 56(5): 1042–1060.
Modai-Snir T and Plaut P (2019) The analysis of residential sorting trends: Measuring disparities in socio-spatial mobility. Urban Studies 56(2): 288-300.
van Noorloos F, Klaufus C and Steel G (2019) Land in urban debates: Unpacking the grab–development dichotomy. Urban Studies 56(5): 855-867.
Vogelpohl A (2019) Global expertise, local convincing power: Management consultants and preserving the entrepreneurial city. Urban Studies 56(1): 97-114.
The full announcement can be found here.
2018
Six articles were shortlisted by the editors from those published in print copy in 2018.
The editors are pleased to announce that three of the shortlisted papers have been selected as joint winners of the Urban Studies Best Article for 2018.
Congratulations to: Mary Lawhon, David Nilsson, Jonathan Silver, Henrik Ernstson and Shuaib Lwasa for their article, “Thinking through heterogeneous infrastructure configurations“; Emily Miltenburg and Tom van der Meer for their article, “Lingering neighbourhood effects: A framework to account for residential histories and temporal dynamics“; and Nicholas Phelps and Cristian Silva for their article, “Mind the gaps! A research agenda for urban interstices“.
Lawhon M, Nilsson D, Silver J, Ernstson H and Lwasa S (2018) Thinking through heterogeneous infrastructure configurations. Urban Studies 55(4): 720–732.
Miltenburg EM and van der Meer TWG (2018) Lingering neighbourhood effects: A framework to account for residential histories and temporal dynamics. Urban Studies 55(1): 151-174.
Phelps NA and Silva C (2018) Mind the gaps! A research agenda for urban interstices. Urban Studies 55(6): 1203-1222.
Shortlisted articles
The three other articles shortlisted by the editors were:
Jin J and Paulsen K (2018) Does accessibility matter? Understanding the effect of job accessibility on labour market outcomes. Urban Studies 55(1): 91–115.
Marvin S and Rutherford J (2018) Controlled environments: An urban research agenda on microclimatic enclosure. Urban Studies 55(6): 1143–1162.
Neal ZP (2018) The urban metabolism of airline passengers: Scaling and sustainability. Urban Studies 55(1): 212-225.
The full announcement can be found here.
2017
The editors are pleased to announce that Dr Evert Meijers, Delft University of Technology, and Dr Martijn Burger, Erasmus University Rotterdam, are the winners of the Urban Studies Best Article 2018 for their article, “Stretching the concept of ‘borrowed size’“.
Meijers EJ and Burger MJ (2017) Stretching the concept of ‘borrowed size’. Urban Studies 54(1): 269–291.
Shortlisted articles
Seven other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Attoh K (2017) Public transportation and the idiocy of urban life. Urban Studies 54(1): 196–213.
Hall S, King J and Finlay R (2017) Migrant infrastructure: Transaction economies in Birmingham and Leicester, UK. Urban Studies 54(6): 1311–1327.
Morrison N (2017) Selling the family silver? Institutional entrepreneurship and asset disposal in the English housing association sector. Urban Studies 54(12): 2856–2873.
Pratsinakis M, Hatziprokopiou P, Labrianidis L and Vogiatzis N (2017) Living together in multi-ethnic cities: People of migrant background, their interethnic friendships and the neighbourhood. Urban Studies 54(1): 102–118.
Su F and Tao R (2017) The China model withering? Institutional roots of China’s local developmentalism. Urban Studies 54(1): 230–250.
Taylor Buck N and While A (2017) Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative. Urban Studies 54(2): 501–519.
Tselios V, McCann P and van Dijk J (2017) Understanding the gap between reality and expectation: Local social engagement and ethnic concentration. Urban Studies 54(11): 2592–2612.
The full announcement can be found here.
2016
The editors are pleased to announce that Professor Michael Storper, London School of Economics, and Professor Allen Scott, University of California at Los Angeles, are the winners of the Urban Studies Best Article 2016 for their article, “Current debates in urban theory: A critical assessment“.
Storper M and Scott AJ (2016) Current debates in urban theory: A critical assessment. Urban Studies 53(6): 1114–1136
Shortlisted articles
Four other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Sigler T and Wachsmuth D (2016) Transnational gentrification: Globalisation and neighbourhood change in Panama’s Casco Antiguo. Urban Studies 53(4): 705-722.
Kauffmann A (2016) Is the ‘Central German Metropolitan Region’ spatially integrated? An empirical assessment of commuting relation. Urban Studies 53(9): 1853–1868.
Wan X (2016) Governmentalities in everyday practices: The dynamic of urban neighbourhood governance in China. Urban Studies 53(11): 2330–2346.
Adams D and Larkham P (2016) Walking with the ghosts of the past: Unearthing the value of residents’ urban nostalgias. Urban Studies 53(10): 2004–2022.
The full announcement can be found here.
2015
The editors are pleased to announce that Dr Tim Bunnell of the National University of Singapore is the winner of the Urban Studies Best Article for 2015 for his article: “Antecedent cities and inter-referencing effects: learning from and extending beyond critiques of neoliberalisation“.
Bunnell T (2015) Antecedent cities and inter-referencing effects: learning from and extending beyond critiques of neoliberalisation. Urban Studies 52(11): 1983–2000.
Shortlisted articles
Four other articles were shortlisted by the editors:
Frick KT, Weinzimmer D and Waddell P (2015) The politics of sustainable development opposition: State legislative efforts to stop the United Nation’s Agenda 21 in the United States. Urban Studies 52(2): 209-232.
Gerrard J and Farrugia D (2015) The ‘lamentable sight’ of homelessness and the society of the spectacle. Urban Studies 52(12): 2219–2233.
Gu C, Kesteloot C and Cook IG (2015) Theorising Chinese urbanisation: A multi-layered perspective. Urban Studies 52(14): 2564–2580.
Rosbrook-Thompson J (2015) ‘I’m local and foreign’: Belonging, the city and the case for denizenship. Urban Studies 52(9): 1615–1630.
The full announcement can be found here.
2014
Dr Charlotte Lemanski of the University of Cambridge is the winner of the Urban Studies Best Article for 2014 for her article, “Hybrid gentrification in South Africa: Theorising across southern and northern cities“. She discusses her article in the video below.
Lemanski C (2014) Hybrid gentrification in South Africa: Theorising across southern and northern cities. Urban Studies 51(14): 2943-2960.
The runner-up for the 2014 award was Timothy Moss (Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning) for his article:
Moss T (2014) Socio-technical Change and the Politics of Urban Infrastructure: Managing Energy in Berlin between Dictatorship and Democracy. Urban Studies 51(7): 1432-1448.
Dr. Timothy Moss: “Socio-technical Change and the Politics of Urban Infrastructure” from Leibniz IRS on Vimeo.
The full announcement can be found here.
2013
Ozan Karaman, winner of the Urban Studies Best Article 2013, discusses his article, “Urban Neoliberalism with Islamic Characteristics“.
Karaman O (2013) Urban Neoliberalism with Islamic Characteristics. Urban Studies 50(16): 3412-3427.
2012
Robert Boyd, winner of the Urban Studies Best Article 2012, discusses his article, “The ‘Black Metropolis’ Revisited: A Comparative Analysis of Northern and Southern Cities in the United States in the Early 20th Century“.
Boyd R (2012) The ‘Black Metropolis’ Revisited: A Comparative Analysis of Northern and Southern Cities in the United States in the Early 20th Century. Urban Studies 49(4): 845-860.
