Latest Urban Studies news 7/2/22

New issue out now

The February special issue (Volume 59, Issue 3) of Urban Studies Journal is now available online: Infrastructural Stigma and Urban Vulnerability.

Read the introduction by the guest editors Hanna Baumann and Haim Yacobi here.

Read the full issue here.

Latest articles on OnlineFirst

Organising grassroots infrastructure: The (in)visible work of organisational (in)completeness by María José Zapata Campos, Ester Barinaga, Jaan-Henrik Kain, Michael Oloko, Patrik Zapata

Latest paper from María José Zapata Campos et al builds on the concept of incompleteness to improve our understanding of the collective actions of grassroots organisations in the context of urban informal settlements.

New urban habits in Stockholm following COVID-19 by Ann Legeby, Daniel Koch, Fábio Duarte, Cate Heine, Tom Benson, Umberto Fugiglando, Carlo Ratti

This article is part of the forthcoming special issue: Urban public health emergencies and the COVID-19 pandemic

Legeby et al use Twitter data and an online map survey to study how COVID-19 restrictions have impacted the use of different locations, services and amenities in Stockholm in this latest special issue paper.

Towards a modest imaginary? Sanitation in Kampala beyond the modern infrastructure ideal by Mary Lawhon, Gloria Nsangi Nakyagaba, Timos Karpouzoglou

Lawhon et al 'read for difference' in the policies and practices of sanitation in Kampala, looking for evidence of an alternative imaginary infrastructure.

The ethical underpinnings of Smart City governance: Decision-making in the Smart Cambridge programme, UK by Richmond Juvenile Ehwi, Hannah Holmes, Sabina Maslova, Gemma Burgess

Richmond Juvenile Ehwi et al argue that ethical debates should be extended to capture crucial decisions taken as part of smart city governance, and the ethical references which underpin them.

Light violence at the threshold of acceptability by Casper Laing Ebbensgaard

This article is part of the forthcoming special issue: Radical verticality: Critical explorations of high-rise urbanism

By revealing how material harm resulting from vertical development is normalised, Laing's new special issue paper demonstrates how light violence is exercised in vertical development.

Recruiting international students: Analysing the imaginative geographies of three urban encounters Suzanne E. Beech

This article is part of the forthcoming special issue: Making cities through migration industries

UK universities need to work harder to attract international students than ever before: Beech's special issue paper analyses three urban encounters in the higher education recruitment process.

Impacts of political fragmentation on inclusive economic resilience: Examining American metropolitan areas after the Great Recession by Soomi Lee, Shu Wang

Lee and Wang contributes to the understanding of regional economic resilience by focusing on intra-regional economic recovery among cities.

Theorising democratic space with and beyond Henri Lefebvre debates paper by Mark Purcell

Purcell's debates paper aims to theorise space in a way that resonates with democracy by looking at the work of Henri Lefebvre and Judith Butler.

Fifty years of Business Improvement Districts: A reappraisal of the dominant perspectives and debates debates paper by Daniel Kudla

Kudla aims to provide an overdue reappraisal of the BID research and to orient future scholarship.

Beyond variegation: The territorialisation of states, communities and developers in large-scale developments in Johannesburg, Shanghai and London by Jennifer Robinson, Fulong Wu, Phil Harrison, Zheng Wang, Alison Todes, Romain Dittgen, Katia Attuyer

This article is part of the forthcoming special issue: Comparative methods for global urban studies

Robinson et al argue for the need to 'move beyond a jurisdictional municipal approach to understanding urban development politics' in this latest special issue.

Job opportunity: Reviews Editor

Urban Studies is looking to appoint a new Reviews Editor. Candidates should be active urban researchers with innovative ideas on ways to develop the reviews section - in print and through social media.

For further information please read the Job Description. 

To apply, please complete the application form and return to Ruth Harkin. 

Closing date for applications: 4 March 2022.

New reviews on Urban Blog

Read more book reviews on the Urban Studies blog.

Books available for review

If you are interested in reviewing a book for Urban Studies, please check the list of books available for review here before getting in touch with our Reviews Editor, Dr Lazaros Karaliotas.

If you would like to promote an upcoming event or job opportunity related to the field of urban studies or submit a book review or blog post responding to one of our articles for consideration, please get in touch via the Contact Us page.