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Beyond the Enclave of Urban Theory

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  • Austin Zeiderman

Abstract

This essay offers a methodological intervention into conceptual debates in urban studies. Despite significant analytical and political differences across an otherwise heterodox field of inquiry, these debates have been overly confined to a theoretical register. In this essay, I propose an alternative, inspired by Stuart Hall, which focuses on the concrete work accomplished by our key concepts in specific historical conjunctures. I make this argument with reference to my own research in Colombia, focusing specifically on racialized violence and displacement in the port‐city of Buenaventura. I argue that Hall's method, particularly his work on ‘race’, offers a way to engage questions of global urbanism without necessarily treating them as theoretical questions. Like ‘race’ in Hall's analysis, concepts like the ‘urban’ and the ‘global’ are ‘articulating principles’ of social formations, producing both discursive and material effects, and possessing social, cultural and political lives of their own. Alongside efforts to democratize the privilege of thinking and speaking in the language of ‘theory’, Hall's method exposes that privilege to more fundamental questioning.

Suggested Citation

  • Austin Zeiderman, 2018. "Beyond the Enclave of Urban Theory," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(6), pages 1114-1126, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:42:y:2018:i:6:p:1114-1126
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12661
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    Cited by:

    1. Tariq Jazeel, 2021. "The ‘City’ As Text," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 658-662, July.
    2. Hillary Angelo & Kian Goh, 2021. "OUT IN SPACE: Difference and Abstraction in Planetary Urbanization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 732-744, July.
    3. Alba Griffin & Alexandra Young, 2023. "Violence against a backdrop of colours? Ethnographic insights into tensions between urban transformation and ongoing violence in marginalised neighbourhoods," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(7), pages 1351-1373, November.
    4. Julie Ren, 2020. "Book review: Making Urban Theory: Learning and Unlearning Through Southern Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(14), pages 3002-3005, November.
    5. Julie Ren, 2022. "A more global urban studies, besides empirical variation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1741-1748, June.
    6. Michele Acuto & Daniel Pejic & Jessie Briggs, 2021. "Taking City Rankings Seriously: Engaging with Benchmarking Practices in Global Urbanism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 363-377, March.
    7. J Miguel Kanai & Seth Schindler, 2022. "Infrastructure-led development and the peri-urban question: Furthering crossover comparisons," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1597-1617, June.

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