Comparative Urbanism

The peculiarities of place: operationalizing comparative urbanism

by James Field

Co-authored with Julia Binder (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). Forthcoming at the Second ISA Forum of Sociology - Social justice and democratization. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1-4 August 2012.

There has been a resurgence of interest in comparative urban research in recent years within the context of... more There has been a resurgence of interest in comparative urban research in recent years within the context of postcolonial, post-structural and relational approaches with a shift towards arguments resisting the notion of universal causality.  Whilst most research has encouraged a move towards these more inclusive discourses, few have addressed the methodological challenges associated with their operationalization, both in case selection and in field research and analysis.  This paper first examines the rationale for a shift in focus from descriptive-based comparative research to a focus on the similarities and dissimilarities in urban processes between cases.  Through arguing that the peculiarity of place is of key importance within analysis, a tacit acknowledgement of the significance of the individuality of place and thus the ‘local’, the paper develops a methodological framework for selecting cases.  This argument sees a shift from case selection based on arbitrary spatial units or material configuration, towards a methodology for selection based upon temporally bound perceived spatial functions.  Methods for the operationalization of more inclusive approaches is then explored through a range of spatial contexts, such as researching the spatial hegemony of ideological urban elites, the historical significance of cases and the ways in which non-territorially bound processes affect individual places and their subsequent function.  Through an understanding of the peculiarities of place derived from a range of robust ethnographic methods, a thorough analysis of the similarities and dissimilarities of urban processes between the cases can be undertaken, ultimately allowing for a contextually rich comparison of spatial phenomena.

Urban (homo) sexualities: ordinary cities and ordinary sexualities

by Gavin Brown

This article appraises the current state of research on urban sexualities and suggests some underexamined areas of... more This article appraises the current state of research on urban sexualities and suggests some underexamined areas of research that might productively be explored further. This review primarily focuses on studies of gay space and urban homosexualities, as this remains the largest body of work on urban sexualities within geography. I argue that this work has got caught in a trap of concentrating on the production of gay identities and spaces within small areas of a relatively small set of cities, against which all other spaces are implicitly assessed. Drawing on recent post-colonial debates within urban geography, this article argues that it is time for sexual geographers to expand their horizons and move beyond this hierarchy of metropolitan gay centres, to study a broader range of sexualities and spaces in ‘ordinary cities’ assessed on their own terms. To this end, the article considers work on gay domestic spaces in suburban Australia, and the interaction of local homosexualities with transnational ‘gay’ identity in Chengdu, China. This work offers productive examples of studying gay space across the whole city and attending to urban homosexualities outside of the world cities of the Global North.

Performing Urban Rivalry: The Cultural Politics of First and Second Cities

by Deb Verhoeven

Co-authored with Brian Morris

Using the long-standing rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne as a case study, this paper explores the dialogue between... more Using the long-standing rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne as a case study, this paper explores the dialogue between these cities which gives rise to their claims to identity and distinction. We are particularly concerned with the ways in which cities are imagined and discursively produced as places of comparison, of mutual exchange, of aspiration and envy such that the picture that emerges of the city is by definition a partial one; incomplete and passionately 'one-eyed'. What is at stake in a cultural politics of cities that welcomes and fuels such rivalrous representations? Here we attempt to constructively articulate a cultural study of urban places within a theoretical framework that emphasizes a non-originary account of identity. In focusing on the relational features of urban identity (in this instance first-second city rivalry), this paper attempts to establish a new approach to the analysis of cities; a critical analysis which takes more seriously the everyday urban mythologies perpetuated at the most idiomatic level of cultural politics.