Megastädte oder Slumdog Cities?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to contribute to the recent debate on the role and terminology of urban research in a time of ongoing global transformations. With the declaration of a (new) urban age, the evolution toward an almost global urban society, and the confrontation with dramatic urban transformations and developments, calls for a more cosmopolitan, planetary, and/or multipolar urban theory have become increasingly pronounced. New approaches have evolved that question whether concepts such as the global or neoliberal city are remnants of an old urban debate no longer suitable for conceptualizing cities. Have the “old” concepts of a global or mega city become obsolete? How can the critique be channeled into improving research on cities? This article tries to give some answers to these questions by structuring the debate into three arguments concerning the significance of a Southern perspective on urban studies, the difficulties of provincializing urban theory, and the implications for developing a new epistemology of the urban. It then offers insights into the need for and complexity of (doing) comparative urban research by applying a process-based view on space, place, and uneven development in order to deal with the aforementioned challenges.