Reassessing Urbanization Theory

Abstract

Current theoretical debates on urbanization processes point to the need to re-examine the urban and the non-urban as categories as well as in their relationship to each other. This theoretical paper critically examines the current and inspiring debate on “planetary urbanization” and stresses the need to reconsider the corporeality of urban encounter, the relationship between urban and rural, and the contentious political practice involving land, territory, and property. It is argued that rural and urban spaces can be understood as political spaces that refer to specific ways of regulating and contesting land, territory and property, depending on the power relations prevailing in each case. Research questions are developed from conflating the theoretical perspective with the example of Brazilian urban and rural movements.