Pub Date : 2025-11-14DOI: 10.1177/00420980251377708
Shi Yin Chee
What does aging look like when childless older adults born between 1946 and 1964, commonly referred to as Baby Boomers, enter urban-based senior living facilities that are often shaped by age-friendly ideals but still built around familial involvement? Many find themselves challenging a system rooted in older norms that never anticipated these higher childlessness rates. This study explored the lived experiences of older adults with functional limitations who identify as childless, whether partnered or unpartnered, focusing on how they navigate daily life, maintain agency, and establish support systems in densely populated institutional settings. Using Moustakas’ transcendental phenomenology and the Modified Stevick–Colaizzi–Keen method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants across six urban-based senior living facilities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Four themes emerged: institutional blind spots that overlook childless older adults, the formation of chosen families, financial security without familial safeguards, and the balance between solitude and self-determination. Rather than descending into isolation, participants demonstrated proactive strategies to preserve autonomy. As one of the first generations aging in large numbers without children, these findings underscore how urban aging infrastructure, spatial policy assumptions, and care systems lag behind changing family structures. The findings highlight a need for targeted reforms, reminding facility administrators, policymakers, and care professionals to recognize diverse later-life paths and ensure that older adults without children remain visible, validated, and empowered within urban care systems.
{"title":"No child to call: Lived experiences of childless older adults from the Baby Boomer generation with functional limitations in urban senior living facilities","authors":"Shi Yin Chee","doi":"10.1177/00420980251377708","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251377708","url":null,"abstract":"What does aging look like when childless older adults born between 1946 and 1964, commonly referred to as Baby Boomers, enter urban-based senior living facilities that are often shaped by age-friendly ideals but still built around familial involvement? Many find themselves challenging a system rooted in older norms that never anticipated these higher childlessness rates. This study explored the lived experiences of older adults with functional limitations who identify as childless, whether partnered or unpartnered, focusing on how they navigate daily life, maintain agency, and establish support systems in densely populated institutional settings. Using Moustakas’ transcendental phenomenology and the Modified Stevick–Colaizzi–Keen method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants across six urban-based senior living facilities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Four themes emerged: institutional blind spots that overlook childless older adults, the formation of chosen families, financial security without familial safeguards, and the balance between solitude and self-determination. Rather than descending into isolation, participants demonstrated proactive strategies to preserve autonomy. As one of the first generations aging in large numbers without children, these findings underscore how urban aging infrastructure, spatial policy assumptions, and care systems lag behind changing family structures. The findings highlight a need for targeted reforms, reminding facility administrators, policymakers, and care professionals to recognize diverse later-life paths and ensure that older adults without children remain visible, validated, and empowered within urban care systems.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145515782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-12DOI: 10.1177/00420980251379767
Josje Bouwmeester, Deniz Ay, Jean-David Gerber, Thomas Hartmann
One of the difficulties in implementing densification objectives is that planners often do not have sufficient coercive power to restrict property rights, which means that landowners can resist the implementation of land use plans. As a result, planning increasingly takes place on the project level, allowing planning authorities and developers to renegotiate the terms and conditions of densification. While project-level negotiations have been researched, these studies do not focus on individual landowners but rather on developers. This article examines how developers and public authorities manage the property rights of individual landowners to prevent delays or blockages in project implementation. Drawing on a comparative case study of Thun (Switzerland) and Utrecht (Netherlands), we show how project-based planning takes different forms depending on legal frameworks and planning norms. In Thun, strategies focus on consensus building and input legitimacy; in Utrecht, more coercive instruments such as expropriation are used and legitimized based on their output. The findings suggest that project-based planning tends to exclude individual landowners from negotiation, framing their objections as obstructions to be managed. While individual owners’ interests are often sidelined, the private economic interests of developers and large landowners often appeal to collective goals such as climate change mitigation or housing supply. This raises broader questions about which interests are recognized, or dismissed, in the construction of social sustainability in urban densification.
{"title":"Small plots, big stakes: Strategic responses to individual landowners’ property rights in densification projects","authors":"Josje Bouwmeester, Deniz Ay, Jean-David Gerber, Thomas Hartmann","doi":"10.1177/00420980251379767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251379767","url":null,"abstract":"One of the difficulties in implementing densification objectives is that planners often do not have sufficient coercive power to restrict property rights, which means that landowners can resist the implementation of land use plans. As a result, planning increasingly takes place on the project level, allowing planning authorities and developers to renegotiate the terms and conditions of densification. While project-level negotiations have been researched, these studies do not focus on individual landowners but rather on developers. This article examines how developers and public authorities manage the property rights of individual landowners to prevent delays or blockages in project implementation. Drawing on a comparative case study of Thun (Switzerland) and Utrecht (Netherlands), we show how project-based planning takes different forms depending on legal frameworks and planning norms. In Thun, strategies focus on consensus building and input legitimacy; in Utrecht, more coercive instruments such as expropriation are used and legitimized based on their output. The findings suggest that project-based planning tends to exclude individual landowners from negotiation, framing their objections as obstructions to be managed. While individual owners’ interests are often sidelined, the private economic interests of developers and large landowners often appeal to collective goals such as climate change mitigation or housing supply. This raises broader questions about which interests are recognized, or dismissed, in the construction of social sustainability in urban densification.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145491844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-12DOI: 10.1177/00420980251382753
Rory Coulter, Antoine Paccoud
Housing is central to the social dynamics of cities. However, many recent citywide analyses of social change have largely set aside housing to concentrate on shifts in income and occupational class structure. In this paper, we argue that examining the intersections of class with tenure provides a richer framework for making sense of patterns and processes of urban social change. Using data from the 2011 and 2021 Censuses, we examine (1) how the intersecting occupational class and housing tenure position of households in London has changed over the decade before (2) analysing the shifting locational and tenure positions of middle- and working-class households in the capital. The results show that ‘leasing space’ through the private rented sector is a key dynamic enabling the continued gentrification of Inner London boroughs. The apparent persistence of working-class London meanwhile masks disadvantageous changes in the residential position of working-class households, as declines in working-class homeownership and social housing have been offset by the growth of working-class private renting in the northern and western suburbs. These restructuring trends have major implications for social inequalities of wealth, residential security and access to opportunities.
{"title":"Leasing space through the private rented sector: The intersections of class and tenure change in London, 2011–2021","authors":"Rory Coulter, Antoine Paccoud","doi":"10.1177/00420980251382753","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251382753","url":null,"abstract":"Housing is central to the social dynamics of cities. However, many recent citywide analyses of social change have largely set aside housing to concentrate on shifts in income and occupational class structure. In this paper, we argue that examining the intersections of class with tenure provides a richer framework for making sense of patterns and processes of urban social change. Using data from the 2011 and 2021 Censuses, we examine (1) how the intersecting occupational class and housing tenure position of households in London has changed over the decade before (2) analysing the shifting locational and tenure positions of middle- and working-class households in the capital. The results show that ‘leasing space’ through the private rented sector is a key dynamic enabling the continued gentrification of Inner London boroughs. The apparent persistence of working-class London meanwhile masks disadvantageous changes in the residential position of working-class households, as declines in working-class homeownership and social housing have been offset by the growth of working-class private renting in the northern and western suburbs. These restructuring trends have major implications for social inequalities of wealth, residential security and access to opportunities.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145491812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While vertical densification offers numerous benefits, it can also lead to environmental harm, damage to cultural heritage, increased housing costs and exclusionary gentrification, posing significant challenges for urban governance. In Chile, new progressive local governments are working to regulate vertical densification. This study compares the development paths of two boroughs: Valparaíso and San Miguel. By utilising official property datasets, density maps and qualitative data analysis based on semi-structured interviews, the study explores how previous market-orientated, laissez-faire vertical densification policies are superseded by stricter regulations driven by progressive local politics, under the promise of alternative, less-dense densification. The cases illustrate, in the first instance, grassroots mobilisation and judicial challenges that restrict vertical growth; and in the second instance, restrictions on density regulations that do not affect floor area ratios. The study reveals the limited effectiveness of these approaches, as they lead to either a shortage of affordable and social housing or exclusionary gentrification, despite the central government’s funding of social housing estates aimed at preventing this. Therefore, more comprehensive densification policies are essential. This case study highlights the fragile governance of vertical densification in Chile’s ‘progressive municipalism’, its centrality in the political trajectories of the boroughs and the challenges in reconciling local community opposition with the need for housing welfare under the (still neoliberal) market rule.
{"title":"The politics of vertical densification in Chile: Bridging planning, contestation and housing welfare under progressive municipalism","authors":"Ernesto López-Morales, Rodrigo Caimanque, Nicolás Herrera, Odette Garrido","doi":"10.1177/00420980251377714","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251377714","url":null,"abstract":"While vertical densification offers numerous benefits, it can also lead to environmental harm, damage to cultural heritage, increased housing costs and exclusionary gentrification, posing significant challenges for urban governance. In Chile, new progressive local governments are working to regulate vertical densification. This study compares the development paths of two boroughs: Valparaíso and San Miguel. By utilising official property datasets, density maps and qualitative data analysis based on semi-structured interviews, the study explores how previous market-orientated, laissez-faire vertical densification policies are superseded by stricter regulations driven by progressive local politics, under the promise of alternative, less-dense densification. The cases illustrate, in the first instance, grassroots mobilisation and judicial challenges that restrict vertical growth; and in the second instance, restrictions on density regulations that do not affect floor area ratios. The study reveals the limited effectiveness of these approaches, as they lead to either a shortage of affordable and social housing or exclusionary gentrification, despite the central government’s funding of social housing estates aimed at preventing this. Therefore, more comprehensive densification policies are essential. This case study highlights the fragile governance of vertical densification in Chile’s ‘progressive municipalism’, its centrality in the political trajectories of the boroughs and the challenges in reconciling local community opposition with the need for housing welfare under the (still neoliberal) market rule.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145485836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1177/00420980251385996
Nufar Avni
This article explores the growing phenomenon of liberal cities operating within increasingly autocratizing national regimes. While tensions between cities and states are not new, recent developments in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Israel, and the USA highlight a distinct and urgent dynamic: urban resistance in the face of democratic backsliding and autocratization. Drawing on emerging scholarship from urban studies, political science, and geography, the article synthesizes three burgeoning strands of literature: (1) city-level activism contesting autocratizing national policies, (2) the transnational engagement of cities through city diplomacy and alliances, and (3) state-led constraints on urban autonomy. These studies reveal unique patterns and settings shaped by the global autocratic turn, which go beyond more established frictions between cities and states. Through this scholarship, the article examines how municipalities governed by progressive actors respond to central state pressures, leveraging legal, financial, symbolic, and diplomatic tools to assert autonomy and uphold liberal-democratic values. Case studies such as Istanbul, Budapest, and the Pact of Free Cities illustrate how cities act as democratic enclaves, navigating structural constraints to mobilize resistance. By identifying research gaps and proposing new avenues for investigation, this article advances a research agenda that re-centers cities as critical actors in contemporary struggles for democracy.
{"title":"Liberal cities in autocratizing states: Scholarly pathways and a research agenda","authors":"Nufar Avni","doi":"10.1177/00420980251385996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251385996","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the growing phenomenon of liberal cities operating within increasingly autocratizing national regimes. While tensions between cities and states are not new, recent developments in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Israel, and the USA highlight a distinct and urgent dynamic: urban resistance in the face of democratic backsliding and autocratization. Drawing on emerging scholarship from urban studies, political science, and geography, the article synthesizes three burgeoning strands of literature: (1) city-level activism contesting autocratizing national policies, (2) the transnational engagement of cities through city diplomacy and alliances, and (3) state-led constraints on urban autonomy. These studies reveal unique patterns and settings shaped by the global autocratic turn, which go beyond more established frictions between cities and states. Through this scholarship, the article examines how municipalities governed by progressive actors respond to central state pressures, leveraging legal, financial, symbolic, and diplomatic tools to assert autonomy and uphold liberal-democratic values. Case studies such as Istanbul, Budapest, and the Pact of Free Cities illustrate how cities act as democratic enclaves, navigating structural constraints to mobilize resistance. By identifying research gaps and proposing new avenues for investigation, this article advances a research agenda that re-centers cities as critical actors in contemporary struggles for democracy.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"531 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145478282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In New Zealand, and globally, concerns that living in areas of concentrated social housing will depress the outcomes of its tenants have led to policy directives to limit the proportion of social housing in any one community. This study explores the rationale for these initiatives through the innovative use of administrative linked data for 200,000 New Zealand social housing tenants. We analyse associations between the concentration of social housing (as measured by the proportion of social housing tenants relative to the rest of the area population) and their education and health outcomes seven-to-nine years later. We find that – contrary to policy assumptions – outcomes for social housing tenants are similar or slightly better when they have lived in areas with more concentrated social housing.
{"title":"The association between social housing concentration and the education and health outcomes of social housing tenants: A cross-sectional study of over 200,000 people in New Zealand","authors":"Ayodeji Fasoro, Elinor Chisholm, Philippa Howden-Chapman, Nevil Pierse","doi":"10.1177/00420980251376932","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251376932","url":null,"abstract":"In New Zealand, and globally, concerns that living in areas of concentrated social housing will depress the outcomes of its tenants have led to policy directives to limit the proportion of social housing in any one community. This study explores the rationale for these initiatives through the innovative use of administrative linked data for 200,000 New Zealand social housing tenants. We analyse associations between the concentration of social housing (as measured by the proportion of social housing tenants relative to the rest of the area population) and their education and health outcomes seven-to-nine years later. We find that – contrary to policy assumptions – outcomes for social housing tenants are similar or slightly better when they have lived in areas with more concentrated social housing.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145472991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In response to the global challenge of population ageing, active ageing has emerged as a key strategy. Urban parks, as core elements of an age-friendly city’s physical and social infrastructure, play a vital role in enhancing older adults’ well-being. This study aims to construct a framework for age-friendly park development integrating dual supply–demand perspectives. The framework systematically defines Space Friendly and Service Friendly attributes under the supply dimension, and Spatial Differences and Social Differences under the demand dimension. Space Friendly denotes the accessible, safe, and comfortable physical design of parks. Service Friendly encompasses soft services such as management, maintenance, and programming. Spatial Differences address heterogeneous demands arising from geographic location and park type. Social Differences focus on diverse needs stemming from socio-economic status. By utilizing the Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCM) and the Entropy Weight Method, this study developed a comprehensive evaluation system. The model results indicated that Space Friendly and Service Friendly were weighted at 39.63% and 60.37%, respectively, while Spatial Differences and Social Differences were weighted at 44.28% and 55.72%, respectively. The results in the research area indicated that 8.11% of the blocks fell into the Disorder Recession Class, 24.33% belonged to the Transitional Development Class, and 67.56% were classified under Coordinated Development Class. Overall, the age-friendliness of park resources in the study area was relatively high. Nevertheless, significant spatial disparities existed between the central areas and peripheral areas. Based on the characteristics of different blocks, this study proposed targeted optimization strategies. By offering quantitative tools and strategic guidance, this research provides an interdisciplinary method on evaluating age-friendliness of urban park resources.
{"title":"Towards an evaluation framework for age-friendly parks: A supply–demand coordination perspective","authors":"Yilun Cao, Xinwei He, Yuhan Guo, Yuhao Fang, Kexin Huang, Shucheng Ai","doi":"10.1177/00420980251377531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251377531","url":null,"abstract":"In response to the global challenge of population ageing, active ageing has emerged as a key strategy. Urban parks, as core elements of an age-friendly city’s physical and social infrastructure, play a vital role in enhancing older adults’ well-being. This study aims to construct a framework for age-friendly park development integrating dual supply–demand perspectives. The framework systematically defines Space Friendly and Service Friendly attributes under the supply dimension, and Spatial Differences and Social Differences under the demand dimension. Space Friendly denotes the accessible, safe, and comfortable physical design of parks. Service Friendly encompasses soft services such as management, maintenance, and programming. Spatial Differences address heterogeneous demands arising from geographic location and park type. Social Differences focus on diverse needs stemming from socio-economic status. By utilizing the Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCM) and the Entropy Weight Method, this study developed a comprehensive evaluation system. The model results indicated that Space Friendly and Service Friendly were weighted at 39.63% and 60.37%, respectively, while Spatial Differences and Social Differences were weighted at 44.28% and 55.72%, respectively. The results in the research area indicated that 8.11% of the blocks fell into the Disorder Recession Class, 24.33% belonged to the Transitional Development Class, and 67.56% were classified under Coordinated Development Class. Overall, the age-friendliness of park resources in the study area was relatively high. Nevertheless, significant spatial disparities existed between the central areas and peripheral areas. Based on the characteristics of different blocks, this study proposed targeted optimization strategies. By offering quantitative tools and strategic guidance, this research provides an interdisciplinary method on evaluating age-friendliness of urban park resources.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145427722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1177/00420980251383334
Belén Masi, Maria Rodó-Zárate
The concept of the right to the city has been central in urban studies and social justice movements, yet it frequently neglects the intersectional inequalities experienced by marginalized groups. This article examines the right to the city through the lens of intersectionality, focusing on how overlapping oppressions related to gender, race, class, and migration status shape urban experiences. Using a qualitative methodology of in-depth interviews and Relief Maps with 30 non-cisgender individuals living in Barcelona, we explore how multiple social positions intersect to produce specific forms of exclusion and negotiation within urban space, considering both public and private spaces as interconnected sites where these exclusions and negotiations unfold, challenging spatial hierarchies in urban studies. By foregrounding how these categories intersect, our research moves beyond essentialist understandings of marginalization and challenges rigid binaries of inclusion and exclusion. Instead, it highlights the complex, shifting, and sometimes contradictory ways individuals navigate urban life. In doing so, we position the right to the city within broader debates in urban theory, particularly the tensions between more economic perspectives and those rooted in feminist, postcolonial, and queer critiques. This perspective is particularly relevant in Southern Europe, where colonial histories, migration, and racialization follow different logics than those dominant in Anglo-American urban theory. We argue for a reimagined right to the city that dismantles exclusionary hierarchies by embracing the relational nature of urban experiences, recognizing that belonging and access to the city are shaped by a complex interplay of social categories.
{"title":"The intersectional right to the city: Non-binary and trans people navigating gender, race, and class in Barcelona","authors":"Belén Masi, Maria Rodó-Zárate","doi":"10.1177/00420980251383334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251383334","url":null,"abstract":"The concept of the right to the city has been central in urban studies and social justice movements, yet it frequently neglects the intersectional inequalities experienced by marginalized groups. This article examines the right to the city through the lens of intersectionality, focusing on how overlapping oppressions related to gender, race, class, and migration status shape urban experiences. Using a qualitative methodology of in-depth interviews and Relief Maps with 30 non-cisgender individuals living in Barcelona, we explore how multiple social positions intersect to produce specific forms of exclusion and negotiation within urban space, considering both public and private spaces as interconnected sites where these exclusions and negotiations unfold, challenging spatial hierarchies in urban studies. By foregrounding how these categories intersect, our research moves beyond essentialist understandings of marginalization and challenges rigid binaries of inclusion and exclusion. Instead, it highlights the complex, shifting, and sometimes contradictory ways individuals navigate urban life. In doing so, we position the right to the city within broader debates in urban theory, particularly the tensions between more economic perspectives and those rooted in feminist, postcolonial, and queer critiques. This perspective is particularly relevant in Southern Europe, where colonial histories, migration, and racialization follow different logics than those dominant in Anglo-American urban theory. We argue for a reimagined right to the city that dismantles exclusionary hierarchies by embracing the relational nature of urban experiences, recognizing that belonging and access to the city are shaped by a complex interplay of social categories.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"152 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145427723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1177/00420980251372441
Diego Caro
Arturo Soria’s Ciudad Lineal (Linear City), conceived in 1882, stands as an early experiment in transit-oriented urban planning. Envisioned as a linear settlement integrating housing, nature, and infrastructure along a rail corridor, it aimed to reconcile urban growth with hygienic, low-density living and cross-class social integration. Materialized in Madrid through the Compañía Madrileña de Urbanización (CMU) from 1894, the project developed as a private initiative combining real estate development and urban services. Though limited in scale, Ciudad Lineal prefigured key ideas in later suburban and Garden City models. Over time, however, Soria’s utopian vision was overtaken by shifting political and economic realities. Interrupted by war and postwar stagnation, the area underwent major transformation in the 1960s–1970s amid Madrid’s rapid expansion and motorization. The tram line was removed, automobile infrastructure prioritized, and middle-class residential blocks replaced the original low-density model. These changes entrenched socio-spatial polarization, reflecting broader dynamics of suburbanization and state-supported private development. This article reinterprets the evolution of Ciudad Lineal through a political economy lens, examining how capital, infrastructure, and ideology have shaped its built form and social composition. Using a multidisciplinary methodology that combines urban theory, historical analysis, and socio-economic data, the article traces the transformation of Ciudad Lineal from a pioneering transit-oriented suburb into a car-centric, socially polarizing urban artery in Madrid. Ultimately, the case of Arturo Soria reveals the contradictions embedded in infrastructural urbanism: how ideals of sustainable, inclusive development are often reshaped—and undermined—by speculative pressures and state–market alliances, with lasting spatial and social consequences.
阿图罗·索利亚（Arturo Soria）于1882年构想的线性城市（Ciudad Linear），是交通导向城市规划的早期实验。它被设想为一个沿铁路走廊整合住房、自然和基础设施的线性聚落，旨在协调城市发展与卫生、低密度生活和跨阶层社会融合。该项目于1894年通过Compañía Madrileña de Urbanización （CMU）在马德里实现，是一个结合房地产开发和城市服务的私人项目。虽然规模有限，但线型城市预示了后来郊区和花园城市模式的关键思想。然而，随着时间的推移，Soria的乌托邦愿景被不断变化的政治和经济现实所取代。受战争和战后停滞的影响，该地区在20世纪60年代至70年代经历了马德里快速扩张和机动化的重大转变。有轨电车线路被移除，汽车基础设施被优先考虑，中产阶级住宅区取代了原来的低密度模式。这些变化巩固了社会空间极化，反映了郊区化和国家支持的私营发展的更广泛动态。本文通过政治经济学的视角重新阐释了直线型城市的演变，考察了资本、基础设施和意识形态如何塑造了它的建筑形式和社会构成。本文采用多学科方法，结合城市理论、历史分析和社会经济数据，追溯了Ciudad Lineal从一个开创性的以公共交通为导向的郊区到马德里以汽车为中心、社会两极分化的城市动脉的转变。最终，Arturo Soria的案例揭示了基础设施城市化所蕴含的矛盾：可持续、包容性发展的理想如何经常被投机压力和国家-市场联盟所重塑和破坏，并带来持久的空间和社会后果。
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Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1177/00420980251382093
Saskia Warren
A strange story of urban revitalisation is unfolding in a small town in North-East England. Bishop Auckland offers a case study of small-town economic decline accelerated by austerity and a cost-of-living crisis. Often symbolic of a ‘left-behind place’, economic restructuring and political turns including a pro-Brexit majority vote are used to emphasise a post-industrial and insular urban identity. However, evangelical philanthropy by a high net worth individual is leading urban transformation of Bishop Auckland into a national and international tourist destination. Recent philanthropic investment in Bishop Auckland has launched seven cultural attractions that emphasise the image of an outward-looking place: ‘Our heritage is our future’. This article provides original insight into how place-based philanthropy exploits economic vulnerability for urban cultural transformation. It extends important research on the changing dynamics of religion in society and urban business elites to identify a political space for maverick religiously motivated high net worth individuals in public–private urban governance. It further advances upon the nature of philanthrocapitalism in post-secular urban restructuring by novel analysis of how religious ideology and capital are attempting to transform the cultural sphere and social practices in a post-industrial small town.
{"title":"Where has Bish Vegas gone? The Auckland Project, post-secular urban restructuring and evangelical philanthrocapitalism","authors":"Saskia Warren","doi":"10.1177/00420980251382093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251382093","url":null,"abstract":"A strange story of urban revitalisation is unfolding in a small town in North-East England. Bishop Auckland offers a case study of small-town economic decline accelerated by austerity and a cost-of-living crisis. Often symbolic of a ‘left-behind place’, economic restructuring and political turns including a pro-Brexit majority vote are used to emphasise a post-industrial and insular urban identity. However, evangelical philanthropy by a high net worth individual is leading urban transformation of Bishop Auckland into a national and international tourist destination. Recent philanthropic investment in Bishop Auckland has launched seven cultural attractions that emphasise the image of an outward-looking place: ‘Our heritage is our future’. This article provides original insight into how place-based philanthropy exploits economic vulnerability for urban cultural transformation. It extends important research on the changing dynamics of religion in society and urban business elites to identify a political space for maverick religiously motivated high net worth individuals in public–private urban governance. It further advances upon the nature of philanthrocapitalism in post-secular urban restructuring by novel analysis of how religious ideology and capital are attempting to transform the cultural sphere and social practices in a post-industrial small town.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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