This text interrogates the methodological underpinnings of contemporary urban scholarship, with reference to different global sites and situations, as well as to recent debates around postcolonial, planetary, and provincialized urban theories. Rather than reducing methodological questions to a matter of tools and techniques, it unearths the complex connections between theory, research design, empirical work, expositional style, and normative-ethical commitment.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part 1 Reorientations

1. Urban studies unbound: postmillennial spaces of theory, by Helga Leitner, Eric Sheppard and Jamie

2 :Doing urban studies: navigating the methodological terrain, by Eric Sheppard, Helga Leitner and Jamie

3: Urban studies inside/out: a guide for readers and researchers, by Jamie Peck, Helga Leitner and Eric Sheppard Part 2 Methodological essays

4 Constructing a feminist urban political economy: on Leslie Kern’s Sex and the revitalized city, by Kyle Loewen, Devra Waldman and Mikael Omstedt

5 Dreaming and scheming the ′world-class′ city: on Asher Ghertner’s Rule by Aesthetics, by Dimitar Anguelov, Emma Colven and Prajna Rao

6 Fluid assemblages: on Lisa Björkman’s Pipe Politics, by Tanya Matthan, Emma Colven and Hudson Spivey

7 Constructing and contesting the banlieue: on Mustafa Dikeç’s Badlands of the Republic, by Nina Ebner, Joe Penny and Andre Comandon

8 Frustrated encounters: on Ahmed Kanna’s Dubai: The City as Corporation, by Nafis Hasan, Hudson Spivey and Kenton Card

9 Rescaling the urban: on Neil Brenner’s New State Spaces, by Joseph A Daniels, Mikael Omstedt and Dimitar Anguelov

10 Ethnography in the boundary zones: on Robert Fairbanks’ How it Works, by Samuel Nowak and Thomas Howard

11 Ethnographic exchanges: on Philippe Bourgois’ In Search of Respect, by Tom Howard, Samuel Nowak and Fernanda Jahn-Verri

12 Grounding the housing question in land: on Anna Haila’s Urban Land Rent, by Kenton Card, Joseph A Daniels and Andre Comandon

13 Mapping urban governance: on You-tien Hsing’s Great Urban Transformation, by Tyler Harlan and Jaehyeon Park

14 Claiming rights to the city: on James Holston’s Insurgent Citizenship, by Carolyn Prouse and Fernanda Jahn-Verri

15 Visualizing liquid cities

17 In search of ordinary ′elsewheres′ in global urbanism? On Ola Söderström’s Cities in Relations, by Rachel Bok

18 Urban comparison, quantified: on Michael Storper, Thomas Kemeny, Naji Makarem and Taner Osman’s The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies, by Andre Comandon, Kenton Card and Joseph A. Daniels

Part 3 Reflections

19 Turning Urban Studies Inside/out, by Jamie Peck, Helga Leitner and Eric Sheppard.