Metropolitics

Paris: An Aging Capital?

Beatriz Fernández & translated by Oliver Waine — 2026-09-19T05:00:00Z

Metropolization is often associated with an influx of young, highly qualified professionals. But Beatriz Fernández shows that, in Paris, this occurs alongside the aging of the population. Key to understanding this phenomenon is the fact that metropolization leads to selective departures, in terms of both age and social backgrounds.
Discourse in politics and the media emphasizes the appeal of metropolitan areas, which are viewed as centers of both economic and demographic growth (Barbier

- Essays / Paris, older people, vieillissement, senior citizens, young people, aging, France, Île-de-France, Paris region, demography, demographics, population, degrowth

Thinking with Abahlali: The Local State, Solidarity, and Research

Yousuf Al-Bulushi — 2026-06-30T05:00:00Z

Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City by Yousuf Al‑Bulushi examines the persistence of segregation, precarity, and anti-Black violence in post-Apartheid South Africa. It also analyzes a prominent social movement, the Durban-based Abahlali baseMjondolo, and its members' struggle for housing, dignity, and basic survival.
Author response by Yousuf Al‑Bulushi
The (local) state and movements
Everything in South Africa comes back to the land question. The largest landowner in Durban

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Rethinking Capitalism, the State, and Black Politics from the Global South

Camilla A. Hawthorne — 2026-06-30T05:00:00Z

Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City by Yousuf Al‑Bulushi examines the persistence of segregation, precarity, and anti-Black violence in post-Apartheid South Africa. It also analyzes a prominent social movement, the Durban-based Abahlali baseMjondolo, and its members' struggle for housing, dignity, and basic survival.
Thinking with geographically situated concepts
Yousuf Al‑Bulushi's Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City (2024) is a richly textured ethnography that can

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Settler Colonialism, Black Radicalism, and the Urban Political

Theresa Enright — 2026-06-30T05:00:00Z

Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City by Yousuf Al‑Bulushi examines the persistence of segregation, precarity, and anti-Black violence in post-Apartheid South Africa. It also analyzes a prominent social movement, the Durban-based Abahlali baseMjondolo, and its members' struggle for housing, dignity, and basic survival.
Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City explores “the strategies of global movements confronting racial capitalism” (p. 7). Theorizing this relationship from

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Urban Racial Regimes, Development, and the Black Radical Tradition in South Africa

Alex Loftus — 2026-06-30T05:00:00Z

Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City by Yousuf Al‑Bulushi examines the persistence of segregation, precarity, and anti-Black violence in post-Apartheid South Africa. It also analyzes a prominent social movement, the Durban-based Abahlali baseMjondolo, and its members' struggle for housing, dignity, and basic survival.
At the heart of Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City is Yousuf Al‑Bulushi's claim that “any attempt to grapple with the conditions of urban politics,

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Book Forum: Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City

Christopher Courtheyn & Joseph Palis — 2026-06-30T05:00:00Z

Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City by Yousuf Al‑Bulushi examines the persistence of segregation, precarity, and anti-Black violence in post-Apartheid South Africa. It also analyzes a prominent social movement, the Durban-based Abahlali baseMjondolo, and its members' struggle for housing, dignity, and basic survival.
This article series reproduces three scholarly commentaries on the work, initially offered as part of a forum at the 2025 meeting of the Association of American

- Series

Neighbourhood Planning in London and the Uneven Social Geographies of Public Engagement

Lexi Iacono & Claire Colomb — 2026-06-23T05:00:00Z

A new mechanism of public participation in planning has remained mobilised by more affluent social groups, renewing debates around local “civic capacity” in English (urban) governance.
Are channels of public participation in urban planning always mobilised by more privileged social groups? Decades of research in Europe and North America have shown that this is often the case, despite efforts to involve broader publics (Inner and Booher 2004; Brownill and Parker 2010). A new instrument created

- From the Field / localism, United Kingdom, England, London, neighborhood, planning politics, land-use planning, social diversity, governance, local governance, local authorities, local government

The Burning of the Bronx: Reconstructing a Decade of Abandonment, Arson, and Reform

Benjamin Holtzman — 2026-05-26T05:00:00Z

Between 1970 and 1981, the Bronx lost one out of every five units of housing to abandonment and arson. But why did the Bronx burn? Bench Ansfield reconstructs this largely forgotten period in the borough's history and its relevance to enduring struggles for housing, racial, and economic justice.
Bronx landlord Carmine Lanni knew that even amid New York City's 1970s fiscal crisis you could still make money off of the poor. Lanni began purchasing cheap, low-income buildings and collecting rent

- Reviews / housing, Bronx, New York, United States, displacement, FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate), fires, arson

Ride-Hailing Away from Democracy: Building Uber's Political Playbook in Washington, DC

Lauren Ames Fischer — 2026-05-12T05:00:00Z

In the past decade, platforms such as Uber and Lyft have changed how people navigate urban space. Disrupting DC illuminates Uber's efforts to influence how we navigate democratic space by reforming the contours of city power to serve the needs of smart cities and the gig economy.
What are the limits of city power, in the age of smart cities and sharing economies? What are the emerging processes of regulation? How are municipal powers being reconfigured, and by whom? Disrupting DC: The Rise of

- Reviews / platformization, democracy, Washington, DC, United States, smart city, transport, Uber, public transportation

“Build Canada Homes” Will Fail Without Confronting Anti-Black Racism

Prentiss Dantzler — 2026-04-28T05:00:00Z

Canada's new housing agency risks repeating the same injustices that produced today's uneven housing crisis unless it embeds anti-racist frameworks in its development plans.
When the federal government launched Build Canada Homes (BCH) in the fall of 2025, it promised a bold solution to the housing shortage: build faster, build smarter, and finally close the supply gap. The urgency is clear. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada must double new housing starts from

- Essays / housing, affordable housing, housing policy, racism, Canada, North America, housing crisis, inequalities