IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v63y2026i3p421-439.html

Still thinking from the south: A sequel from Beirut

Author

Listed:
  • Gautam Bhan

Abstract

This essay is a written version of the 2025 Urban Studies Annual Lecture delivered in April 2025 at City Debates , the annual conference of the urban faculty of the American University of Beirut. In it, nearly two decades after it reshaped the field of urban studies (and me) in many ways, I return to thinking about southern urban theory. I do so in an urban interregnum when existing language, frameworks, concepts and categories seem insufficient and where the need for new language feels urgent. At its origins, the ethic of southern inquiry was to generate knowledge for all cities from all cities, knowing that this had not been the case for some time. In this essay, I explore where this ethic is now, whether we still felt a need for correction, and if this current sense of insufficiency is a different kind of challenge to the knowledge we need today. Finally, through offering some new southern vocabulary from Beirut itself, I offer examples of the possible agendas and directions of what southern urban theory could look like for theorists today.

Suggested Citation

  • Gautam Bhan, 2026. "Still thinking from the south: A sequel from Beirut," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 63(3), pages 421-439, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:63:y:2026:i:3:p:421-439
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980251390172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980251390172
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980251390172?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary Lawhon & Yaffa Truelove, 2020. "Disambiguating the southern urban critique: Propositions, pathways and possibilities for a more global urban studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(1), pages 3-20, January.
    2. Jennifer Robinson, 2016. "Comparative Urbanism: New Geographies and Cultures of Theorizing the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 187-199, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Murphy James T., 2022. "Urban-economic geographies beyond production: Nairobi’s sociotechnical system and the challenge of generative urbanization," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 66(1), pages 18-35, May.
    2. Özgür Sayın & Michael Hoyler & John Harrison, 2022. "Doing comparative urbanism differently: Conjunctural cities and the stress-testing of urban theory," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(2), pages 263-280, February.
    3. J Miguel Kanai & Seth Schindler, 2022. "Infrastructure-led development and the peri-urban question: Furthering crossover comparisons," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1597-1617, June.
    4. Carolyn Prouse, 2023. "Living otherwise in uncertain and speculative times," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 517-523, March.
    5. Randy K Lippert & Debra Mackinnon & Stefan Treffers, 2024. "The new private urban governance: Vestiges, ventures and visibility," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(14), pages 2673-2685, November.
    6. Serrai, Sihem Chourouk & Djiar, Kahina Amal, 2024. "Algiers master plan, land use and forced relocation: Monitoring change with a spatial decision support system," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Kevin Ward & Timothy Bunnell, 2021. "Reflections on five years of the Summer Institute in Urban Studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 863-878, March.
    8. Tom Gillespie, 2020. "The Real Estate Frontier," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 599-616, July.
    9. Isabelle Desportes & Dorothea Hilhorst, 2020. "Disaster Governance in Conflict-Affected Authoritarian Contexts: The Cases of Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Zimbabwe," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 343-354.
    10. Aidan Mosselson, 2020. "Habitus, spatial capital and making place: Housing developers and the spatial praxis of Johannesburg’s inner-city regeneration," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 277-296, March.
    11. Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn, 2024. "Book review: Neoliberal Urban Governance: Spaces, Culture and Discourses in Buenos Aires and Chicago," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(1), pages 188-191, January.
    12. Dawson, Katherine, 2021. "Under the wire: splintered time and ongoing temporariness in Accra’s electropolis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108572, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Jennifer Robinson & Philip Harrison & Sylvia Croese & Rosina Sheburah Essien & Wilbard Kombe & Matthew Lane & Evance Mwathunga & George Owusu & Yan Yang, 2025. "Reframing urban development politics: Transcalarity in sovereign, developmental and private circuits," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 62(1), pages 3-30, January.
    14. Federico Caprotti, 2019. "Spaces of visibility in the smart city: Flagship urban spaces and the smart urban imaginary," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(12), pages 2465-2479, September.
    15. Ian Bruff, 2021. "The politics of comparing capitalisms," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1273-1292, September.
    16. Felipe N.C. Magalhães, 2025. "URBANIZING VOLATILITY: On Recurrent Crises and the Economic Rhythms of Latin American Urbanization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 322-336, March.
    17. I-Chun Catherine Chang & Sue-Ching Jou & Ming-Kuang Chung, 2021. "Provincialising smart urbanism in Taipei: The smart city as a strategy for urban regime transition," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(3), pages 559-580, February.
    18. Catalina Ortiz & Gynna Millan, 2022. "CRITICAL URBAN PEDAGOGY: Convites as Sites of Southern Urbanism, Solidarity Construction and Urban Learning," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 822-844, September.
    19. Luce Beeckmans, 2025. "Mobile urbanism from below: Afro-Christian churches as place-makers and scale-makers in European midsized cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 62(10), pages 1985-2008, August.
    20. Davide Luca & Javier Terrero-Davila & Jonas Stein & Neil Lee, 2023. "Progressive cities: Urban–rural polarisation of social values and economic development around the world," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(12), pages 2329-2350, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:63:y:2026:i:3:p:421-439. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.