With libraries increasingly likely to shutter their doors in the digital age, Zung Nguyen discusses the risks London faces as it emphasises public housing over other kinds of social institutions.
Buenos Aires has one of the smallest rates of green space per capita, and what's left is under threat of commercial development. Neighbourhood groups are leading the fight to defend them, but with so many battles to wage, might the government's divide-and-conquer strategy be winning out?
Following the release of his book Capital Cities: varieties and patterns of development and relocation, Vadim Rossman explains the trends and motivations behind a phenomenon as common as it is misunderstood.
In the third of a series of photo essays from Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, Carlin Carr explores how workers in Bangkok’s informal economy came together in a collective movement to advocate for their labour rights.
Abidemi Coker discusses how NGOs in Manila are mobilizing poor urban residents to work together in community associations so they can access land and housing.
Next Tokyo 2045 is a new plan for Tokyo Bay to relieve the pressure on the Japanese capital. But in reality, the city has been gradually encroaching on the Bay for centuries.
By describing the important role of Shebeens in the informal settlements of Cape Town, Bronwyn Kotzen challenges our binary conception of the formal and informal city.
Leslie Vryenhoek shares the stories of domestic workers from South Africa that highlight the advances and challenges of bringing organisation to this traditionally hidden form of urban economic activity.
Looking at the recent transformation of Williamsburg in New-York, Julia Borowicz questions the perceived authenticity of trendy post-industrial neighbourhoods. She invites us to look beyond the aesthetic, and understands what makes attractive spaces.
In discussing the scope and meaning of historic preservation, Gabrielle M. Peterson reminds us of how it can help solve multi-dimensional urban plight.
After spending over six years conducting research on urban planning in Iraq, Sebastian Schulz and Niran Banna explore how war and terrorism turned a once-cosmopolitan city into a divided metropolis.
Vadim Rossman is a professor at the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg.
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
