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This article makes the case that electric micromobilities (EMMs) are the site of a moral panic and employs the lens of mobility justice to explain it. Through analysis of scholarly and media discourse, interviews with, and social media content produced by, EMM riders (eriders), and the auto ethnographic experiences of the lead author as an electric unicycle rider in daily life, as a participant in online and offline "erider" communities, and as a food delivery worker, we reinforce the conclusion that alternate mobilities face an uphill battle in gaining legitimacy and inclusion in transportation policy and infrastructure. While this is not a new finding—alternate mobilities have a long history of being demonized and excluded—this article offers insight into how individuals who find themselves unwitting scapegoats in conflicts over public space consciously engage in deliberate actions to resist EMM panic and achieve greater mobility justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on LGBTQI + people has increased in recent years in several areas. In geography and sociology, they were interpreted as producers and modifiers of urban space. In tourism literature, efforts are concentrated on diversified consumption practices. Queer geography has noticed that LGBTQI + people have developed practices that have transformed former ghettos into notable gayborhoods in a process called gaytrification which has changed the way we enjoy cities. The literature review on gayborhoods proposes a possible end for these neighborhoods, as sexual identities gained greater acceptability. Research in queer geography reveals contributions to tourism studies, indicating that the intersections between sexuality and space contribute to the development of tourist destinations. This can be observed in an increase in tourist flow in a post-Covid-19 period, there has been an increase in tourist flow in the Reguliersdwarsstraat, the main street of leisure and entertainment aimed at the LGBTQI + people in Amsterdam. Representing a trend of reviving these neighborhoods as queer spaces after periods of lockdown. The corpus of analysis, consisting of 3955 photographs, shared between 2019 and 2022, provides answers to the following question: Can a tourism promotional strategy using social media delay the end of queer spaces and gayborhoods? The analysis states that visitors perform queerness practices that consolidate an urban queer tourist precinct, with a high tourist flow, mainly at night and in the summer months prevent its heterosexualization. Thus, it is possible to affirm that the tourist gaytrification of gay neighborhoods and streets preserves the historical and cultural legacy of LGBTQI + people, and that the construction of queers precincts diversifies the tourist offer of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the moral calculus of gentrification change for self-conscious newcomers in neighborhoods with a reputation deemed unworthy of preserving? In pointing to a set of practices distinct from "pioneering" accounts of gentrification, Brown-Saracino (2007) identified social preservationists as figures who seek to preserve authentic community and the marginalized old-timers who embody it. Using the deviant case of Bridgeport—a historically White neighborhood in Chicago with a deeply historical and persistent reputation for racism —we examine how self-conscious newcomers orient themselves to the gentrification process when the old-timers are not considered a marginalized group worth protecting, but rather a powerful group with problematic racial views. Whereas Brown-Saracino identified the importance of "selecting the old-timer" among a set of potential representatives of a valorized past, we suggest that in this case, newcomers fight to redefine a neighborhood based on a socially desirable future. Drawing on two distinct sets of ethnographic and interview-based data, we outline how this process has unfolded. We conclude that Bridgeport's story points to the importance of examining how gentrification ideologies emerge from the collision of personal commitments and neighborhood context, as neighborhood newcomers balance their ethics, concerns over personal reputation, and salient aspects of their new homes, including place reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrative theorizing is needed to advance our understanding of the relationship between where a person lives and their mental health. To this end, we introduce a social identity model that provides an integrated explanation of the ways in which social-psychological processes mediate and moderate the links between neighborhood and mental health. In developing this model, we first review existing models that are derived primarily from a resource-availability perspective informed by research in social epidemiology, health geography, and urban sociology. Building on these, the social identity model implicates neighborhood identification in four key pathways between residents' local environment and their mental health. We review a wealth of recent research that supports this model and which speaks to its capacity to integrate and extend insights from established models. We also explore the implications of the social identity approach for policy and intervention. We need to understand the connection between where people live and their mental health better than we do. This article helps us do this by presenting an integrated model of the way that social and psychological factors affect the relationship between someone's neighborhood and their mental health. This model builds on insights from social epidemiology, health geography, and urban sociology. Its distinct and novel contribution is to point to the importance of four pathways through which neighborhood identification shapes residents' mental health. A large body of recent research supports this model and highlights its potential to integrate and expand upon existing theories. We also discuss how our model can inform policies and interventions that seek to improve mental health outcomes in communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An "urban" subfield exists in virtually every social science discipline, but these subfields seldom engage one another. We asked scholars from five urban subfields to respond to questions about the state of urban research within their discipline. This article consists of their consequent essays and reflections on their responses. The questions posed included the discipline's conception of "urban," the main concerns motivating the subfield, the primary methodologies pursued, the extent to which their subfield interacted with or was informed by research in other urban subfields, and the main concepts or approaches it had to offer to other subfields or might take away from them. In our reflections, we particularly note the intellectual and institutional difficulties in creating a broader field of urban research or of engaging in truly inter-disciplinary research. We also highlight the desirability of greater engagement across these subfields through encouraging a "republic of conversation" among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of the urban impasse, which refers to the tension between the potential actions available to individuals in urban environments and the constraints that limit their choices. The authors argue that this impasse contributes to structural inequalities in cities. They advocate for a relational approach to studying the urban, which considers the long-term trends and institutions that shape urban life. The article includes case studies from Berlin, São Paulo, and Brazilian favelas to illustrate the complexities of urban inequalities and the role of institutions in shaping social action. The authors conclude by emphasizing the need for a deeply situational perspective to understand the conflicts and management of cities. [Extracted from the article]

The article is situated within the conceptual lineage of St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton's groundbreaking Black Metropolis model. However, it provides a new way of considering this intellectual heritage. The analysis suggests that African American traditions of Pan-Africanism have not been expansively addressed in their magnitude on Black urban sociology. Drake and Cayton's theorization is reconfigured as it exists within a Pan-African value system for the contemporary Black (Diasporic) city. The research presents "unsung" Pan-African tropes that are central to the maintenance of the Black city's identity and psychological cohesion. If the mind is the "primary battlefield" as Garvey insists, then it is important to note the (beneficial) psychological impact that African American redemption and the Pan- African Metropolis can bestow on African Americans. The discussion locates Pan-Africanism as a tangible operating mechanism on African Americans' lifestyle, mental health, and (Africanized) identities within Detroit's Black community. Field observations of Detroit's African World Festival connect these festival spaces as they characterize and drive the city's identity, psychology, economic considerations, and ultimately, Pan-African groundings. The sustainability of an Afrocentric philosophy and psychology has enhanced the Black city in the manifestation of a distinctive cultural political economy. The Pan African Metropolis emerged during Detroit's Black Arts Movement (the 1970s of my youth). To this end, the article pushes back against "the lie" which overgeneralizes African Americans in a Black deficit homogeneity, whereas the "alleged Black American monolith" is not connected to any operating African continuum in their daily lives. Plain language summary: The Pan African Metropolis: Pan African Lives in a Pan African City All cities have a psychological effect on their inhabitants. How does a Pan-African value system shape the distinctive character and mindset of a city? This article attempts to answer this question. The current research on Detroit's African World Festival looks at how it connects to a larger Africanized World of Detroit (from the 1970s to the present). It locates and celebrates African Americans in Detroit who live devoted, daily Pan-African lives. It voices how the city has benefited from the norm of its Pan-African leadership. The discussion fills a needed gap as it looks at how contemporary customs of Pan-Africanism have made a positive impact on African Americans' lifestyle and mental health who live in Detroit, Michigan. The argument presents unique Pan-African values, which are referred to as Pan African tropes. These tropes have uniquely shaped Detroit's Black community's psychological makeup and distinctive personality. From this perspective, Pan-Africanism is discussed here from a holistic perspective for African Americans. It is considered deliberately as a mindset-shaping and Black progress philosophy in the foundation of the city. The cultural agency of Detroit has created an unsung tradition of Black placemaking through African heritage connections, celebrations, and preservation. Garvey insists what has made African Americans reject their African heritage is brainwashing from white/European inducement of continued mental slavery, as Bob Marley captures Garvey's most comprehensive message in Redemption Song, "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds". This is why Garvey tells us the primary battlefield is the mind. Ultimately, the mental health of African Americans is dependent upon the recovery of their historical dignity, and a tranformative Africana Studies education, and thus, more accurate knowledge as it applies to them. Thus, Pan-Africanism has a seriously unrecognized psychological benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological conditions are heavily influenced by human–environment interactions, which is why understanding the relationships between people and nature is crucial. While earlier studies have indicated a pattern of positive correlations between economic wealth and biodiversity in urban areas, there are some examples that suggest that such associations are more intricate than initially presumed. In this study, we aimed to assess whether such a relation holds in Lahti, a medium-sized city in southern Finland, considering two biodiversity proxies (i.e., bird and woody plant species richness) and the Urban Ecosystem Integrity Index (UEII) of the city. Our results show no clear relationship between economic wealth (average annual income per statistical area) reported for 2019 and the two assessed biodiversity proxies and the UEII. These findings shed new light on the "luxury effect" in urban areas and reveal the nature of such relationship in highly green cities embedded in economic parity scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although W. E. B. Du Bois addresses crime in Black communities in many of his writings, he is rarely recognized as having a cohesive theory on crime, and his work is often conflated with Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory. While both social disorganization and Du Bois's theories pushed sociology and criminology away from pseudo-biological explanations of crime to the social environment, the Chicago School analyzed how social control broke down within neighborhoods, while Du Bois analyzed how racist social and economic exclusion of Black communities led to crime. Du Bois's criminological theories of social disharmony and racial injustice also consider the social construction of crime and the criminalization of Blackness where social disorganization does not. Focusing on the relations of racial exclusion led Du Bois to propose solutions to crime that focus on mechanisms of oppression and economic injustice across various levels of society. This approach differs widely from community-level interventions driven by social disorganization theory, which focus on improving informal social control within neighborhoods. Du Bois's theories on crime and the social environment provide an analytic lens for sociologists to link the social organization within communities to the social organization across communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Placemaking is a concept used in urban planning to shape public spaces. It is a complex and evolving concept that involves various actors with different goals, including grassroots community members, artists, developers, and governments. Placemaking has the potential to address urban crises and improve urban life, but it is distinct from mainstream planning and can take the form of informal interventions led by activists. It has been influenced by various discourses, including post-capitalism and post-liberalism, and it is important to consider how it can benefit marginalized groups and contribute to meeting place-based goals of access and inclusion. Placemaking has gained renewed attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are challenges to maintaining its integrity, such as the rush to implement initiatives without proper community engagement. Despite these challenges, placemaking holds potential for progress in addressing social vulnerabilities and building bridges across communities. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the ways in which lesbians' economic and intimate lives are closely intertwined amid neoliberal development in the urban landscape. Previous research on queer urban life has primarily drawn attention to commodified gay neighbourhoods and other sites for sexual consumption, which are often marketised as part of a liberal and queer-friendly urban landscape, in Euro-American contexts. Such a focus is not adequate, however, to capture the complex interplay between intimacy and commodification in contemporary societies. Drawing upon interviews with 35 lesbians in Beijing, this study shows how the market is experienced by lesbians as a site of queer agency and vulnerability under neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics. The findings reveal 'commodified forms of intimacy', through which lesbians actively engage in the labour market and (queer-targeted) pink market in order to develop their intimate relations. Meanwhile, 'intimatised forms of commodification' illustrate how women's gendered and sexual expressions are closely policed and evaluated in the workplace as a site of both economic production and the reproduction of social norms. Participants were conscious of their vulnerable position as women and lesbians in the marketplace, but they were active in strategising ways to navigate urban landscapes of heteronormativity and gender inequalities. This article helps to develop a deeper understanding of the complicated and contradictory impacts of neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics on queer communities. It contributes to urban sociology and sexuality studies by mapping the multiple connections between commodified relations and intimate relations in the neoliberal city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that increased contact between different races under the right conditions can increase interracial tolerance. Research also shows that more white individuals are moving back to city centers through the process of gentrification. This research shows that gentrification is a process ripe with conflict which has implications on interracial contact. New development in neighborhoods not only prices out longtime residents who are often of color but is also geared toward newer middle-class patrons who are often white. Literature on whites living in diverse or gentrifying neighborhoods illustrates habits and behaviors that result in the avoidance of people of color. Literature also illustrates that's these whites are likely to be more politically progressive and claim to value the racially diverse nature of their neighborhoods. Critical diversity research sheds some light on this paradox, but this is a small but growing field. More research needs to be done to better understand the habitus, the racial ideologies, and the relationships white individuals who live in diverse or gentrifying neighborhoods, have with people of color. Doing so would not only examine how gentrification is structuring interracial contact, but also provide a closer look at a new dominant racial ideology for whites in this context. Critical diversity ideology, while similar to color blind racism, in that it still reproduces racial inequality, is a distinct racial ideology that is potentially paramount in the contexts of racially diverse neighborhoods. Detroit makes an ideal location for this research due to its history of racial segregation and current influx of white individuals living in close proximity to their Black counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sculptures and monuments play an important role in shaping collective memory and personality, as well as reproducing social inequalities. This article examines the female sculptures in the public spaces of Istanbul; It aims to make visible the inequalities in the common use of public space. Sculptures of Istanbul, which ensure the clearest and static transmission of gender inequality, are handled and exemplified as angels, virgins, war hero women, mother statues and female statues with sexuality emphasized. The research will examine how the representation of women in public sculptures and monuments and the message they carry are reproduced every day in public spaces, deepening inequality and affecting the representation of social roles. In this context, 10 sculptures were selected for the study. The 10 female statues discussed in this context not only repeat the message, but also formally and narratively reiterate that the message is unchangeable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did the Norwich Union, a life and general insurance company, come to see itself as a 'local developer with people always at the centre of our planning'? This article explores how a small number of insurance companies, capitalising on their long history of property investment, used their investment funds, or 'life funds', to transform the built environment of UK in the twentieth century. In the postwar period life funds were contracted by local governments to finance, plan and develop solutions to urban issues that paralleled those targeted by post‐war welfare reforms. This involved companies in developing expertise, working practices, instruments and collaborative arrangements that are not adequately represented as financial investment. Ventures into development on this scale had also to be ventures in futures planning, calculated bets on how people would – and how they should – live, work and spend. These are enterprises that I characterise as 'experimental practices of financial sociology' as a provocation that acknowledges first, that non‐sociologists sometimes devise huge sociological experiments and second, that the separation of economics from sociology, and of finance from society, is a disciplinary move that is far less strictly enacted outside the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a general sense, architecture and technology articulate two modes of evaluation of objects and built environments; however, are there conditions that allow us to consider architectural works as technologies? This paper explores this possibility by analyzing bibliographic, documentary, and planimetric information on housing blocks developed by the state agency, Corporación de la Vivienda (CORVI), between 1953 and 1974. Using Process Tracing as a method of analysis, milestones were identified that showed the ways in which the design and production of this typology were influenced by a regime of values based on the idea of rationalization, and that the heterogeneity of its cases showed flexibility and adaptation to the ways of calculating and realizing this value. The conclusions address the causality observed between value and typology in this case, and suggest that this behavior expresses a technological condition of architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-industrial economies, the creative industries have become major drivers of urban transformation. However, industry reports show that racialised minorities remain underrepresented in the UK's creative industries. In this context, East London's growing number of creative-industries hubs run the risk of re-inscribing existing patterns of racial exclusion onto the urban topography. In this article, I utilise analytical models drawn from the study of the creative industries and urban sociology to examine how racialised inequality in the creative sectors can become spatialised in an urban setting. I argue that East London's regeneration process is largely structured by discourses of institutional 'diversity' that have historically failed to deliver greater levels of inclusion in the sphere of creative production. In this context, I point to the need for multicultural creative networks and production hubs, that I term 'multicologies', where racialised practitioners from complementary sectors of the creative industries can be spatially concentrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International students are an important global cohort of 'noncitizens' whose experiences are central concerns for urban sociologists and migration scholars. Drawing on survey fieldwork conducted among international students in the private rental sector in Sydney and Melbourne during 2019, this article provides new knowledge about the hardships experienced by international students who report financial stress. Using a modified scale developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we highlight the accelerating role of high levels of financial stress in producing disruptive events such as housing evictions and fears of homelessness, as well as reliance on inadequate housing like 'hot-bedding'. Financial stress is significantly more likely for students from low-GNI (gross national income) countries and higher stress reduces wellbeing. Access to paid employment, however, does not 'protect' against higher financial stress. We conclude that higher education policymakers need tools and policies to prevent disruptive life events among international students related to financial stress, particularly those associated with housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need to "environmentalize" urban sociology by integrating environmental concerns into the field. It highlights the limited progress made in this area despite calls for change. The article argues that urban sociology's historical exclusion of the environment and its emphasis on specific methodologies have hindered the integration of environmental theories. It suggests that urban sociologists should adopt new language and explore alternative analytical paradigms to overcome these challenges. Additionally, the article calls for a broader transformation of the field that includes decolonizing inherited approaches and prioritizing scholarship that seeks liberation and justice. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the historical exclusion of the natural environment from urban sociology and the need to "environmentalize" the field. It argues that traditional understandings of urban environments have ignored interconnected ecological and urban crises, such as climate change and inequality. The article calls for a reevaluation of urban sociology's approach to nature and the environment, highlighting the contributions of critical traditions in social theory and geography. It also emphasizes the need for a more expansive and relational approach that considers the broader politics of land, infrastructure, and development, as well as greater dialogue between urban and rural sociology. [Extracted from the article]

This introductory article to the special issue 'Classical Sociology from the Metropolis' provides a comprehensive exploration of the profound influence of metropolises, particularly Berlin, on the development and discourse of classical sociology. Emphasizing the metropolis as a social space and promoter of sociological thought, it delves into the lives and works of key figures such as Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frieda Wunderlich and Rose Laub Coser. Their interactions, perspectives and transnational exchanges, particularly between Berlin and other urban centres such as Chicago and New York, are highlighted, illustrating the global interconnectedness of sociological discourse. While acknowledging established sociological icons, the article also highlights the often overlooked contributions of women and scholars of colour, challenging and expanding the traditional understanding of the 'classical' in sociological thought. The narrative travels from the early urban sociological and feminist theories that emerged in the metropolis of the 1920s to the complexities of Marxist sociology in a divided Berlin after the Second World War. Through a curated selection of articles in the special issue, the work underlines the central role of the metropolis in shaping foundational sociological concepts and the thinkers who championed them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the phenomenon of urban expertise in Russian cities, urbanistika, a term used to describe activities related to urban planning and decision-making. The creation of this field of knowledge coincided with increased public interest in expert assessment. The analysis focuses on an activist group involved in urban redevelopment projects in St Petersburg in 2012--2019. Using the insights of the literature on the sociology of expertise combined with urban studies scholarship, the study sets out to uncover the mechanisms by which civic urban expertise is constructed and to contextualise the global and local conditions in which such activity was shaped. The methodological approach tracks the process by which the network is created that allows for urban questions to become the objects of expert labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Tensions in Diversity: Spaces for Collective Life in Los Angeles" by Felicity Hwee-Hwa Chan explores the experiences of residents in three diverse neighborhoods in Los Angeles County: Central Long Beach, San Marino, and Mid-Wilshire. The book examines the tensions that arise from cultural and socioeconomic diversity and investigates the possibilities for intercultural learning and belonging in these communities. Chan's research reveals the existence of visible and invisible boundaries that shape local belonging and highlights the importance of intentional design in public spaces to foster intercultural encounters. The book provides valuable insights for researchers, practitioners, and scholars interested in ethnic and cultural diversity in urban environments. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the significant emphasis in Scandinavian cities on vital urban spaces and creative unfolding in urban development, there is a tendency towards designing for "finished" urban spaces with a pre-defined conclusion. The result is often standardised design and staged play, ignoring the diversity of lived experiences taking place in the here and now. How can urban spaces be generated to accommodate unforeseen encounters fostering moments of intensity, affect, and disorder? In this article, we explore the potential of improvisation in urban spaces by examining how urban public spaces facilitate improvisation in interactions between places, senses, materials, and participants. Improvisation is understood as a productive force in urban development that gives space to what occurs in urban encounters. The article draws on Richard Sennett's concept of "disorder" and Jennifer Mason's concept of "affinity." By using design experiments and sensory and visual methods inspired by ethnographic methodology the article analyses two improvisational practices occurring in public spaces in Norway and Denmark, which emphasise the performative, affective, and sensory elements of urban life. The analysis brings forth a discussion of how improvisation unfolds in multimodal urban encounters, between order and disorder, and sensory and emotional connections. The authors argue for a more place-sensitive form of city-making and more improvisatorial urban designs that stimulate varied, spontaneous, and changeable use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental structural, demographic, and socio-economic changes afflicting large housing estates in Eastern German cities raise questions about how these neighborhoods could be maintained and developed into attractive residential locations where people want to live and settle down. Besides personal, social, economic, and even administrative factors, individual location decisions are influenced by the physical conditions of space and how they affect a sense of "home"--a crucial precondition for long-term habitation. In terms of urban planning and regeneration activities, we ask: To what extent do the current physical and infrastructural conditions ("built space") of large housing estates encourage residents to "feel at home"? We understand home as an atmosphere of well-being and belonging that is based on the individual and communal appropriation of spaces, which in turn presupposes the possibility of contact and social exchanges among neighbors. The concept of "home" we present here is grounded in philosophical anthropology, new phenomenology, and architectural theory. It provides a specific spatial approach to housing from which we develop indicators to evaluate space. In particular, we apply the concept of "lived space" to evaluate infrastructural amenities, open and green spaces, as well as built structures in three case studies of large housing estates in East German cities. We aim to uncover local potentials for and obstacles to spatial appropriation and encounters in these settings. This allows us to draw conclusions on how urban regeneration policies and measures can make large housing estates more liveable in the long term by promoting encounters and appropriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions of change and the future have become increasingly salient in Vancouver's Chinatown in the last decade, as gentrification proceeds apace. Various actors have used the neighbourhood's public spaces to express their visions of Chinatown's future. These claims are articulated through attempts to demonstrate and strengthen the vitality of Chinatown in the face of growing narratives of its putative decline and death. By engaging with the contemporary sociological literature on conviviality, where relatively "thin" versus more radical conceptualizations of conviviality are being debated, and putting it into conversation with both the geographical literature on the politics of public space and political theory discussions of agonism, we argue that the uses of public space must be analyzed without romanticizing conviviality or consensus in order to understand the productive possibilities of "political conviviality" and agonistic encounters. Our focus is the "Hot+Noisy Mahjong Socials" held in recent summers in an iconic plaza in Chinatown. These are organized by a community group that builds connections between mostly Chinese Canadian youth and largely Cantonese-speaking seniors. These groups espouse a goal of "place-keeping" in the context of planning trends toward "placemaking." Through this case, we consider how activists from marginalized communities build solidarities through agonistic "place-keeping" in the face of gentrification and threats of cultural erasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The everyday life of public space is characterised by many kinds of convivial, conflictual, and improvisational encounters between people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. Because public spaces are, in principle at least, freely accessible to all, they are of central importance to everyday life and intrinsically interesting to social scientists. This thematic issue brings together a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on everyday encounters in public space. In the introduction to this thematic issue, we appeal to urban scholars of all backgrounds to take the social life of public space seriously; as essential social infrastructure, public space is key to the collective well-being of city-dwellers, and it provides a crucial bridge between urban planning and the social sciences. Here, we briefly survey research on everyday encounters and introduce each of the contributions to the issue. While the articles in this issue are organised around the three core themes of conviviality, conflict, and improvisation, we argue for the entanglements of each within the everyday life of public spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to public space for earning livelihoods is important for street vendors in global south cities. However, due to continuous population growth and the demand for lands by the real estate development sector, pressure on land is very high in the global south. Consequently, global south cities such as Dhaka provide 'no place' for its poor migrant citizens. Yet, the urban poor are able to appropriate public space for livelihoods. Drawing on a case study of Sattola slum in Dhaka, this article investigates how the urban poor access to public space for livelihoods and construct counter-spaces by breaking the planned order of the city. This article argues that the urban poor are able to construct counter-spaces with the tacit support of translocal social networks as well as with the support of a range of state and non-state powerful actors who are compromised by the benefits and profits they extract from vendors. This article draws on qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews with 94 informal workers and 37 key informants. This article contributes to urban sociology literature demonstrating that the urban poor are able to construct counter-spaces drawing on a range of everyday tactics and appropriating public space by quietly breaking the planned order of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the development of the discipline of urban sociology in Turkey. Urban sociology is a discipline that continues to increase in importance as the world's population becomes more urbanized day by day. Turkey is a country with an urban population above the world average. In Turkey, it is possible to say that studies on urban sociology, which deals with the life of the main city and its inhabitants, have gained momentum especially since the second half of the 20th century. This discipline has also entered the curriculum of various departments of universities followed at different academic levels. In this direction, it is aimed to examine the undergraduate course curriculum of Public Administration, Political Science and Public Administration departments in Turkey in the context of urban sociology issues. For this purpose, using the descriptive content analysis method, the content of the relevant departments in the field of urban sociology has been revealed and how the development of the discipline has been reflected in the undergraduate curriculum of these departments has been examined. It is hoped that this study, which has some limitations, will form a research basis, and it is thought that it will inspire discussion of the place of the discipline of urban sociology in different departments and curriculum at different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates sexual assault on commuter trains in Tokyo to unravel the folk theorizing that passengers engage in to make sense of sexual violence in the urban commons. Through what everyday conceptual work do commutersconstitute sexual violence on transit systems as a persistent aspect of city life? The discussion identifies national cultural discourses of gender and city crowds as key explanatory categories through which commuters diagnose and grapple with sexual violence on mass transit. Scenes of sexual assault on commuter trains in Tokyo bespeak the need for geographical analysis of stranger violence to articulate itself from the intersections between urban forms and manifestations of the nation in cities. By tracing these social relations on-the-move, the article highlights the value of bringing feminist studies of violence into dialogue with a sociology of urban crowds and critical geographies of public transportation. First, a focus on urban form reveals how the social properties of mass transit mediate violent intimacies between strangers in the city. Second, precisely because violence produces social knowledge by discriminating between people, analysis of sexual assault on public transport enables a more precise conceptualization of the links between passengering and urban social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parking citations are among the most common minor offenses, which can result in millions of dollars in revenue each year for cities. However, it is an open question whether the spatial distribution of parking citations is equitable in terms of neighborhoods’ racial/ethnic composition and economic standing. To the extent that parking citations are issued in nonwhite or low-income neighborhoods, this would represent a form of urban inequality. Thus, for the present study, we assess this understudied proposition by collecting data on neighborhoods in San Francisco, California, and estimating a series of negative binomial regression models. Although we find that measures of nonwhite ethnicities are non-significant in relation to all types of parking citations, we do find evidence that low-income neighborhoods have significantly higher rates of both street cleaning and metered parking citations, in comparison to high-income neighborhoods. We also determine that the effect of neighborhood income is moderated by the concentration of certain ethnicities. The implications of these findings for urban sociology and public policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on residential and homebuying choices is still dominated by economic models of decision-making. Despite growing critique of these models, attempts to provide socially grounded accounts of homebuying have yet to investigate the social foundations of evaluative and choice-making practices at the intra-personal level. This study addressed the gaps in the literature theoretically and empirically by studying the processes and practices by which middle-class homebuyers search for and choose a place to live. It applied a modified Bourdieusian framework, underscoring the roles of the habitus and reflexivity in choice-making, to the study of middle-class homebuyers in two Israeli cities. The findings demonstrate that middle-class homebuyers' "sense of place"—that is, the reactions of their habitus to the socio-physical environment—is at the heart of their residential choice-making. Interviewees centralized their experiences and sensations in their choice-making, actively using their sense of place to guide their mapping of urban space, evaluation of residential options, and their final decision. These evaluative and choice-making practices operated as a "social-sorting" mechanism, directing homebuyers to locations more aligned with their class habitus. The findings and analysis provide a sociological alternative to economic and behavioral models of residential choice-making, with lessons for those with wider scholarly interests in consumers' choices in everyday life and their relationship with social patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual data have dramatically increased in quantity in the digital age, presenting new opportunities for social science research. However, the extensive time and labor costs to process and analyze these data with existing approaches limit their use. Computer vision methods hold promise but often require large and nonexistent training data to identify sociologically relevant variables. We present a cost-efficient method for curating training data that utilizes simple tasks and pairwise comparisons to interpret and analyze visual data at scale using computer vision. We apply our approach to the detection of trash levels across space and over time in millions of street-level images in three physically distinct US cities. By comparing to ratings produced in a controlled setting and utilizing computational methods, we demonstrate generally high reliability in the method and identify sources that limit it. Altogether, this approach expands how visual data can be used at a large scale in sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Settler Colonial City: Racism and Inequity in Postwar Minneapolis" by David Hugill examines the history of racism, inequity, and settler-colonial structures in Minneapolis, particularly focusing on the post-World War II era. The book explores the impact of urban change, racialized policing, and American imperialism on marginalized communities, with a particular emphasis on Indigenous peoples. Hugill highlights the structural barriers faced by marginalized groups and the need to dismantle white supremacist and settler-colonial structures. While the book primarily focuses on the violent aspects of settler-colonial urban policy, it also touches on the need to examine more subtle elements such as access to education, healthcare, and legal services. Overall, the book provides a critical perspective on the history of Minneapolis and challenges the perception of the city as progressive and inclusive. [Extracted from the article]

"Silencing Shanghai: Language and Identity in Urban China" by Fang Xu is a book that explores the decline of the Shanghai Wu dialect in China's reform years, particularly since the 1990s. The author takes an interdisciplinary approach, examining the issue from the perspective of urban sociology. Xu's research highlights the political agendas and language policies, economic development and urban transformation, and demographic migration and dislocation that have contributed to the decline of Shanghai Wu. The book provides a comprehensive account of the changes in language and urban landscapes in Shanghai over the past two decades. While the book focuses on the role of the state in promoting Mandarin and marginalizing Shanghai Wu, it also acknowledges the complexities of the issue, including the heterogeneous nature of Shanghai Wu and the influence of globalization. Despite some flaws in methodology and linguistic scholarship, the book is a valuable addition to the literature on language politics in contemporary China and is recommended for scholars and general readers interested in Shanghai and contemporary China. [Extracted from the article]

Music has always been a concern for sociology, and its classic authors attest to this. We begin this article -- which is essayistic in nature -- with a substantive analysis of this tradition that continues to (re)shape the sociology of music today. Amongst these classics, we would like to highlight its greatest name: Max Weber. In fact, this author developed a long-term analysis of Western music, especially with the advance of rationalisation, somewhat similar to his analyses of the spirit of capitalism and the genesis of bureaucracy in Europe in his study TheRationalandSocialFoundationsofMusic -- written between 1912-1913 and published posthumously in 1921. We then establish a link between Weber's thesis and the sociology of music today, centring our analysis on contemporary music production through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), but also the digital universe more broadly. Weber's theoretical contributions are explored in relation to this, focusing on the interconnection between his concept of rationalisation and the emerging digitalisation of music -- in particular, streaming services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max Weber has left a 100-page long text that played a main role in his argumentation on the particular development of Europe in contrast to especially Asia. Main difference, according to Weber, is the development of a 'local society' where freedom and the association of free citizens laid the ground for a democratic society. In the reception of this text, a critical view on main assumptions on the 'European city' has been dominant. In particular, the notions of conflict and inequality have not been integrated into his argumentation. Nevertheless, some sociologists even today, see Weber and his text as a kind of starting point to understand the social and political construction of urban societies in Europe. Firstly, a critical introduction into the core ideas of Weber on the city will be presented. Subsequently, the article discusses whether the 'European city' can still be regarded as a meaningful term to explain the process of urban restructuring taking place today. Although not rejecting the Weberian notion of the city, it will be highlighted that his understanding of 'urban society' leaves out recent processes of the post-Fordist restructuring of space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While being 'old-established' is usually seen as a product of the social negotiation of migration, there is little empirical research on how this category evolves and changes over time. To unravel this process, we focus in this article on the group formation processes which contribute to the making and unmaking of being 'old-established' as a pattern of interpretation, a we-image and a potential power chance in various figurations. A combination of figurational and biographical approaches with an extended chronological horizon provides a theoretical and methodological framework to focus on when, and in what circumstances, residents distinguish between 'old-established' and 'newcomers' in their we- and they-images. Attention is paid to the socio-historical transformations which increase or reduce material and immaterial power chances (such as ownership of land, length of association and internal cohesion) within dynamic processes of group formation in migration societies. A multigenerational case study of an extended family in Jordan shows the complex processuality of how long-time residents become 'old-established' as a group, which expands their power chances, and under what circumstances this status can become eroded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various programs and policies have been implemented to deal with concentrated poverty, especially in public housing developments located in urban centers across the nation (Goetz, 2003). The programs aim to move public housing residents to lower-poverty areas or to bring in higher-income individuals when the developments are redeveloped into mixed-income communities. Numerous studies that assess poverty deconcentration initiatives are critical of the programs (Joseph 2006; Imbroscio, 2012a, b; DeFilippis & Fraser, 2010). Most of these studies were done prior to the proliferation of contemporary racial justice movements, like the BlacksLivesMatter movement, and focus on issues of class. Using ethnographic data and semi-structured interviews, this research explores the discourse people use in their efforts to deconcentrate poverty in the city of Chicago and how public housing residents and organizers contest these views. This research finds that politicians, developers, and Chicago Housing Authority officials regularly use implicit and explicit narratives about race in their development and implementation of poverty deconcentration initiatives, despite broader dialog about racial disparities because of the BlackLivesMatters movement. The findings indicate that racialized discourse about the deficient behavior of residents and the spaces where they live is still foundational in the redevelopment of their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that homophobia should be read as a political engagement with social and economic uncertainty and its perceived causes through an extended analogy with the work on the modernity of witchcraft. "Figuration" is theorized as a way to account for, first, how senses of moral peril are given a human form, and second, why certain signifiers of deviance become more convincing than others at particular historical moments. The content of the myths that animate homophobia in Sierra Leone point to the gay man as a figuration of deviance that rehearses anxieties about illicit appropriation through patron‐client networks at a time of heightened awareness of corruption, exploitation, and fears of foreign meddling in the politics and economics of African postcolonies. The article makes the case that the homosexual man becomes a more convincing signifier of contemporary social anxiety than the witch because of his connections with Western modernity not only in the minds of Sierra Leoneans but also in global pro‐queer discourse. This insight places discourses about homosexuality more generally, whether positive or negative, in a field of contestation over who gets to speak for Sierra Leone, what the future of the country is, and its inclusion in Western modernity. The question of modernity is used to explain the state's marked irresoluteness on the subject of homosexuality, challenging dominant explanations of homophobia as state led. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between individual feelings of aversion, fear, and disgust of city spaces and broader systems of cognitive urban zoning. We analyze interviews conducted in four distinct urban areas of Ottawa, Canada, working with an open-ended method to learn about how urban individuals understand the concept of “risk.” We identify fear of crime as a central risk perceived by the respondents and observe how they construct boundaries between themselves and perceived “risky” zones, occurrences, and bodies. Drawing from Kristeva’s theory of abjection, we trace a semiotic system of Othering in the respondents’ narratives, examining the symbolic cleansing that occurs when respondents attempt to differentiate themselves from what they perceive as encroaching Otherness. With focus on claims about four distinct neighbourhoods, we argue that risk in the city is configured through physical and imaginative mobilities, through which inhabitants construct boundaries and attempts to cleanse or purify “risky” spaces. We conclude that the sense of abjection and/or the experience of aversion is a way that fear is mapped onto cities. This research shows how city spaces are zoned through fear-based semiotic systems. We also raise questions about the relationship between these semiotic systems and actual tangible threats in these spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writers' narrations of the city have always had a great and long-lasting influence on collective imaginaries and on people's urban experience. Sociology is debtor to urban novels that from XVII to XIX century anticipated the great themes of modernization process that deeply changed cities and urban culture. The analysis of the ways modern city has been narrated by writers take us to contemporary sociology and its major issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Stacked Decks: Building Inspectors and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality" by Robin Bartram explores the role of building inspectors in perpetuating urban inequality. The book highlights how inspectors exercise discretion in their decision-making, influenced by their perceptions of a neighborhood's trajectory and an owner's worthiness of leniency. Bartram combines qualitative fieldwork and statistical analyses to provide an intimate view of inspectors in Chicago's Buildings Department. The book also discusses the social, economic, and historical factors that contribute to urban inequality in Chicago and proposes solutions to address these issues. Overall, "Stacked Decks" offers valuable insights into the impact of building inspections on urban communities and is recommended for those interested in urban planning and sociology. [Extracted from the article]

While Rivière's work is less focused on issues of race, it does probe the interaction between class and gender. Enquête auprès de parents à Paris et à Milan [ Their Children in the City: Survey of Parents in Paris and Milan ], by Rivière, Clément. Rivière has achieved it by basing his argument on 78 interviews (with 88 parents) as well as some observations in two European cities, Paris and Milan. [Extracted from the article]

Prior to those chapters, Chua provides detailed explanations on the historical and cosmological frameworks of inquiry, notably how spiritual beliefs had contributed to the creation and growth of Bangkok. Here, Chua explores the conflicts between the absolutist reign of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI, r. 1910-25) and Chinese immigrants that shaped the perceptions of public space in early twentieth-century Siam. An ambitious and accomplished work, I Bangkok Utopia i discusses the politics of representations in architecture and urban space in twentieth-century Siam and Thailand. [Extracted from the article]

The concretisation of the Chicago School solidified and inscribed in the city their obsession with the 'Negro Problem', race, race relations and (im)migration. Their fixation not only framed modern sociology with an emphasis on the 'Other' but cemented a taken-for-granted undergirding of Whiteness at its base. As a discipline, until we can name, point out, understand and highlight that form of violence, urban sociology will be deficient in understanding the city, particularly, but not limited to the US. As an alternative, I offer Du Boisian sociology, critical race theory, and global critical race and racism to aid in moving away from an unstated Whiteness. This article shows how Whiteness is at the base of the urban question and its consequences via the trajectory of the first sociologists of colour trained at the Chicago School, the work on the ghetto, underclass and the effects of such work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the relationship between literary geography and postmodern critical theories, focusing on the role played by socio-spatial dialectics within ideologically oriented geocriticism. The central argument is that without the spatialization of Marxism, initiated in the 1970s and 1980s by Henri Lefebvre and Edward W. Soja, geocriticism could not be methodologically articulated today as a major discipline within World Literature studies. Since the theories of these philosophers are already integrated into Western geocriticism, it is important to metabolize them in the local context precisely in order to legitimize a coherent geocritical approach to Romanian literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that street food was an essential part of the social reproduction of Mombasa's working class during the colonial period. Like in other expanding capitalist cities, as Mombasa grew, urban workers lived further from their place of employment, which meant they could not return home for their midday meal. Street-food vendors provided them lunch at low prices in convenient locations, and therefore reproduced the working day by provisioning the calories that bridged morning to afternoon. However, postwar municipal authorities also wanted to create a particular kind of urban society in which the 'informal' activities of street-food vendors did not fit, and tried to expel them from the city's streets. As these campaigns unfolded, an unresolved contradiction emerged between this elite view of Mombasa, and the reality that the services vendors provided were necessary for the reproduction of the city's economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some scholars have argued urban autonomy creates inclusive spaces for migrants, while others have argued interiorized border security and discriminatory policing constrain racialized migrants. This article examines the extent to which the urban context represents a spatial mobility trap for urban undocumented youths as they become adults, based on data from longitudinal comparative ethnography with undocumented youths, schools, and civil society actors in Paris and New York City. Public schools, public transportation, policing, and informal labor market practices distinguish the urban regimes of migrant il/legality in the two cities, shaping how such youths move within and outside urban space. These elements may magnify or mitigate legal‐status distinctions between undocumented youths and others. As protections for undocumented minors waned at adulthood, New York City's regime blurred legal‐status distinctions, accelerating intracity mobility for most youths while Paris's approach brightened such distinctions, limiting mobility. These findings contribute a spatial mobility perspective to studies of migrant illegality and an urban sociology perspective to the transition to adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Far from activism in formal groups or in visible and vocal demonstrations stands a type of citizen participation observed through everyday practices and daily activities in the public sphere. Targeted citizen actions in urban spaces, dumpster diving, responsible consumption movements or small acts of everyday resistance are all examples of what we call informal modes of participation. Such initiatives are not new, nor do they pertain to a particular geographic arena. However, it is only recently that social scientists have started to pay attention to such activities: scholars from urban studies, development studies, political sociology, and critical geography have started to address this phenomenon. After discussing the existing literature on this topic, this introduction proceeds to define and operationalize the concept of informal participation, while also providing a common analytical framework for dialogue among the six contributions to this special issue briefly described in the last section below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hart Crane's lyrics abound with transient figures who often doubt their intelligibility or viability as persons, and his letters reflect a significant anxiety about his own ability to communicate the problems he experienced in being and remaining intelligible to others. Against that background, this article offers a reading of Crane's transient figures as linguistic performances of such doubtful and tenuous existences. In this, the article puts Crane in dialogue with one of his most admired and mimicked contemporaries, Charlie Chaplin, as well as with theories of transient sociability from language philosophy, urban sociology, and modernist studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]