Explanation in urban studies: ‘comparative tactics’ and the business models of developers as inputs to a more globally inclusive urban theory
Studies of the urban and the activities that are pursued there have a long and variegated history. One observation stands out, however, and that is the enduring fascination with iconic cities, from Paris via London and Chicago to Los Angeles. This one-sidedness has been criticised not least by scholars setting out from postcolonial theory. As there is a need to make visible the everyday experiences of inhabitants in the global South, the nature and role of ‘ordinary cities’ have come to the fore. However, as this salutary change of focus has been accomplished with a measure of success -- implying a partial shift of emphasis away from the global North – the experiences of the former socialist societies of the global East remain ‘off the map’. Therefore, the objective here is to finalise two projects that set out to understand the use of urban theory in and on the global East, how this compares to the experiences of market economies of a long standing (be they rich or poor) and why the substantial volume of research on the urban in that part of the world has had but negligible impact on urban studies in general. Employing the ‘comparative tactic for a more global urban studies’ developed by Jennifer Robinson (University College London), this research sets out to understand the mundane but often very powerful consequences of the business models of corporate urban developers, experiences that potentially transcend geography and position in national and global urban hierarchies.
Final report
No matter how one approaches them, Berlin and London occupy central positions in urban studies. These two great cities do so as sites of much innovative urban research, but also on account of being regarded as exemplary objects of study in their own right. The implication is that both cities are of general interest to the global community of urban scholars, in part because of the influence that the research on them exerts, in part because as empirical material they deserve more than superficial familiarity. In the following, the rationale, contents and outcome of a sabbatical divided across these two cities is reported. Generously funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the time was shared between the Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research (Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung, IRS) in Erkner on the outskirts of Berlin and University College London (UCL). The former took place February–June 2022, the latter November 2022–January 2023 with a base at UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS).
Rationale
The application took aim at the completion of two separate but closely related projects. This was to be achieved by visiting these two different yet very prominent sites of contemporary comparative urban research. IRS has a strong position in comparative urban studies in general and in research on socialist and post-socialist urban settings in particular. IAS, which generously extended a Visiting Research Fellowship (non-stipendiary) with the associated privileges, offers an inviting multidisciplinary environment – historians, anthropologists, geographers, philosophers and a variety of area specialists included – in close proximity of several world leading research environments in urban studies.
The two projects in need of completion are extensions of previous research by the applicant, including research done in cooperation with Prof. Michael Gentile at the University of Oslo. The one is an exploration into the nature of research on socialist and post-socialist urban environments, the other an attempt at finding a least common denominator for comparative urban research allowing application to towns and cities irrespective of historical and institutional context, location, size and position in the national or global hierarchy of urban places. The former sets sight on the use of theory in socialist and post-socialist urban studies and follows on the heels of previous work focusing on the extent to which neoliberalism has been used as an explanation for the development of post-socialist cities (Gentile and Sjöberg 2020). As such it draws on a set of problems identified in a still earlier study (Sjöberg 2014) that touches upon the issue of the limited attention that urban studies on what has become known as the Global East appears to command outside the circles of specialists on that particular part of the world. It is against that background the second project can be rationalised, as a means to paving the way for globally inclusive comparative urban studies.
Implementation and results
IRS and UCL both are unquestioned sites of world class urban research. This is true both of theorical work and empirical studies. IRS excels at socialist and post-socialist urban studies but, importantly, manages to transcend this potentially limiting conceptualisation of the urban; comparative work on gentrification is but one expression of its wide competence. UCL together with neighbouring units within the University of London system is unsurpassed in urban comparative work and then not least as it relates to the Global South. Whereas the shorter stay at IAS saw attention focused on the attempt to formulate a more general point of entry to comparative urban studies, the time at IRS was allocated to both projects mentioned above. As a result of the inspiring setting at both locations, and the chance to focus on research alone, the studies mentioned above have now come closer to completion. As of the time of writing (Spring 2023, three months after the completion of the sabbatical), one paper has been submitted for consideration for possible (open access) publication.
To reach that far, draft versions of both papers were presented at internal seminars at the two institutes; ideas drawn from the papers were also made subject to structured discussions, including for instance in a PhD seminar for doctoral students at IRS and in a colloquium held at the Georg-Simmel-Zentrum für Metropolenforschung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on 25 May 2022. The study on comparative approaches was furthermore the object of the 20th IRS International Lecture on Society and Space, “Explanation in urban studies: ‘comparative tactics’ and business models of developers as inputs to a globally inclusive urban theory”, held on 20 May 2022, a recording of which is available at the IRS web site (Sjöberg 2022).
The feedback received on the above and other occasions resulted, amongst other things, in an attempt to add more data to the study on the use of theory in post-socialist urban studies. While this implied a certain delay in the completion of the study, it shed additional light on the use of the type of theory that Robert K. Merton famously characterised as that of the middle range. In parallel, the discussion on whether business models, real or implied, could be used as a tool in analysing urban development – and not just in applications to the study of urban developers – allowed an important step in getting closer to systematic operationalisation. Indeed, that development also occasioned the beginning of a third paper, empirical in nature, that may in the end be seen as yet another output from the funding kindly supplied by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for the sabbatical.
Other
Apart from making good on the activities as planned and outlined in the original application, the time spent at IRS in particular led to a measure of engagement with other activities. This included participation in the IRS Spring Academy as well as taking part in a PhD workshop in Zeitz under the auspices of the Leibnitz-Institut für Länderkunde, based in Leipzig. In addition, there were possibilities of acquainting oneself with the rich collection of documents from the Institut für Städtebau und Architektur der DDR-Bauakademie and the Bund der Architekten der DDR, that are maintained by IRS’s section for urban history and planning. The latter, to which can also be added visits to colleagues at the Geographisches Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplanung, Technische Universität Berlin, resulted in new ideas for research, not least of an empirical cast. At the same time, discussions with researchers at the Urban politics section of IRS and also at UCL’s close neighbour Birkbeck College might serve as a launching pad for future research applications with a social sustainability profile (e.g. migration, integration and segregation in different institutional contexts).
Rationale
The application took aim at the completion of two separate but closely related projects. This was to be achieved by visiting these two different yet very prominent sites of contemporary comparative urban research. IRS has a strong position in comparative urban studies in general and in research on socialist and post-socialist urban settings in particular. IAS, which generously extended a Visiting Research Fellowship (non-stipendiary) with the associated privileges, offers an inviting multidisciplinary environment – historians, anthropologists, geographers, philosophers and a variety of area specialists included – in close proximity of several world leading research environments in urban studies.
The two projects in need of completion are extensions of previous research by the applicant, including research done in cooperation with Prof. Michael Gentile at the University of Oslo. The one is an exploration into the nature of research on socialist and post-socialist urban environments, the other an attempt at finding a least common denominator for comparative urban research allowing application to towns and cities irrespective of historical and institutional context, location, size and position in the national or global hierarchy of urban places. The former sets sight on the use of theory in socialist and post-socialist urban studies and follows on the heels of previous work focusing on the extent to which neoliberalism has been used as an explanation for the development of post-socialist cities (Gentile and Sjöberg 2020). As such it draws on a set of problems identified in a still earlier study (Sjöberg 2014) that touches upon the issue of the limited attention that urban studies on what has become known as the Global East appears to command outside the circles of specialists on that particular part of the world. It is against that background the second project can be rationalised, as a means to paving the way for globally inclusive comparative urban studies.
Implementation and results
IRS and UCL both are unquestioned sites of world class urban research. This is true both of theorical work and empirical studies. IRS excels at socialist and post-socialist urban studies but, importantly, manages to transcend this potentially limiting conceptualisation of the urban; comparative work on gentrification is but one expression of its wide competence. UCL together with neighbouring units within the University of London system is unsurpassed in urban comparative work and then not least as it relates to the Global South. Whereas the shorter stay at IAS saw attention focused on the attempt to formulate a more general point of entry to comparative urban studies, the time at IRS was allocated to both projects mentioned above. As a result of the inspiring setting at both locations, and the chance to focus on research alone, the studies mentioned above have now come closer to completion. As of the time of writing (Spring 2023, three months after the completion of the sabbatical), one paper has been submitted for consideration for possible (open access) publication.
To reach that far, draft versions of both papers were presented at internal seminars at the two institutes; ideas drawn from the papers were also made subject to structured discussions, including for instance in a PhD seminar for doctoral students at IRS and in a colloquium held at the Georg-Simmel-Zentrum für Metropolenforschung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on 25 May 2022. The study on comparative approaches was furthermore the object of the 20th IRS International Lecture on Society and Space, “Explanation in urban studies: ‘comparative tactics’ and business models of developers as inputs to a globally inclusive urban theory”, held on 20 May 2022, a recording of which is available at the IRS web site (Sjöberg 2022).
The feedback received on the above and other occasions resulted, amongst other things, in an attempt to add more data to the study on the use of theory in post-socialist urban studies. While this implied a certain delay in the completion of the study, it shed additional light on the use of the type of theory that Robert K. Merton famously characterised as that of the middle range. In parallel, the discussion on whether business models, real or implied, could be used as a tool in analysing urban development – and not just in applications to the study of urban developers – allowed an important step in getting closer to systematic operationalisation. Indeed, that development also occasioned the beginning of a third paper, empirical in nature, that may in the end be seen as yet another output from the funding kindly supplied by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for the sabbatical.
Other
Apart from making good on the activities as planned and outlined in the original application, the time spent at IRS in particular led to a measure of engagement with other activities. This included participation in the IRS Spring Academy as well as taking part in a PhD workshop in Zeitz under the auspices of the Leibnitz-Institut für Länderkunde, based in Leipzig. In addition, there were possibilities of acquainting oneself with the rich collection of documents from the Institut für Städtebau und Architektur der DDR-Bauakademie and the Bund der Architekten der DDR, that are maintained by IRS’s section for urban history and planning. The latter, to which can also be added visits to colleagues at the Geographisches Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplanung, Technische Universität Berlin, resulted in new ideas for research, not least of an empirical cast. At the same time, discussions with researchers at the Urban politics section of IRS and also at UCL’s close neighbour Birkbeck College might serve as a launching pad for future research applications with a social sustainability profile (e.g. migration, integration and segregation in different institutional contexts).