Comparative Approaches to the City
Wednesday, September 2, 1:30-5:30 p.m.
Hilton Union Square 17 & 18
The majority of the world’s population now lives in cities. The process of rapid 
urbanization has led to new political communities being formed; shifting forms of identity and claims to citizenship; and new relationships of accountability between representatives and constituents. The implications for the study of urban politics are largely unknown and will be the focus of the workshop. The goal of the short course is to place scholarship on cities in comparative perspective. In particular, it will examine different ways of researching the city, paying close attention to innovative research designs, strategies during fieldwork, and comparative analysis of urban space. The course considers cities all across the world, spanning the Global South and North, as well as those in industrialized and developing economies. The workshop will consider innovative ways of researching informality; creative approaches to the study of immigrant and migrant populations; and novel methods of knowledge production in rapidly changing urban environments. Panelists include scholars whose research spans diverse methodological and regional perspectives.
1:30-2:30 Panel 1: Comparative analysis of urban space • Alisha Holland, The informal welfare state in urban Latin America • Jeffrey Paller, The practice of accountability in African slums • Yanilda Gonzalez, Police reform and participatory security in Latin America • Adam Auerbach, Party proliferation in Indian slums
2:45-3:45 Panel 2: Migration, mobility, and citizenship • Loren Landau, Mobility and membership in African cities • Tariq Thachil, Informal vendors and migrant workers in Indian cities • Kathleen Coll, Remaking Citizenship: Latina immigrants and New American politics
4-5 Panel 3: Methods and knowledge production • Jackie Klopp, The politics of planning in Nairobi • Nicholas Rush Smith, Resisting Rights: Vigilantism and the contradictions of democratic state formation in Post-Apartheid South Africa • Shelby Grossman, The politics of property rights in informal, open-air markets in Nigeria • Sarah El-Kazaz, Building Politics: Urban transformation and governance in Cairo and Istanbul • Christopher Gore, National policy change from below?
Closing Remarks: Richard Stren
View more short courses to the APSA 111th Annual Meeting & Exhibition.