Writing the lines of connection: unveiling the strange language of urbanization

Abstract

Across urban studies there is an increasing preoccupation with the forms of articulation that link a multiplicity of cities across a region often known as the 'Global South'. How do cities such as Jakarta, Sao Paolo, Dakar, Lagos, Mumbai, Hanoi, Beirut, Dubai, Karachi, for example, take note of each other and engage in various transactions with each other in ways that are only weakly mediated by the currently predominant notions of urbanism? What might be the lines of connection and how do different cities recognize and experience the textures of their different histories and characters? Six urbanists are assembled here to write in conversation with each other as a way to embody possible collaborative lines of inquiring about these issues.