Comparative Urban Studies in Europe

From the 1970s onwards, the changing political economy of European cities, combined with processes of Europeanization and internationalization of higher education, has led to an increase in transnational policy and scholarly exchanges. The seeds of a truly ‘European’ field of urban studies, constituted by regular exchanges across national borders and across disciplines, can be traced to the late 1960s. The importance of the state emerges in most European urban comparisons, confirming the key role of political and public action in structuring social processes in European cities. Urban and regional studies are alive and vibrant in Europe, as illustrated, for example, by the recent emergence and growth of transdisciplinary urban research institutes in many European universities. For European scholars, the challenge is now how to engage in a serious and humble way with postcolonial critiques of the Eurocentric nature of social sciences while remaining able to contribute to global dialogues in a constructive and empirically grounded manner.