This article asserts the importance of studying small cities. We argue that small cities have been ignored by urban theorists who, in seeking to conceptualize broad urban agendas and depict generalizable models (for example relating to epochal urbanism, the structure and nature of the urban hierarchy, global cities and global city-regions), have tended to obscure as much as they illuminate. Given that study of 'the city' has been vital to broader advances in the social sciences, this neglect of smaller urban centres has profound consequences for urban studies. We argue that this situation needs to be rectified. We review literature relating to small cities and signpost a future research agenda. In doing so, we highlight how conceptual and empirical research into small cities can contribute to broader arguments that have championed the necessity of developing sophisticated and nuanced comparative approaches to understanding the complexity of cities and urban life. This article challenges urbanists to think big about thinking small. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors. Journal Compilation(c) 2009 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The focus of this paper is the impact of the 'new urban order' on sexualised spaces in cities. The paper explores how sexual 'others' are conscripted into the process of urban transformation and, by turn, how city branding has become part of the sexual citizenship agenda. The interweaving of urban governance and sexual citizenship agendas produces particular kinds of sexual spaces, at the exclusion of other kinds. The paper considers the extent to which the idea of sexual citizenship has been woven into the tournament of urban entrepreneurialism and how this affects sexualised spaces. This process is read as an instance of 'the new homonormativity', producing a global repertoire of themed gay villages, as cities throughout the world weave commodified gay space into their promotional campaigns.

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Recent theoretical discussions of the 'spaces of hospitality' have remained largely abstract, and have also ignored the commercial hospitality industry. At the same time, commercial hospitality is becoming increasingly important for the branding and promoting of cities. This paper highlights the connection between urban regeneration, commercial food and drink spaces, and the idea of the 'hospitable city' as it is conceived in both theoretical writings and in accounts of urban regeneration. The paper highlights the work of hospitality in the commercial sector, but also argues that commercial hospitality should not be seen as merely calculative, instrumental, economic exchange.

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