The state of urban research: Views across the disciplines

Wolman, Harold; Barnes, William; Clark, Jennifer; Friedman, Samantha; Harris, Richard; Lin, Jeffrey; Ogorzalek, Thomas K.

doi:10.1080/07352166.2022.2080073

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 130 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Both the overview of the most important subject areas (Figure 2) and of the most important journals (Figure 3) are further proof of the multi-disciplinary character of urban studies that has been observed by scholars from its very early days (see the Gutman, 1963 quote at the beginning of this article) to current diagnoses (Wolman et al, 2022). The data also points to a research domain that combines both basic and applied researchin fact creating a 'mixed forum, taking ideas and borrowing methods from theory, practice and critique' (Bowen et al, 2010: 204).…”

Section: What Is Urban Studies?mentioning

confidence: 54%

What, where and who is urban studies? On research centres in an unequal world

Heur

2023

Dialogues in Urban Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper poses the question of what the proliferation of urban research centres across the world means for urban studies as a field of research, what this tells us about the (uneven) geographies of urban knowledge production and circulation, and who are the key institutions and researchers involved. In other words: what, where and who is urban studies? Building on a minor tradition of bibliometric research in urban studies and related disciplines, the paper assesses the Scopus-registered 2011–2021 publication output of the more than 1000 researchers affiliated to 30 urban studies centres across the world. The analysis points to four main observations. First, urban studies output is published in an extraordinarily wide range of journals, representing work from research communities across the social sciences and humanities, engineering, natural sciences and medical sciences. Second, clear global hierarchies exist in knowledge production, but co-authorship relations are also shaped by geographical proximity and the multidisciplinary profile of each individual research centre. Third, English is the dominant language of academic publications, but other languages play important roles for individual centres at the level of co-authorship relations and journals. Fourth, the article provides evidence of a diverse and globally distributed landscape of mid-sized urban studies centres that contribute substantially to the top urban studies journals. Each observation is linked to a reflection on the potential role for research centres in creating a more equal playing field for urban studies.

show abstract

Section: What Is Urban Studies?mentioning

confidence: 54%

What, where and who is urban studies? On research centres in an unequal world

Heur

2023

Dialogues in Urban Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Distal disciplines also contained a large proportion of courses spread across both traditional and interdisciplinary disciplines. One factor in this finding could be the development of “urban studies” subfields across disciplines due to increasing urbanization occurring globally (United Nations, 2019; Wolman et al., 2022). This trend can especially be seen in geography and sociology, where human‐environmental interactions are prevalent, and spatiality distributed based on a multitude of factors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unearthing green potential: Assessing the state of managed urban landscape curricula in Minnesota's higher education institutions

Barnes,

Campagna,

Haddad

et al. 2024

Natural Sciences Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As urbanization increases, managed urban landscapes are frequently the mode through which people experience nature and where careers in natural resources are increasing. There is a lack of knowledge related to curricula and programs where students are exposed to managed urban landscapes and careers related to them. We aimed to evaluate the current status of managed urban landscape curricula (MULC) in undergraduate programs in Minnesota through a systematic investigation of programs and courses at higher education institutions. All undergraduate courses offered by included higher education institutions were reviewed to determine the presence, absence, or possibility of MULC based on the course's publicly available descriptions and were combined with departmental and institutional characteristics to identify patterns of MULC across the state. Only about 1% of over 50,000 courses reviewed contain MULC. Courses with MULC were concentrated in public doctoral‐level institutions and in departments such as biology and environmental studies, however MULC courses were found at 94% of included institutions and across 60 different departments. While the number of courses with MULC was minimal, courses with the possibility of including MULC show there are ample opportunities for MULC to be added to existing courses, especially core requirements such as introductory biology or a survey of environmental science in the state of Minnesota and more broadly.

show abstract

“…Indeed! From different geographical vantage points around the world, better minds than mine have set about addressing this task (for a sample, see Bowen et al, 2010;Coelho and Sood, 2022;Gutkind, 1968;Gutman, 1963;Iossifova et al, 2017;Judd, 2005;Müller and Trubina, 2020;Paddison, 2001;Sapotichne et al, 2007;Topalov, 1989;Wolman et al, 2022). These have both troubled work that took for granted the experiences of the United States in the generation of definitions of urban studies, while also recovering longer, parallel definitional histories generated out of other countries across the world.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Definitional Indifferences and Formal/Functional Equivalences: A Commentary

Ward

2023

Dialogues in Urban Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This commentary takes as its point of departure van Heur’s (2023) What, where and who is urban studies? On research centres in an unequal world. The paper's four concluding propositions, resting on an empirical dataset generated through the Scopus-registered 2011 to 2021 publications of the more than 1000 researchers affiliated to 30 university-housed urban studies centres, constitute an important contribution to thinking through one potential version of the future of urban studies. Such is the richness of this paper that a commentary might highlight all manner of points. I will contain myself here to two, which likely say as much about me as about the initial paper, such is the nature of these sorts of commentaries. My points relate to definitional indifferences and formal/functional equivalences.

show abstract

The state of urban research: Views across the disciplines

Cited by 9 publications

References 130 publications

What, where and who is urban studies? On research centres in an unequal world

What, where and who is urban studies? On research centres in an unequal world

Unearthing green potential: Assessing the state of managed urban landscape curricula in Minnesota's higher education institutions

Definitional Indifferences and Formal/Functional Equivalences: A Commentary

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About