New Urban Spaces: Urban Theory and the Scale Question

Neil Brenner is a critical urban theorist, sociologist, and geographer whose work opens new theories of urbanization with relevance across the social sciences, spatial humanities, design disciplines, and environmental studies.

The urban condition is today being radically transformed. Urban restructuring is accelerating, new urban spaces are being consolidated, and new forms of urbanization are crystallizing across the planet. In his most recent book, New Urban Spaces: Urban Theory and the Scale Question (Oxford, 2019), Brenner argues that understanding these mutations of urban life requires not only concrete research, but new theories of urbanization.

Please join us as Brenner and 3CT co-director Shannon Lee Dawdy discuss New Urban Spaces and Brenner’s ongoing project on planetary urbanization.

Neil Brenner is Lucy Flower Professor of Urban Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago. Brenner’s most recent books are New Urban Spaces: Urban Theory and the Scale Question (Oxford, 2019) and Critique of Urbanization: Selected Essays (Bauwelt Fundamente, 2016), as well as the edited volume Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization (Jovis, 2014). He previously served as Professor of Urban Theory, Harvard GSD, and as Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies, New York University.