News

Call for Papers - Comparative Urban Research at the Authoritarian Turn

We are pleased to circulate a call for papers for a Journal-led Special Issue of Urban Geography, Comparative Urban Research at the Authoritarian Turn, edited by Nitin Bathla, Sarah Moser, and Julie Ren.

The comparative turn in global urban studies is increasingly confronted by a resurgent authoritarianism. Authoritarian forces are reshaping cities through the criminalisation of dissent, attacks on universities and civil society, executive centralisation, digital surveillance, punitive redevelopment, restrictions on protest, and the recasting of minoritised populations as internal threats. These developments also raise methodological and ethical questions about how scholars can develop comparative insights when repression, censorship, displacement, and restricted access increasingly determine what can be researched, documented, and published.

The special issue asks what comparative urbanism can contribute to understanding the present authoritarian conjuncture and how this conjuncture is transforming the conditions under which urban comparison becomes possible. Rather than beginning with a binary distinction between democratic and authoritarian cities, it foregrounds authoritarian practices, relations, and circulations across formally different political systems.

We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions addressing themes including:

• The circulation of surveillance systems, policing tactics, planning models, legal instruments, and security expertise
• Comparative research under conditions of censorship, precarity, and political risk
• Redevelopment, infrastructure, heritage, and monumentality as vehicles of authoritarian power
• Everyday and uneven experiences of authoritarian urbanism
• Consent, aspiration, affect, and majoritarian belonging
• Urban spaces of refusal, solidarity, care, and democratic experimentation

Timeline

• Call for papers published: 17 September 2026
• Abstract submission deadline: 31 October 2026
• Notification of abstract selection: 21 November 2026
• Full-manuscript deadline: April 2027
• Special-issue publication: Spring 2028

Please submit an abstract of 300 words, together with a short biographical note, to nitin.bathla@geo.uzh.ch.

General Call for Special Issues

Urban Geography is pleased to announce its annual call for Special Issue proposals. Special Issues are a cornerstone of the journal’s engagement with the most pressing and contemporary debates in global urban geography. We invite proposals that advance innovative theoretical and empirical contributions with the potential to shape key discussions in the field.

Special Issues aim to become essential and novel reference points for emerging as well as more established debates in the field, and open new directions for developing and consolidating dynamic and relevant subfields within urban geography.

Call for Proposals

Urban Geography welcomes proposals for Special Issues which provide a critical forum for sets of complementary or contrasting articles addressing emergent and topical issues or questions. Proposals for Special Issues will be considered for their relevance to the journal’s readership, their coherence and synthesis, and their contribution to the field of urban geography. Proposals from a global comparative perspective are keenly encouraged.

Special Issues will consist of four to eight papers of 8,000 to 10,000 words, including a standard-length and substantive Guest Introduction that will also be peer-reviewed. All articles must be formatted to author guidelines. Special Issue collections will go through the same level of rigorous peer-review as general submissions to Urban Geography.

Careful consideration will be made by the Special Issues Editor and the Guest Editor(s) to ensure coherence across the submitted and subsequently accepted papers, especially in the case where all originally proposed manuscripts are not accepted for publication.

Instructions for Contributors

Proposals must be submitted using the Special Issue Proposal Form. Special Issue Proposals must not be under review at another journal when submitted to Urban Geography.

Urban Geography will receive Special Issue proposals annually on 1 May and be reviewed by the journal's editorial collective. All submissions will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 1 June of that year.

Interested contributors are encouraged to contact the Special Issues Editor, Yamini Narayanan (Deakin University) at y.narayanan@deakin.edu.au, to discuss their proposals prior to submission.