PREMMOEK (MESO 11 PLANETARY URBANIZATION Neil Brenner and Christian Schmid Daring che last sevetal decades, the Feld of urban stdies has been animated by an extrordinary outpouring of new ideas reguiding the role of cites, urbanism and urbanization processes in ongoing global transformations! Yet, despite these advances, {he Feld continaes to be grounded upon & mapping of human settlement space that was mote plausible in che late sneteenth and early went ecntaies then iis today. “The eaalyewenvietceamry asa petiod in wih peel nds eyes and subusanizing zones were beg rapidly consolidated aoe the word ia close cosjuaeon with mejor demographic and socioeconomic ste i the erstwhile “coontyside” Consequently across vere nadonl contexts lings eons, the Fi of ewenteth cenry shan sales defined its heretical regan esearch objec cough eis of explicit or imps geographical comets Even a debates raged segading how best 10 {define the speci of utbn ie the ate was univers demarcated in opposin © 2 purportedly “noo abr” zoe, gently classified as “rua” As pradigns for theory and resenrch evolved abel chtage foe each tem of thi supposed uebao-ruralcondnsnm, ou understandings of how beso concepiline ts bse Sins and the natut of deiarGlsoa, For instance, the Anglo-Ametican concepzof the “sur” sand the French concept of i banners jneoduced and popslarzed to dematcte farther sociospadal dfferentiations that were occuring inside a apily unbanizing field? Nonetheless the bulk of swenteth-centay un sa snd xo too did fo the assumption that spesific, and dous diferent fiom the putatively “oon utban” spaces thet lay beyoad thet boundaries, ‘constitutive outside” for its epistemological, ent thoeetical and political perspectives, 192 and te ise of the neo-marist aew {he 1970s to the debates oe world ets and 1980s und 1990, she major teas of swesteth-centur uebencedies lagelywninterropated geograshicl asunptions that were rooted the 1 early eveauiets-contary geohstsicl cocditions in which thin fel of Dring the lst 30 years howeves, she form of exbeaizatios hash radically ecoafigred, process tht has seriously calle neo gestion the inhested eartog saderpinne tht have long van theory and research. Aside fom te dramatic spasial and demogesphic ‘expansion of major megacity sions, the las 30 years have also witnessed several fa- reaching worldwie sociospatal wansformaions? These include: +The creation of neo nals of whasizotion Extensively uchaniced interdependeacis ‘ace being comsolidared within excremely lage, pidly expanding, polymuceated ‘metropolitan regions around the wovd to cea spzaling “otha oslexies” thar stretch beyond aay single mewopoian region and often tavere maliple national bouniaies ‘Sach mege-sealed urban constellations have been conceptualized in divecse ways, and ‘he sepresentation of thir contours and boundases reins a focus of considerable research and debste* Their most prominent exemplars in rg oer, the hiergentforeations such as “San San” San Fe Peas! River Dein south Chins the Lagos Boral coorbation in West Aftca, as wel 15 several incipient megicutban regions io Lain Americs and South Asicote, int este suburbanized spaces, among expansive catchments of small- and smediuersized towns, and along maja transportation cotsidors suchas superhighway sand al lines? +The dinkaion of th “intelond Acound the woeld, the eectie “hinerands” of _msjo ees mevropoltin regions aad utban industrial coridor ate beg reconfigured ss they ae functonalize—hether as back office and warehousing locations, global sveashops,agco-industyal land-use systems ecreational zones, energy generation arid, resoutee extraction ateas, fuel depots, waste dis coanectrigy—tofuliate the consnued expansion of industial urbanization and its socinted planetary urban networks? “type” of settlement space, whether defined as a city city-region, a mewopolis, a mettopolita region, megalopolis, aa edge city of otherwise, Consequently, despite fs in choy and poi! dxcourse, ve category of the “ity” has today become obsolete a.an analytical oc yeience tool, Corespondingly, its ao longer plaosible to chatacteize the dit ferences beeen deacely glomernted zones and the less denelyvetded zones of a region, a national terior, a continent or the globe tought Inherited weban/sural (0 urbua/oomatban) distinction. Today, te wan represents an increasingly worldwide condition in which plitieal-aconomceelation ae enmeshed. ) "This situation of planetary srbangoton rans paradoxically thar even spaces that Ie well beyond the tational city coses and subuebaa peripheries from wansoceanic shiping lane, transcontinental highway and rleay neorks, and wosdaride communications infiastuctues 10 alpine and coastal tourist enclaves, “aatore” path, offshore financial centes, agro industrial catchmect zoner and erstwhile “atonal” spuces suchas che world's ‘oceans, dese, jangles, eountsin anges, rundea and atmosphere—tave become integeal & longer be wested as if they were composed of dizctete,dstnce and eniversl “types” of setlement* In shot in an epoch in which the ides oF the non-urban appeats increasingly ‘© be aa ideological projection derived from a Tong dissolved, preiadusta) peohistoricl forentin,oaeimage ofthe uiban ewise needs to be fundamentally reinvented. ‘Alteady four decades ago, Hensi Lefebvre put forward the radial hypot complete ubaczation oF society, demanding radial shin analysis es “the ubinizaion process: Howeres 2 grtematicapplestion of thi Faadatsental thesis has yeet be videraken”Peshaps, in the ealyewenty-ftst centr, the moments now spe for Such an undertaking? Indeed in our view the epstemologicl Founditions of uxbaa studies snust tay be fuodaentally transformed, and Lefebvre’ formulation provides «highly salient stating point for suck an effort. The epistemological shift cowards the analysis of planstry whanization requires new stteyies of concrete rescirch and comparitive snails that canscend che assumprionszegarding the appropeiate object and patsmetcrs forotban search shat have long boon entenched sed presupposed within the mainstream of all new theoretical. wansfoemation oF so al xpniation across sexes ad tenitoces To this end a new coneptal lexicon must be eet for deaing ‘the wide vusicey of urbanization processes that are currently reshaping the urban woeld and, ‘eliza edecipheig the new eesgent landscapes of scispil ference that have been erasing in ecen decades Tease we soul avennueng enpenentl snd bousdary-exploding methodological statpie facitate the empitial investigation ‘of these processes. Whether or nota distinc Beld oF urban stds wil petit amidst uch ‘Seoretia, conceptual and methodological innovations is a question thar remains to be ‘explored inthe yeas and decades aka nag Cane Mame 08