
The City as the Southern Question
Alternative Histories of Urbanisation After Gramsci
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 22. January 2026
Book
Hardback
374 pages
978-1-041-03954-9 (ISBN)
Description
This innovative edited volume places global urbanism in the context of the phenomenal growth of cities of the South, investigating their colonial contentiousness and asking how their history plays out in the twenty-first century phenomenon of urbanisation.
Inspired by Antonio Gramsci's reflections on the problem of the South, it shows that the question of southern urbanism is about the anomalies and growth of southern cities, the histories of struggles, technological and logistical reorientations, new zoning practices of neoliberal capitalism, and remaking of urban geographies towards a possible urban future that aims to be just. Crucially, it asks whether today's city is a seamless formation of several overlapping phases of growth, or if there is a decisive break today figured by the hyper growth of these cities. To understand the implications of these questions for visions of an urban future, this volume takes a number of southern cities of Asia and Europe as case studies, including Kolkata, Mumbai, Chittagong, Beirut, Athens, Naples, and Marseille. It shows how these cities are paradoxically marked by both fractured geographies and new types of popular mobilisations, solidarities, and ethic of protection and care, showing this to be the core of the Southern question constituting the urban experience of our time.
It will appeal to advanced-level students and scholars with interests in urban sociology, Southern urbanisation, postcolonial studies, political science, political economy and urban geography.
Inspired by Antonio Gramsci's reflections on the problem of the South, it shows that the question of southern urbanism is about the anomalies and growth of southern cities, the histories of struggles, technological and logistical reorientations, new zoning practices of neoliberal capitalism, and remaking of urban geographies towards a possible urban future that aims to be just. Crucially, it asks whether today's city is a seamless formation of several overlapping phases of growth, or if there is a decisive break today figured by the hyper growth of these cities. To understand the implications of these questions for visions of an urban future, this volume takes a number of southern cities of Asia and Europe as case studies, including Kolkata, Mumbai, Chittagong, Beirut, Athens, Naples, and Marseille. It shows how these cities are paradoxically marked by both fractured geographies and new types of popular mobilisations, solidarities, and ethic of protection and care, showing this to be the core of the Southern question constituting the urban experience of our time.
It will appeal to advanced-level students and scholars with interests in urban sociology, Southern urbanisation, postcolonial studies, political science, political economy and urban geography.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Academic and Postgraduate
Illustrations
8 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 5 s/w Zeichnungen, 4 s/w Tabellen, 13 s/w Abbildungen
4 Tables, black and white; 5 Line drawings, black and white; 8 Halftones, black and white; 13 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
683 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-041-03954-9 (9781041039549)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Ranabir Samaddar | Enrica Morlicchio | Sandro Mezzadra
The City as the Southern Question
Alternative Histories of Urbanisation After Gramsci
E-Book
01/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

Ranabir Samaddar | Enrica Morlicchio | Sandro Mezzadra
The City as the Southern Question
Alternative Histories of Urbanisation After Gramsci
E-Book
01/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Persons
Ranabir Samaddar is Professor and Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies in the Calcutta Research Group, India and a CIFAR Humanity's Urban Future Program fellow.
Enrica Morlicchio is Professor of Economic Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy and CIFAR Humanity's Urban Future Fellow.
Sandro Mezzadra is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Enrica Morlicchio is Professor of Economic Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy and CIFAR Humanity's Urban Future Fellow.
Sandro Mezzadra is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Content
Introduction: After Gramsci, City as the Southern Question Part 1: Southern City as Maximum City 1. Southern City and the Rent Question, Calcutta, 1910s-1950s 2. Mumbai's Southern Question and the Political Economy of Work and Space 3. A Port City to Portray the Image of a Country: City of Chittagong, Bangladesh 4. Mexico City's Subaltern Spaces as the FIFA World Cup Arrives... Part 2: Expanding Urbanising Worlds 5. Organised Chaos or Induced Disorder? Reading Beirut through its Juxtapositions 6. With Gramsci in the Southern Park, Green Planning in Athens 7. Same but Different? Logistics Workers and Employment Conditions in the Mediterranean Port Cities of Naples and Marseille Part 3: Belonging and Alienation in a Southern City 8. Urban Creation or Fruitful Regeneration, what is Marseilles' Downtown? 9.A Mediterranean Hub: Immigration and Religious Diversity in Marseilles 10. Buildings Communicate 11. Marginalised Places - Silenced Solidarities: An Autoethnographic Study on Refugees and Solidarity on Lesvos prior to Summer 2015 12. Commercial Sex Life as the Hidden Underbelly of the City and the Dirty History of Kolkata Part 4: Southern City in a Globalised World 13. From Financial Crisis to Refugee Crisis: Management and Resistance in Athens 14. Southern City as a New Urban Frontier 15. South of the South, the Kaohsiung Port City of Taiwan 16. A Living Southern Urbanism in South Africa 17. What is the "South" in Southern City? An Epilogue