Afterword

Abstract

This special issue serves as a much–needed platform to interrogate the role of theory and the Global South in urban research. The editors call for a new global urban sociology that decenters the US as the point of reference and constructs theory on the basis of non–US, not just US, cities. Theorizing urban life should not be unidirectional, as is often the case when US concepts are exported uncritically to cities elsewhere. Cities in the Global South are important cases for theorizing and understanding urban life more generally, and findings from these cities apply beyond the cases themselves. They can even be used to better understand urban life within the US. The editors take inspiration from Raymond Williams’ work