2015 Urban Affairs Association Conference

Much of our recent thinking about the urban in the contemporary era fails to engage the question of the role of state in explicit and rigorous terms. This colloquy seeks to begin to address this lamentable lacuna. The issue of state power will be interrogated from a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives, including Marxian, post-structural, liberal-progressive-reformist, etc. The goal is to begin a conversation that clarifies our thinking about the proper role of the state in a potentially emancipatory future for cities and their publics.