Still thinking from the south: A sequel from Beirut

Abstract

This essay is a written version of the 2025 Urban Studies Annual Lecture delivered in April 2025 at City Debates, the annual conference of the urban faculty of the American University of Beirut. In it, nearly two decades after it reshaped the field of urban studies (and me) in many ways, I return to thinking about southern urban theory. I do so in an urban interregnum when existing language, frameworks, concepts and categories seem insufficient and where the need for new language feels urgent. At its origins, the ethic of southern inquiry was to generate knowledge for all cities from all cities, knowing that this had not been the case for some time. In this essay, I explore where this ethic is now, whether we still felt a need for correction, and if this current sense of insufficiency is a different kind of challenge to the knowledge we need today. Finally, through offering some new southern vocabulary from Beirut itself, I offer examples of the possible agendas and directions of what southern urban theory could look like for theorists today.