Current debates in urban theory: a critical assessment

Urban studies today is marked by many active debates. In an earlier paper, we addressed some of these debates by proposing a foundational concept of urbanization and urban form as a way of identifying a common language for urban research. In the present paper we provide a brief recapitulation of that framework. We then use this preliminary material as background to a critique of three currently influential versions of urban analysis, namely, postcolonial urban theory, assemblage theoretic approaches, and planetary urbanism. We evaluate each of these versions in turn and find them seriously wanting as statements about urban realities. We criticize (a) postcolonial urban theory for its particularism and its insistence on the provincialization of knowledge, (b) assemblage theoretic approaches for their indeterminacy and eclecticism, and (c) planetary urbanism for its radical devaluation of the forces of agglomeration and nodality in urban-economic geography

Das bruxas, dos índios, dos negros e dos jovens da Febem

Este artigo visa discutir os temas Pesquisa e Direitos Humanos, partindo da definição do que pretende a Ciência, suas limitações e momentos seus a serviço de condenações de bruxas e ateus. Trata-se de levantar a questão da 'parcialidade' da Ciência e das formas de exclusão que ela ajudou a gerar e manter face aos criminosos, aos loucos, aos negros e, sem dúvida, aos jovens das camadas populares que são institucionalizados na FEBEM. E, na tentativa de resistência a se deixar levar pelo que de nefasto existe na mercantilização da Ciência hoje, buscar radicalizar a exigência de defesa dos Direitos Humanos