Current affairs – elections, public controversies, violent conflicts, disasters – often have a strong urban dimension. IJURR and our accompanying book series offer lengthier reflections on urban life, published along academic timelines. This new web feature offers a space for similarly critical and reflective, yet more immediate responses to a range of pressing urban affairs. Where possible, we link these brief essays on “The Urban Now” to previously published articles on related topics and themes.

We welcome suggestions for new contributions to the IJURR web content producer.

A peri-urban community in Accra showing an untarred road and housing structures at different levels of completion. Photo by Divine Asafo (2018) Gatekeepers of the Urban Margin: Residents’ Associations and Everyday Governance in Peri-urban Accra, Ghana by Divine M Asafo, Austin Dziwornu Ablo, Godwin Odikro & Pln. Abubakar Mohammed-Mubeen

Chipko March, Source: Mathilda Kratz, 9th February 2025. The right to sustainable urban life? Contextualizing the Chipko March in Pune by Debapriya Ganguly   137/366 Iconic view of Melbourne from Green Point: imageo (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Australian Housing Opportunities During and After the Pandemic: Transitioning to Better Housing Futures by Wendy Stone et al.  Pandemic Rituals and Compliant Urban Neighbours: Middle-class Politics in Bangalore by Dyotana Banerjee

After the Lockdown: Towards an Urban Politics of Care or Back to Evictions as Usual? by Eduardo Ascensão and Nuno Rodrigues

Preparing Cities for Epidemics: Lessons from the COVID19 Outbreak by Ming Hang

The Quarantine of a Megacity: China’s Struggle Over the Coronavirus Epidemic by Xuefei Ren

Resisting Hindu-National Laws in India by Goutham Raj Konda

The Yellow Vests in France: A Few Snapshots by Stefan Kipfer

Chaotic Notes on the Recent Brazilian Presidential Election by Raquel Rolnik

Streets and Social Media: An Urban Genealogy of the Politics of Aesthetics in Brazil’s 2018 Presidential Election by Carly Machado

Eviction and Displacement from the Neighbourhood of Douar Wasti in Casablanca, Morocco by Stefano Portelli and Loretta Lees