Jennifer Robinson
1965
British geographer who disputes the hierarchy of cities: she proposes studying them all as ordinary cities, not failed copies of London.
Robinson pointed to a bias in the discipline itself: a few cities are studied as models — global, creative, smart — and the rest are measured by how far they fall short. So most of the urban planet always appears in deficit, defined by what it lacks.
Her proposal is comparison on equal terms: treating every city as ordinary, with its own history and its own solutions, and letting theory be written from Johannesburg or Lima too. This is not a matter of academic fairness: policies imported without that care simply fail.
On Jennifer Robinson in this archive
- Public space
Why Cities Shouldn't Be Identical Models
Imagine an urban studies textbook where nearly every important city looks strangely familiar. Theory, categories…
Jennifer Robinson 3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Global South: Who experiments in our cities globally?
A promotional video shows glass towers rising from the sea, off the coast of Lagos. Clean avenues, blue skies,…
Jennifer Robinson 3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Production of Space in the Global South: Urban Challenges and Opportunities
The **production of space in the Global South** has become a topic of growing interest among urban planners and…
Jennifer Robinson 3 min read - Public space
Decolonizing Urban Space: Creating More Inclusive Cities
The decolonization of urban space is a process that seeks to transform cities—especially in the Global South—by…
Jennifer Robinson 3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Jennifer Robinson and Ordinary Cities: Challenging Urban Theories
Jennifer Robinson, in her work Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development
Jennifer Robinson 2 min read
