Jennifer Robinson is Professor of Urban Geography at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

"All cities are ordinary, argues Robinson, and categorizing them as Western, Third World, developed, developing, world, or global ascribes prominence to certain cities and to certain features of cities. Instead, she starts from the fact that all cities are dynamic and diverse, if conflicted, arenas for social and economic life and anchors on that notion a new post-colonial framework for thinking about cities that avoids the underlying assumption of urban scholarship that Western cities are exemplary and Third World cities more or less poor imitations." --Reference & Research Book News

• Introduction  1. Dislocating Modernity: Primitivism in Urban Theory  2. On (Not) Being Blasé: In the Tracks of Comparative Urbanism  3. Ways of Being Modern: Towards a Cosmopolitan Urban Studies  4. Re-Inscribing Hierarchies: Global and World Cities  5. Developing Ordinary Cities: Bringing the City Back in  6. Mobilising Diverse Economies.  Conclusion

Jennifer Robinson is Professor of Urban Geography at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

"All cities are ordinary, argues Robinson, and categorizing them as Western, Third World, developed, developing, world, or global ascribes prominence to certain cities and to certain features of cities. Instead, she starts from the fact that all cities are dynamic and diverse, if conflicted, arenas for social and economic life and anchors on that notion a new post-colonial framework for thinking about cities that avoids the underlying assumption of urban scholarship that Western cities are exemplary and Third World cities more or less poor imitations." --Reference & Research Book News

• Introduction  1. Dislocating Modernity: Primitivism in Urban Theory  2. On (Not) Being Blasé: In the Tracks of Comparative Urbanism  3. Ways of Being Modern: Towards a Cosmopolitan Urban Studies  4. Re-Inscribing Hierarchies: Global and World Cities  5. Developing Ordinary Cities: Bringing the City Back in  6. Mobilising Diverse Economies.  Conclusion