Leaving post-anything urban studies behind?

Abstract

Luger and Schwarze's critical unsettling of postindustrial is a presciently welcome one. For some years now, I—and others—have become increasingly uncomfortable with referring to and describing the locations of our research as “postindustrial.” The main focus of this commentary is on the facets of Luger and Schwarze's (2024) arguments as they relate to nonmetropolitan deindustrializing urbanisms in the North Atlantic in an attempt to develop how we better conceptualize, understand and do justice to and with such spaces. The main thrust of the contribution is for the affective intensities and traumas of deindustrialization to be brought into closer analytical dialog with the profusion of processes associated with, in particular, “organized abandonment” and “neoliberal urbanism.” If classed experiences and knowledge shape these dialogs, there remains hope for urban studies to contribute to an emergent multiethnic class politics around commonalities of contemporary as well as historical class violence.