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Topic · Urban Studies

Urban Planning and Governance

Urban Planning and Governance is a research topic within Urban Studies. Science Explorer counts 13k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the impact of neoliberal urban policies, gentrification, and globalization on cities. It delves into topics such as urbanism, spatial planning, social sustainability, and the right to the city, offering critical perspectives on state power and the effects of neoliberalism on urban spaces.

  • Neoliberalism
  • Urbanism
  • Gentrification
  • Globalization
  • Urban Policy
  • Spatial Planning
  • Social Sustainability
  • Right to the City
  • Critical Urban Theory
  • State Power
Research works
13k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+13%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Urban Planning and Governance

Which countries lead Urban Planning and Governance research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (638 and 478 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 638 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 478 works
  3. 3 China 212 works
  4. 4 Australia 175 works
  5. 5 Canada 161 works
  6. 6 Germany 153 works
  7. 7 Italy 148 works
  8. 8 Netherlands 120 works
  9. 9 India 117 works
  10. 10 Türkiye 103 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 27.7%United Kingdom: 20.7%China: 9.2%Australia: 7.6%6 others listed: 34.8%28%largest
United States638 · 27.7%United Kingdom478 · 20.7%China212 · 9.2%Australia175 · 7.6%6 others listed803 · 34.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Urban Planning and Governance research?

By volume in 2022-now, University College London publishes the most Urban Planning and Governance research, followed by The University of Melbourne and University of Manchester.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 48 works
  2. 2 The University of MelbourneAustralia 34 works
  3. 3 University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 28 works
  4. 4 University of TorontoCanada 26 works
  5. 5 Cardiff UniversityUnited Kingdom 25 works
  6. 6 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 25 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 23 works
  8. 8 University of SheffieldUnited Kingdom 23 works
  9. 9 National University of SingaporeSingapore 21 works
  10. 10 University of AmsterdamNetherlands 20 works

Who are the leading researchers in Urban Planning and Governance?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Urban Planning and Governance include Anselm L. Strauss.

  1. 1 Anselm L. Strauss United States 205k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Urban Planning and Governance?

The most cited paper in Urban Planning and Governance is "Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things" (Mark Jackson, 2010), with 4,757 citations. Next come "Cities and the Geographies of “Actually Existing Neoliberalism”" (2,852) and "Governance as theory: five propositions" (2,745).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things Mark Jackson · Emotion, space and society 20 Nov 2010 4,757
2 Cities and the Geographies of “Actually Existing Neoliberalism” Neil Brenner, Nik Theodore · Antipode Open access Jul 2002 2,852
3 Governance as theory: five propositions Gerry Stoker · International Social Science Journal Mar 1998 2,745
4 Place attachment: How far have we come in the last 40 years? Maria Lewicka · Journal of Environmental Psychology 21 Oct 2010 2,734
5 New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban Strategy Neil Smith · Antipode Jul 2002 2,360
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Urban Planning and Governance research done?

The largest centres of Urban Planning and Governance research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Melbourne (Australia), Toronto (Canada) and Sydney (Australia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Cardiff, Sheffield and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 122 works
  2. 2 MelbourneAustralia 60 works
  3. 3 TorontoCanada 47 works
  4. 4 SydneyAustralia 42 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 35 works
  6. 6 IstanbulTürkiye 34 works
  7. 7 MilanItaly 34 works
  8. 8 ManchesterUnited Kingdom 33 works
  9. 9 ChicagoUnited States 33 works
  10. 10 AmsterdamNetherlands 30 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. CardiffGB · 27.2 works13×
  2. SheffieldGB · 27.1 works11×
  3. Newcastle upon TyneGB · 25.3 works9.0×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Urban Planning and Governance than the world average.

See Urban Planning and Governance on the map

Where is the best place to study Urban Planning and Governance?

Among universities, judged by research, University College London, University of Kansas and Utrecht University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 23.94%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of KansasUniversity College L…University of Manche…Utrecht University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University College LondonUnited Kingdom 71.024.4%9.5×48 -12.9%
2University of KansasUnited States 60.435.9%10.5×16 -
3Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 59.521.8%8.2×19 +31.3%
4University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 59.023.0%10.4×28 -12.4%
5Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 57.236.3%8.7×10 -27.1%
6University of AmsterdamNetherlands 56.729.0%10.8×20 -16.1%
7Cardiff UniversityUnited Kingdom 54.612.6%17.8×25 +72.4%
8University of Hong KongChina 54.514.1%5.9×17 +41.1%
9Aalto UniversityFinland 53.830.5%9.6×9 +48.2%
10University of TorontoCanada 53.211.8%4.1×26 +40.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Urban Planning and Governance, country by country

Is Urban Planning and Governance research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 13% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Urban Planning and Governance.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Urban Planning and Governance as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.011% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Urban Planning and Governance0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Urban Planning and Governance over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Urban Planning and Governance10.4% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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