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EDITORIAL article

Front. Sustain. Cities, 19 February 2024
Sec. Cities in the Global South
This article is part of the Research Topic Reviews in Cities in the Global South: 2022 View all 5 articles

Editorial: Reviews in cities in the Global South: 2022

  • 1Department of Forestry Science and Biodiversity, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2Laboratory of Sustainable Bioresource Management, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 3School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  • 4Department of Geography, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India
  • 5Architecture, Manchester Urban Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Editorial on the Research Topic
Reviews in cities in the Global South: 2022

In recent years, the landscape of urban studies has undergone a transformative shift, marked by an increasing interest in Southern cities as well as growing appreciation of perspectives emerging from the South. Articles in this Frontiers Research Topic—“Reviews in cities in the Global South: 2022,”—reflect on this growing field in offering critical overviews of the state of the art and contributing important insights into emerging and interlinked themes of interest, such as the infrastructures of knowledge production. These contributions identify opportunities for future research in response to urgent knowledge gaps.

In her contribution, Chakrabarti critically examines the notion of “Southern urbanism” and how it is practically implemented as “Southern urban theory.” She maps out systematically the extent, impact, and geographical distribution of knowledge creation in this domain, finding that there has been an increasing tendency to undertake urban studies in Southern cities. Over the last 5 years, there has been a substantial increase in published research from the South, on topics that cluster around (i) politics, informality, and power; (ii) land and tenure models; (iii) urban sustainability, community resilience, involvement, and impact; and (iv) infrastructure and accessibility. Chakrabarti highlights the important contribution of Southern urban theory to global urban studies.

With a view on more practical matters, Adhikari et al. focus on the increase of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South Asia over the past decade and examine the impact of green space on NCDs. They show that the reduction of green areas associated with urban development poses a significant threat to the health of individuals living in South Asian cities. This situation particularly affects urban inhabitants who already have cardiovascular problems, making them more vulnerable. The study advocates for prompt community and policy measures targeted at the development of green spaces, including strategies that involve multiple agencies with expertise in health, physical development, transportation and ecology.

In a similar vein, Cilliers, in their contribution, highlights the societal contributions, appreciation and use of urban green spaces. Based on an extensive analysis of the literature and empirical research on the viewpoints of professionals in South Africa, Cilliers sheds light onto the perceptions of urban green areas and their critical role in shaping how urban threats are viewed. Cilliers, too, sees the the engagement of urban decision-makers and the general public in discussions around the value or urban green spaces as vital to their protection and development.

Finally, focusing on the case of Brazil, Valencio et al. employ network analysis to shed light onto the interconnectedness between poverty, sanitation, and disasters in this context. Their analysis of the literature demonstrates that a major body of work focuses on the link between poverty and disasters, highlighting that research on the relationship between disasters and sanitation is urgently needed in order to address knowledge gaps and progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Collectively, the contributions in this Research Topic shed light on the increasing prominence of Southern urbanism and its theoretical implications, the societal significance and critical impact of green spaces on public health in Southern cities, and the infrastructural interlinkages of poverty, sanitation, and disasters. These reviews not only offer critical overviews of the current state of research but also urge scholars and policymakers to address critical knowledge gaps for the betterment of urban environments in the Global South. They identify problems, obstacles, and strategies for the project of decolonisation. The emerging themes discussed demonstrate the multidimensional nature of urban studies in the Global South, warranting continued scholarly attention and interdisciplinary collaboration toward inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable urban environments, as stipulated by the SDGs.

Author contributions

RS: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. LL: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. SM: Conceptualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. DI: Writing—review and editing.

Funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Keywords: Global South, urban studies, postcolonial, urban green, bibliomeric analysis, sanitation & hygiene (WaSH)

Citation: Sanusi R, Lata LN, Mishra SV and Iossifova D (2024) Editorial: Reviews in cities in the Global South: 2022. Front. Sustain. Cities 6:1356965. doi: 10.3389/frsc.2024.1356965

Received: 16 December 2023; Accepted: 05 February 2024;
Published: 19 February 2024.

Edited and reviewed by: Ruth Massey, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom

Copyright © 2024 Sanusi, Lata, Mishra and Iossifova. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Swasti Vardhan Mishra, c3dhc3RpdmFyZGhhbm1pc2hyYSYjeDAwMDQwO2dtYWlsLmNvbQ==

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.