There is no alternative to creating an alternative: critical urban studies in the authoritarian moment

Abstract

A s we finish preparing this issue for publication, Donald Trump is entertaining the prospect of ethnically cleansing Gaza and turning it into a ghoulish luxury resort.Domestically, his administration is working tirelessly to incapacitate the state, terrorize significant segments of America' s diverse working class and ultimately unleash a wave of repression within American cities.In other places where they have come to power, authoritarian governments are violently cracking down on opposition movements, pushing through extreme austerity, deregulating predatory industries, demolishing stigmatized neighborhoods and brutalizing minoritized communities.Among the very many things that should be said about the authoritarian moment is that it raises a lot of questions for critical urban scholars.It isn't always debated as such.Contemporary authoritarianism is by and large appearing at the national level and is usually not seen as an urban phenomenon.It is regarded as the embodiment of traditional conservative anti-urbanism or said to represent the supposed revenge of the small town against the big city (Rossi 2018).The resurgence of authoritarianism is imagined as something that happens to cities and does not emerge from them.But this is a serious simplification.

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