Michele Acuto
Biographic Data
| ID | 298540 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michele Acuto |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michele |
| FAMILY NAME | Acuto |
| SIGNATURE | ACUTO M |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4320-0531 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 82 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 532 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 79 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Holding open the urban imagination
Urban studies has repeatedly depended on imaginative acts, even if its imaginative capacities have often remained implicit, unevenly distributed, or overshadowed by explanatory commitments to understanding cities as they are rather than as they might become. Can urban imagination still sustain urban futures in a time of geopolitical fragmentation, democratic uncertainty, and academic precarity? This debate paper introduces the special issue on Ur…
On the Brighter Side of the Night
Within the burgeoning attention being paid to the night‐time economy (NTE) in and by cities, the demands and impacts of night work have gathered increasingly scholarly attention. Research has centred on the darker side of these, pointing to workers' precarity and vulnerability. What if we attend also to a ‘brighter side’ of the night and night shifts? Can we enhance night studies characterizations and advance urban studies debates on the NTE, if …
(Ac)counting for night shift workers
Recognition for the importance of the night-time economy (NTE) in cities is mounting in both academia and policy. Yet, much of this discourse is centred on the consumption side of the NTE. Analytical and policy insights into the role of those who work to keep our cities ticking 24/7 and the NTE flourishing is still severely limited. Just how many people work at night? And how can we count them? Current assessments, where at all present, often div…
Geographies of super-philanthropy
In this paper, we revisit our conceptualization of the philanthropic complex via three avenues: first, the risk of foreclosing political possibilities in our analysis of the complex; second, the methodological possibilities of relational thinking; and third, the stakes of recuperating the progressive possibilities of philanthropy. We acknowledge and reiterate the evolving relationship between multiple, contradictory factions of philanthropy, capi…
Integrating night studies into climate science
Geographies of super-philanthropy
In recent decades the world has witnessed an unparalleled growth of philanthropic initiatives and institutions that has proven inextricable from the vast accumulation and concentration of wealth on a global scale. Echoing recent calls for geographers to study philanthropy, this paper seeks to advance a critical geographical understanding of globalising philanthropy. Inspired by geographical scholarship on relational thinking, the paper frames the…
Unveiling urban governance diversity
Embracing a “more global” urban comparison in scientific assessments of climate actions by cities is essential to drive greater and more inclusive participation in global efforts to curb climate change. This comparison needs to engage cities irrespective of their size and status: when we do so, distinctive patterns of urban climate mitigation actions across a diverse range of cities emerge. Employing K-means clustering as a pattern recognition me…
Not so polycentric
Governing the informed city
Cities are more and more embedded in information flows, and their policies are increasingly called assessment frameworks to understand the impact of the systems of knowledge underpinning local government. Encouraging a more systemic view on the data politics of the urban age, this paper investigates the information ecosystem in which local governments are embedded. Seeking to go beyond the ‘smart city’ paradigm into a more overt discussion of the…
Meeting afterhours
Despite the sizeable impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on nightlife, the night-time economy (NTE) is still high on the cards in cities. Whilst much attention has focused on leadership figures of the NTE like "night mayors", there is a vast landscape of institutionalized forms of night-time governance requiring greater recognition. Consultative night-time governance systems offer particular opportunities for advancing research and practice. We develop…
The landscape and evolution of urban planning science
The science of urban planning has drawn on a wide range of disciplines and research perspectives. This makes it challenging to define the boundaries and directions of the field. Here, nearly 100,000 articles on urban planning are analysed to objectively determine divisions, temporal trends and influential references and actors of urban planning. In terms of the structural composition, four broad divisions are identified: (1) governance and policy…
How to Build a Global City
This book considers the rise of a new generation of so-called global cities—Singapore, Sydney, and Dubai—and the power that this concept had in their ascent, in order to analyze the general relationship between global city theory and its urban public policy practice. The global city is often invoked in theory and practice as an ideal model of development and a logic of internationalization for cities the world over. But the global city also creat…
“Emancipatory Circuits of Knowledge” for Urban Equality
Feminist, Southern, and decolonial thinkers have long argued that epistemological questions about how knowledge is produced and whose knowledge is valued and actioned are crucial in addressing inequalities, and a key challenge for planning. This collaborative article interrogates how knowledge is mobilised in urban planning and practice, discussing three experiences which have actively centred often-excluded voices, as a way of disrupting knowled…
Potential and limitations of digital twins to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
The politics of “urban expertise”
Expertise and experts have been at the heart of the last few years of pandemic crisis. Yet, their role in urban governance is still a broadly uncharted territory. This special issue explores what a research agenda on the politics of urban expertise could look like. Presenting a mix of diverse geographical viewpoints on the challenges of expertise in cities, we argue for moving beyond a fruitful critique, to reflect more deeply on how critical urb…
Fragmentation and urban knowledge
Silo-ed thinking, fragmented knowledge systems and short-termism remain key challenges in transforming urban systems and policy making towards more sustainable and resilient cities. Innovative strategies and actions which seek to drive agendas of change are often stuck in established and inflexible planning or policy structures. Complex issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss or socio-economic disparities require the attention of a varie…
The gifted city
With billions worth of funding to city-based projects, urban dwellers and city leaders the world over, philanthropy is no small matter. It might shape the form, politics and direction of urban development worldwide, yet little discussion of its role is present in urban studies. In this commentary, we call for urban scholars and practitioners to become more explicitly conversant in its investment dynamics in cities and their impact on urban govern…
Research handbook on international law and cities
Practitioners of international affairs are showing more and more interest in cities. Far from a temporary fad, the importance of cities has retained dramatic relevance throughout two years of a global pandemic, as diplomats the world over watched streets empty and homes lock down, while mayors did not cease to advocate for a seat at the table at major debates on climate change, migration or resilience. The challenges ahead for cities are deeply c…
City Diplomacy
City diplomacy has a long history and has witnessed a clear sprawl over the last century. Successive “generations” of city diplomacy approaches have emerged over this period, with a heyday of networked urban governance in the last two decades. The covid -19 pandemic crisis presents a key opportunity to contemplate the direction of city diplomacy amid global systemic disruptions, raising questions about the effectiveness of differing diplomatic st…
City Leaders Go Abroad
Cities are playing an increasingly prominent role on the global policy stage, and in the process have established moreformalised international engagements. However, there is an incomplete understanding about the types and levels of capacity needed for such engagement. This study offers an examination of the underpinnings of “city diplomacy”. It confirms that cities recognise the importance of city diplomacy but also lack necessary resources to fu…
Mobilising knowledge for urban governance
The capacity to derive, analyse and communicate urban knowledge is increasingly essential for decision-makers managing the complex pressures of rapidly expanding cities. This paper examines the importance of transdisciplinary boundary organisations in generating and mobilising this knowledge. It introduces ‘urban observatories’ as an example of institutions catalysing information that can shape urban governance, considering in detail the experien…
Leaving no urban citizens behind
The city as actor in UN frameworks
Cities have been recognized as important players in some of today’s most visible global agendas, from the Paris Agreement on climate to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This is a formalization of the global role of cities, on which we have little systematic evidence. The formal role of cities remains murky at best, when not unspecified or lumped into civil society. The review presented here, the first of its kind in both interna…
Whose City Benchmarks ? The Role of the Critical Urbanist in Comparative Urban Measuring
By way of rejoinder to the commentaries on our intervention by a selection of urban scholars, we expand the discussion on the nature of scholarly engagement with comparative city benchmarking and the practitioners and interests that underpin it beyond academia. While the short-termist, competitive and data-driven assumptions that suffuse benchmarking activity warrant clear and well-informed criticism, we argue that there is a place for critical a…
Understanding the global ecosystem of city networks
Cities are formalising collaborations across borders at an unprecedented rate: ‘city networks’ now form a wide ecosystem of global partnerships between local authorities that is often underestimated. It might be time to think of city networks more explicitly as institutionalised and presenting a challenging form of more-than-local urban governance. To do so, our essay mixes a review of the overall global landscape (beyond the environmental sector…
High-rise Dubai urban entrepreneurialism and the technology of symbolic power
Building a global urban science
Reconfiguring urban governance in an age of rising city networks
Networked urban governance is emerging as a major feature of metropolitan strategy and activity. The field of urban studies is yet to deeply engage in the debates on the new forms of cross national networking that are potentially framing and reframing urban governance and strategy. Yet this dimension of urban governance can no longer go unnoticed. In this article we draw together insights from the extant literature into a research agenda on recon…
Everyday International Relations
Garbage is stuff that matters: the generation, disposal, and management of waste represent some of the most visceral flows in our society. Yet most international scholars continue to regard it as trivial to focus on the mundane practices and menial materiality associated with managing rubbish. Contra this dissociation, and through an analytics of assemblages, I argue that international theory can (and nowadays must) encompass both the grand desig…
Transcending (in)formal urbanism
In this introduction to the special issue ‘Transcending (in)formal urbanism’ we outline the important place that informal urbanism has acquired in urban theorising, and an agenda to further this standing towards an even more explicit role in defining how we research cities. We note how informality has frequently been perceived as the formal’s ‘other’ implying a necessary ‘othering’ of informality that creates dualisms between formal and informal,…
City Leadership in Global Governance
The international society's lack of leadership is often blamed for many of the shortcomings in addressing global challenges. Yet this focus might have been on the wrong kind of leaders: rather than heads of state and diplomats, effective international responses might be better situated with the ordinary influence of city leaders. While capable of reaching beyond urban politics and developing transnational networks, mayors might represent a key hi…
Understanding the global ecosystem of city networks
Cities are formalising collaborations across borders at an unprecedented rate: ‘city networks’ now form a wide ecosystem of global partnerships between local authorities that is often underestimated. It might be time to think of city networks more explicitly as institutionalised and presenting a challenging form of more-than-local urban governance. To do so, our essay mixes a review of the overall global landscape (beyond the environmental sector…
City networks
There is today a global recognition that we live in an ‘urban age’ of near-planetary urbanization where cities are at the forefront of all sorts of agendas. Yet little attention is offered to the active role of cities as political drivers of the urban age. There might today be more than two hundred ‘city networks’ globally, with thousands of para-diplomatic connections actively defining relations between cities, international organization and cor…
The Global Governance of Large Technical Systems
The importance of technology in global affairs is visible to the naked and uninitiated eye. Yet International Relations (IR) still lacks a more systematic and critical attention to the role of technological infrastructures in contemporary global governance dynamics. Here, we seek to prompt IR scholars to move ‘large technical systems’ (LTSs) from the contours of IR narratives to a centre stage, as they hold the potential to respond to pressing ch…
Productive tensions? The “city” across geographies of planetary urbanization and the urban age
A shift away from the city as the default unit of analysis in urban studies is one of the widely agreed-upon advances brought about by the planetary urbanization thesis. Yet academic critique of methodological cityism has gained traction during a period when the city is not only globally prominent through the “urban age” discourse but has also been consolidated as a key scale of policy action in multilateral agendas. Rather than focusing on a new…
Scaling the nexus
The emergence of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has resulted in changes to the way we perceive our natural resources. Stressors such as climate change and population growth have highlighted the fragility of our WEF systems, necessitating integrated solutions across multiple scales. While a number of frameworks and analytical tools have been developed since 2011, a comprehensive WEF nexus tool remains elusive, hindered in part by our limited da…
Seeing Covid-19 through an urban lens
The water-energy-food nexus
The new climate leaders
Little interest has thus far been paid to the role of cities in world politics. Yet, several are the examples of city-based engagements suggesting an emerging urban presence in international relations. The Climate Leadership Group, despite its recent lineage, is perhaps the most significant case of metropolitan intersection with global governance. To illustrate this I rely on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to develop a qualitative network analysis of…
Putting ANTs into the mille-feuille
A sprawling interest for ‘assemblage’ has recently burgeoned in urban studies circles drawing mostly on actor-network theory (ANT) discussions and critiques thereof. Presenting a systematic take on
Global Cities
This article calls for greater attention to global cities in the study of world affairs so as to promote a more holistic reading of global governance as a multiscalar set of processes composed by overlapping spheres of authority. The article shows how international studies have been insufficiently sensitive to the strategic role of global cities and how they are capable of acting on the global stage by exerting network power. This sheds light on …
Finding the Global City
Saskia Sassen’s concept of the ‘global city’ has evolved in a complex relation with other urban, economic and social students that deal with these strategic sites of the contemporary global urban architecture. This multidisciplinary set of authors could be metaphorically grouped within what John Friedmann described as the ‘invisible college’ of world city researchers. In light of this tradition, the global city is described here in its various th…
Introduction
Global governance is in flux. Scholarship on the practice of global governance has reimagined it as a realm of disputes and confrontation, rather than one of interest-alignment within multilateral interstate forums. A profound sense of governance deficit is provoking critical reflection both within the corridors of power and among practitioners and scholars. A call within academic circles for renewed reflection on global governance as a practice-…
Diplomats in Crisis
Although "international crisis" is a widespread term, no common definition has yet been achieved: its features have neither been clarified in relation to contemporary events, nor has the role of diplomacy in relation to crises been outlined with precision. Diplomats have even become part of the problem, rather than the problem-solvers, as realist approaches have lost touch with today's poly-lateral world politics. To make up for these lacunae, th…
Mobilising urban knowledge in an infodemic
Knowledge translation in global urban agendas
The politics of “urban expertise”
Expertise and experts have been at the heart of the last few years of pandemic crisis. Yet, their role in urban governance is still a broadly uncharted territory. This special issue explores what a research agenda on the politics of urban expertise could look like. Presenting a mix of diverse geographical viewpoints on the challenges of expertise in cities, we argue for moving beyond a fruitful critique, to reflect more deeply on how critical urb…
Global urban policy and the geopolitics of urban data
Cities have gained prominence in global sustainability discourses. The United Nations ‘2030 Agenda’ highlights in at least four key agreements the need to engage local stakeholders as key partners for the implementation of global policy objectives. As a result, the rise of a ‘cities agenda’ has led not only to an increased role for cities in global politics but also to a reshaping of the knowledge-base underpinning international agreements and th…
Dubai in the 'Middle
In the early 2000s, Dubai seemed the apotheosis of the global city model. Lauded as an embodiment of globalist ideals, or harshly criticized as a representation of the dangers of contemporary urbanism, it was clearly under the spotlight. Then, like the concept of the 'global city' itself, it disappeared from the headlines, to be subject only to sporadic and cynical attention. Today some are heralding a 'return' of Dubai from the anonymity of the …
Ain't about Politics? The Wicked Power-Geometry of Sydney's Greening Governance
The globalization of Sydney and its rise to world city status tell us a profoundly political story that presents critical challenges both in terms of local development and long-term sustainability. Green is at the centre of this imagineering, which situates environmental sustainability at the core of Sydney's competitive and innovative edge. Yet the Harbour City, while rising to worldwide fame, has also been progressively troubled by wicked chall…
Wilson Victorious? Understanding Democracy Promotion in the Midst of a “Backlash”
Many authors have issued anxious warnings about a disturbing “backlash against democracy”—this in spite of the growing affirmation of democracy as an international standard against which other systems are measured. This article considers the role of democracy promotion, which is understood as activities aimed at assisting in consolidating, disseminating, and advocating democratic governance in this context. The theoretical framework in which the …
After War
Immoral authorities
This paper highlights the relevance of moral authority, and the role that egoistic ethical claims have in waging war. This is done, in view of the just war tradition, by drawing a parallel between the crusades in the ‘kingdom of heaven’ proclaimed in 1095, and the present Islamic jihād, as well as the Bush administration's declaration of a war on terror. It maintains that the role of self-legitimized leaders is crucial in shaping the order of the…
Paradigm City
Global Cities
This article calls for greater attention to global cities in the study of world affairs so as to promote a more holistic reading of global governance as a multiscalar set of processes composed by overlapping spheres of authority. The article shows how international studies have been insufficiently sensitive to the strategic role of global cities and how they are capable of acting on the global stage by exerting network power. This sheds light on …
High-rise Dubai urban entrepreneurialism and the technology of symbolic power
Strategic Rivalries in World Politics
Putting ANTs into the mille-feuille
A sprawling interest for ‘assemblage’ has recently burgeoned in urban studies circles drawing mostly on actor-network theory (ANT) discussions and critiques thereof. Presenting a systematic take on
Diplomats in Crisis
Although "international crisis" is a widespread term, no common definition has yet been achieved: its features have neither been clarified in relation to contemporary events, nor has the role of diplomacy in relation to crises been outlined with precision. Diplomats have even become part of the problem, rather than the problem-solvers, as realist approaches have lost touch with today's poly-lateral world politics. To make up for these lacunae, th…
Finding the Global City
Saskia Sassen’s concept of the ‘global city’ has evolved in a complex relation with other urban, economic and social students that deal with these strategic sites of the contemporary global urban architecture. This multidisciplinary set of authors could be metaphorically grouped within what John Friedmann described as the ‘invisible college’ of world city researchers. In light of this tradition, the global city is described here in its various th…
Not Quite the Dragon
Despite the never-ending criticism, Beijing's new diplomacy has fostered fertile ground on which multilateral security arrangements might flourish, albeit slowly. In this view, this article argues for a re-reading of the diplomatic history of the Six Party Talks that can render justice to the pivotal role of Beijing in maintaining a continuous process. By re-tracing the diplomatic history of the Talks on North Korea's nuclear capabilities during …
Talking Groups Out of War
This essay sets up a comparison between two types of negotiating tactics: the first, aggregating strategies , aims at merging parties into the fewest number of sides to a conflict as possible, in order to diminish the number of war‐related divisions, and the second, disaggregating strategies , rests on the idea that “cross‐cutting cleavages” help moderate social conflict because they run against the construction of opposed identities. Much of the…
Ain't about Politics? The Wicked Power-Geometry of Sydney's Greening Governance
The globalization of Sydney and its rise to world city status tell us a profoundly political story that presents critical challenges both in terms of local development and long-term sustainability. Green is at the centre of this imagineering, which situates environmental sustainability at the core of Sydney's competitive and innovative edge. Yet the Harbour City, while rising to worldwide fame, has also been progressively troubled by wicked chall…
Global Cities, Governance and Diplomacy
This book illustrates the importance of global cities for world politics and highlights the diplomatic connections between cities and global governance. While there is a growing body of literature concerned with explaining the transformations of the international order, little theorisation has taken into account the key metropolises of our time as elements of these revolutions. The volume seeks to fill this gap by demonstrating how global cities …
Global City Challenges
The contributors illustrate what twin analytical and practical challenges emerge from juxtaposing cultural, economic, historical, postcolonial, virtual, architectural, literary, security and political
World Politics by Other Means? London, City Diplomacy and the Olympics
Drawing on the case of the Olympics, and in particular on the role of London in securing, planning and administering the 2012 Summer Games, this article investigates how cities participate in world politics beyond the traditional avenues of the international system. Tracing how the planning of a sporting mega-event has been woven into London’s international role as a global ‘green’ leader, the article seeks to shed some light on the diplomatic ro…
City Leadership in Global Governance
The international society's lack of leadership is often blamed for many of the shortcomings in addressing global challenges. Yet this focus might have been on the wrong kind of leaders: rather than heads of state and diplomats, effective international responses might be better situated with the ordinary influence of city leaders. While capable of reaching beyond urban politics and developing transnational networks, mayors might represent a key hi…
The new climate leaders
Little interest has thus far been paid to the role of cities in world politics. Yet, several are the examples of city-based engagements suggesting an emerging urban presence in international relations. The Climate Leadership Group, despite its recent lineage, is perhaps the most significant case of metropolitan intersection with global governance. To illustrate this I rely on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to develop a qualitative network analysis of…
Extraordinary Cities
What if we put cities “first” in telling the millenary tales of geopolitics and in pondering the grand challenges of our current condition? In Extraordinary Cities, Peter Taylor looks back at world
Assemblage Thinking and International Relations
In this introduction to the volume we locate the growing interest in assemblage thinking for international relations in its intellectual and historical context. Arguing that many different approaches to assemblage thinking exist, and eschewing the temptation to try to pin this style of thought down to a fixed theoretical perspective, we try to allow this volume to be an exploration of the potential for these ideas to transform international theor…
Reassembling International Theory
What can 'assemblage' thinking contribute to the study of international relations theory? This study seeks to investigate how the various debates on assemblages in social theory can contribute to gene
Dubai in the 'Middle
In the early 2000s, Dubai seemed the apotheosis of the global city model. Lauded as an embodiment of globalist ideals, or harshly criticized as a representation of the dangers of contemporary urbanism, it was clearly under the spotlight. Then, like the concept of the 'global city' itself, it disappeared from the headlines, to be subject only to sporadic and cynical attention. Today some are heralding a 'return' of Dubai from the anonymity of the …
Everyday International Relations
Garbage is stuff that matters: the generation, disposal, and management of waste represent some of the most visceral flows in our society. Yet most international scholars continue to regard it as trivial to focus on the mundane practices and menial materiality associated with managing rubbish. Contra this dissociation, and through an analytics of assemblages, I argue that international theory can (and nowadays must) encompass both the grand desig…
Introduction
Global governance is in flux. Scholarship on the practice of global governance has reimagined it as a realm of disputes and confrontation, rather than one of interest-alignment within multilateral interstate forums. A profound sense of governance deficit is provoking critical reflection both within the corridors of power and among practitioners and scholars. A call within academic circles for renewed reflection on global governance as a practice-…
The Global Governance of Large Technical Systems
The importance of technology in global affairs is visible to the naked and uninitiated eye. Yet International Relations (IR) still lacks a more systematic and critical attention to the role of technological infrastructures in contemporary global governance dynamics. Here, we seek to prompt IR scholars to move ‘large technical systems’ (LTSs) from the contours of IR narratives to a centre stage, as they hold the potential to respond to pressing ch…
Political science (69 works) · Sociology (60 works) · Law (46 works) · Politics (40 works) · Geography (36 works) · Economics (35 works) · Law (30 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (28 works) · Corporate governance (26 works) · Business (18 works)