Looking forward: a research agenda for contemporary urban sociology

In concluding this Handbook we ask, first, what new and important perspectives, research agenda even, the present collection offers in comparison to previous such attempts; second, what lessons we can draw from these contributions in order to help define the discipline; and third, which relevant fields of research have been omitted and, however, would require more attention. This chapter thus identifies research areas and perspectives in urban sociology such as: a critical approach beyond mainstream topics and analyses; a focus on economic restructuring, industrial relocation, urban growth, and shrinking cities; urban labour markets, the platform economy, and gig work; urban mobilities; the endurance of the housing question; issues of socio-spatial segregation, mixture, gentrification, and displacement; the rise of rentier capitalism and the assetisation of cities; and a miscellanea of other under-researched topics related to socially shaped cities.