Cities and New Urban Theories: On Three Theories That Center Urbanization

Today, the majority of the population living in cities is expected to increase with the continuation of urbanization trend in the near future. It is known that the cities of the future will be different from the cities of today. At this point, the importance of the researches about the cities increases. In this article, three recent urbanization approaches, Planetary Urbanization, Postcolonial Urbanization and Assemblage Urbanization will be discussed. The common feature of these three approaches, which have different theoretical thought bases with no delineating lines among them, is that they criticize the ongoing linearities, hierarchies and classifications of cities on urbanization and urbanity. Planetary and Postcolonial Urbanization question urban-rural dilemma and Global North-South or West-East divide, respectively while Assemblage Urbanization examines past-potential, actual-virtual or social-practical. In the article, a general evaluation is carried out by taking criticisms towards these three urban approaches into consideration.