O mais recente post do Blogue ATS, “It takes a city to learn about cities? Pitfalls and delights of urban comparative research” da autoria de Marco Allegra, desenvolve uma reflexão sobre a construção de teoria e a mobilização de metodologias comparativas em estudos urbanos.

“It could even be said that every effort in theory building and abstraction implies some form of comparison: when we use or produce theory, we invariably measure the applicability of a concept across a variety of cases; we create different classes of objects based on observable elements that we assume are most significant; and we try to explain different outcomes in relation to different variables at work. Urban research is no exception – indeed, “city” is a comparative concept in itself, to the extent that we observe each single city, as Jennifer Robinson would have it, against the background of a “world of cities”. ”

Marco Allegra é Doutorado em Ciência Política da Universidade de Turim e Investigador Auxiliar no ICS-ULisboa, onde coordena o Projeto exPERts (Making sense of planning expertise: housing policy and the role of experts in the Programa Especial de Realojamento) e membro da equipa do projeto HOPES – Perspetivas e lutas em torno da habitação. Movimentos, políticas e dinâmicas residenciais em e para além de Lisboa.