An international dialogue on the production of alternative urban spaces

Although they proceed from a shared point of departure, the preceding eleven chapters are pregnant with perspectives and insights that go well beyond the loose conceptual framing provided in Chapter 1. The task that remains is to harness the multiplicity of voices thus engendered by staging an international dialogue on the production of alternative urban spaces. More than a summary of chapter findings, this results in a complex mapping of similarities, resonances, differences, tensions, and disagreements. In staging the dialogue we have not confined ourselves to juxtaposing the chapters but also relate their findings to existing literatures, revisiting in particular the debates included in Chapter 1. The dialogue has two main aims: first, it can be read as a contribution to urban studies in which we try to sketch the scholarly orientations necessary for this cross-disciplinary field to retain and reinvigorate its political and practical relevance; and second, it can be read as a resource of inspiration, affirmation, and encouragement for those more directly invested in the production of alternative urban spaces on a practical and political level.