City of Superlatives

Abstract

A number of urban theorists have recently deployed a specific type of rhetoric to support claims that their city—Las Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles—deserves paradigmatic status. Using “superlatives” and assertions that their city is “first” on one or another measure, they have slipped into an academic boosterism at odds with a critical theoretical enterprise. This article explores how urban theorists might position themselves in relation to the city. Based on the premise that all knowledge is situated, it argues for an urban theory that is both critical and engaged.