By showing how much of what is considered peripheral to urban life is actually critical to it, the book opens up new ways for understanding what it is possible to do in cities from now on.

AbdouMaliq Simone is an urbanist and Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Since 1977 he has had many jobs in different cities across African and Southeast Asia, in the fields of education, housing, social welfare, urban development, and local government. His best known publications are In Whose Image: Political Islam and Urban Practices in the Sudan, and For the City Yet to Come: Urban Change in Four African Cities.

1. On Cityness 2. Towards an Anticipatory Urban Politics 3. Intersections: What Can Urban Residents Do With Each Other? 4. Circulations: Finance As a Model of City Making 5.Back to Intersection and Recharging the City 6. Reclaiming Black Urbanism