ABSTRACT
Reflecting on the where of urban politics may at first sight seem a slightly odd thing to be doing, if only because the where seems implicit (maybe even explicit) in the label itself. After all, urban politics is presumably simply the politics that takes place in, is shaped by and shapes the experience of those living in urban areas. In other words, urban politics is the politics pursued in those areas that everybody knows to be urban – the politics of what goes on in cities or city neighbourhoods. In practice, however, attempting to define the urban of urban politics as an object of study is by no means as straightforward as its easy use in everyday language – or academic writing – might suggest.
