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Governing the Twenty-First Century Metropolis and Transforming Territory

Abstract This article puts forward the argument that urban governance in metropolises in the global South has entered a territorial moment. There is a subtle shift of emphasis underway in many Southern metropolises as municipal governments increasingly focus on transforming urban space rather than ‘improving’ populations. This shift away from Foucauldian disciplinary tactics—i.e. fixing people in place, classifying them into populations and acting upon them—is driven by political economic circumstances. Many of these cities have abundant reserves of capital and labor but they remain intractably disconnected; the former is invested in real estate and infrastructure, while a large number of urban residents struggle to sell their labor power for a wage. In this context municipal governments seek to manage the transformation of urban space, the urban governance strategies for which are presented here in a typology ranging from modest efforts to control places that were hitherto beyond the reach of the state through to the wholesale creation of new cities. Ultimately this article demonstrates that any attempt to ‘reload’ urban studies must focus on the governance of territory—i.e. the reconfiguration of power and place—in metropolises at the frontier of the urban revolution.