Call for Papers-Review of Urban Affairs 2026, Submission Deadline- 20th of April 2026
CITIES ON AN ECOLOGICAL EDGE
Across cities in the global South, adverse environmental conditions such as rising temperatures and extreme heat conditions; sudden and heavy deluges; urban flooding as well as severe water scarcity; and deteriorating air quality are severely affecting the health, lives, and livelihoods of urban dwellers. It is now well established that the impact of climate change, extreme events and disasters disproportionately affects the vulnerable, poor, and marginalized communities living in hazard prone areas and even exacerbates urban inequalities. Women in cities, who are at the forefront of caregiving responsibilities, are more likely to live in poverty, face higher health risks, and experience increased gender-based violence and displacement following climate-driven disasters given their limited access to public infrastructure and lower incomes from their participation in the informal
economy.
Yet, cities are the centres of economic activities, trade, innovation and investments, infrastructure development, capital accumulation and nodes of material and energy consumption, providing opportunities for poverty alleviation and improved quality of life. Large, metropolitan cities continue to expand through migration and natural growth fuelled by urban aspiration, small towns including hill stations are being quietly transformed into regional growth hubs especially through transition to non-farm activities and logistics, and rural hinterlands and urban peripheries are being repurposed into areas of urban living and working, tech parks and gated communities. The multiple and complex trajectories of contemporary urban development paradoxically contribute to the intensifying ecological crisis with rapid, dense, unplanned construction, significantly increased levels of carbon emissions, devastating changes in land uses with destruction of natural resources and loss of green cover, wetlands and water bodies, the widespread use of concrete, glass and asphalt in buildings and infrastructures that trap heat and produce urban heat island effects and increase surface run off potentially leading to flash floods. Urban areas are thus constantly trading off between development and the environment while being confronted with multidimensional urban poverty, social and spatial inequality, and urban informality.
While urban life is at the centre of these climate risks, cities are also critical in addressing the compounding crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution due to anthropogenic activities. There are deep interlinkages and
dependencies between cities and their environment. Cities, their inhabitants, and governments are thus engaged in various ways of dealing with the crises – through climate action plans, creating critical low emission, resource efficient and resilient
critical urban infrastructures, focusing on policies, programs and projects that emphasize and incentivize decarbonization, efficient energy use, sustainability, inclusiveness and resilience in cities. Increasingly, urban planning and decision-making is oriented towards respecting and actively protecting and restoring the urban ecological balance through urban adaptation, nature-based solutions and resilience building interventions at various urban scales. However, fragmentation of urban governance, focus on short term development projects, lack of targeted financial instruments, entrenched and vested interests in existing trajectories of unsustainable development, urban inequality, lack of participation and voice of people in the planning processes and decision-making structures arise as formidable obstacles and challenges in implementing sustainable urban transitions.
We welcome articles that are embedded within these debates around the larger evolving context of urban ecological transitions and are exploring one or more of the following research themes:
1. Urban ecological crises and its differential, intersecting and cumulative impacts on health, lives, and livelihoods – extreme heat conditions, water scarcity, urban flooding, air pollution, water pollution, etc; and how these impact vulnerable and marginalized urban groups?
2. The trade-offs and contestations around urban development and the environment, how are these trade-offs being calculated, viewed and weighed?
3. The challenges and opportunities of cities responding to climate change, the pathways of sustainable urban transformations – whether in transport, housing, waste, water, energy consumption, etc, who are the actors, what are
the instruments and spaces they are using to deliberate, debate and implement changes, what are the governance, financial , social, political and institutional challenges? What are the emergent planning frameworks, regulatory changes, investment patterns and social protection measures to ensure climate resilient, sustainable, inclusive cities? How are cities thinking about their future innovatively?
We welcome abstracts of 600 to 800 words by the 20th of April 2026. Selected abstracts will be informed by 10th of May 2026. Only those abstracts abiding by the thematics outlined above will be considered.
Full papers of maximum word length 6000 to 8000 words need to be submitted by 10th of August 2026. Revised and final drafts will be due by 10th of October 2026.
Early career scholars from India are encouraged to submit their abstracts for this particular issue.
Submit your abstracts to epwrua2026@gmail.com
For more details, refer here
