Socialist worldmaking: The political economy of urban comparison in the Global Cold War

This article revisits comparative urban studies produced during the Cold War in framework of ‘socialist worldmaking’, or multiple, evolving and sometimes antagonistic practices cooperation between socialist countries Eastern Europe decolonising Africa Asia. Much like recent ‘new urbanism’, these extended candidates, terms positionalities comparison beyond Global North. focuses on operative concepts employed by Soviet, European, African Asian scholars professionals economic spatial planning across diverse locations, shows how they were means ‘adaptive’ ‘appropriative’ comparison. While adaptive was instrumental application Soviet embarking development path, appropriative juxtaposed from various contexts – whether ‘West’ ‘East’ order to select those best suitable for needs ground. argues that this conceptual production conditioned political economy worldmaking experiences are useful a more critical advancement research today.