ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that research on Detroit continues to advance urban studies in significant ways. Moreover, the city's importance comes not in spite of Detroit's decline but rather because of its decline. The chapter suggests the value of comparative urban research by placing phenomena observed in Detroit against theories developed to account for processes in growing cities as well as theories that describe urbanization processes in the Global South. The challenge that Detroit poses for urban studies is to flesh out that model—to understand the spatial, social, political and economic dynamics of change and how decline may differ from growth. Although the case studies focus on Detroit, they contribute ideas and challenges to urban studies more generally by positioning the research in relation to bodies of knowledge. Andrew Herscher documents the ways that the devaluing of real estate in Detroit allows residents to repurpose it, creating "alternative urbanisms"—transitory artistic and public spaces, community and guerrilla gardens, and intentional communities.
