ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how an approach that starts from concepts that try to understand real-world phenomena in different contexts can shed light not only on cities – or, more generally, on cases – but also on the nature of these phenomena. There are many different approaches to comparative studies; and there are also different aims in comparing. The aim of comparing is often assumed rather than explicated. But it makes a big difference if one is comparing cases to make sense of those cases or if one hopes the cases will shed light on the phenomenon under study. Scholars who argue for the relevance of a concept to understand empirical situations in different contexts rarely take the view that the experience of a phenomenon is exactly the same in different places. Financialization has become one concept to apply – or better: one lens through which to see – urban and other social-economic processes.
