Leaving post-anything urban studies behind?

Luger and Schwarze’s critical unsettling of post-industrial is a 

presciently welcome one. For some years now, I – and others – have become increasingly uncomfortable with referring to and describing the locations of our research as ‘post-industrial’ (Emery, 2023; Clark, 2023). The main focus of this commentary is on the facets of Luger and Schwarze’s (2024) arguments as they relate to non-metropolitan deindustrializing urbanisms in the North Atlantic in an attempt to develop how we better conceptualize, understand and do justice to and with

such spaces. The main thrust of the contribution is for the affective intensities and traumas of deindustrialization to be brought into closer analytical dialogue with the profusion of processes of associated with, in particular, ‘organized abandonment’ (Gilmore, 2022) and ‘neoliberal urbanism’

(Silver, 2021). In insisting on classed experiences and knowledge shaping these dialogues, there remains hope for urban studies to contribute to an emergent multi-ethnic class politics around 7 commonalities of contemporary as well as historical class violence.