Updated Abstract Submission Date:
10 September 2025
1 October 2025
Keywords: Embedded Worlds, Revising Methods, Other Spatial Frameworks, Transcending Global North
Morphologies of the Global South is an edited volume that explores the role of urban morphology in understanding cities, with a particular focus on the Global South. In these regions, rapid and often unregulated urbanisation exacerbates social and environmental disparities. Existing research, largely rooted in Global North frameworks, frequently overlooks local realities such as the informal-formal divide, poverty, inequality, climate vulnerability, and the colonial legacies that drive spatial heterogeneity.
Traditional classifications are inadequate in these contexts, highlighting the need for context-specific approaches. Furthermore, characteristics typical of the Global South—such as informal settlements and migration patterns—are increasingly evident in the Global North, challenging established methodologies. This volume aims to bridge these gaps by offering innovative analyses and methodologies to decode socio-spatial complexities, serving as a critical resource for researchers, planners, and policymakers addressing urban challenges in diverse contexts.
Urban morphology, the scientific study of the form, structure, and spatial evolution of cities, is essential for exploring the connections between societies and space. The Global South—comprising developing countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia—faces unprecedented and often unregulated urbanisation, resulting in a disconnect between societal needs and environmental strategies.
Despite the fact that the Global South encompasses regions affecting over 6 billion people, the study of urban morphology in these areas has received insufficient attention. Much of the existing literature is based on analytical and placemaking perspectives specific to the Global North, underscoring the urgent need for research that addresses the unique characteristics of the Global South.
The contradictions between informal and formal systems, planned and emergent strategies, and distinct socioeconomic and environmental challenges raise important questions for scientific frameworks and methodological alternatives. These contradictions result in diverse spatial propositions from an urban morphological perspective.
First, the traditional classification of spatial characteristics associated with geographic areas—such as those defined by the Global South and Global North—is heavily contested when applied to the varied developmental modalities of the Global South. Elements such as plots, structures, land division, and functional zoning are often inconsistent between the two contexts.
Second, the Global South is marked by unique socioeconomic and environmental conditions, with urban morphology reflecting significant poverty, inequality, rapid population growth, and vulnerability to climate change. This necessitates the development of new theoretical frameworks and their integration with practical knowledge in spatial development. Can our current scientific metrics be applied to these new socio-spatial conditions using both qualitative and quantitative classifications?
Third, cities in the Global South often exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity and diverse arrangements. These patterns are frequently attributed to a combination of colonial histories and distinctive socio-cultural and economic characteristics. The integration of methodologies and analytical processes required for a comprehensive understanding of this socio-spatial heterogeneity—and the policies that support such conditions—remains understudied. What alternative methods or interpretations can be developed for the morphologies of the Global South?
Finally, classifying the Global South as a geographically distinct entity is increasingly difficult, as spatial characteristics typical of the Global South are now appearing in the Global North. This complicates methodological translations across scale, time, and spatial metrics. Similar spatial trends are now observed in Europe, Australasia, and China. How does the field of urban morphology respond to Global South phenomena—such as migration patterns, cultural processes, spatial utilisation, policy, and social resilience—when they are embedded in the Global North?
This publication aims to elicit theoretical and methodological responses under four main themes:
This theme challenges conventional frameworks and categorisations of spatial organisation within Global South cities. By revisiting historical and (neo)colonial spatial legacies, indigenous settlement patterns, and emerging informal practices, it explores how these influences have shaped present-day urban forms. It demonstrates how these unique conditions contribute to distinctive spatial structures, street networks, plot arrangements, and building typologies that depart from conventional morphological categories. By highlighting the fluidity, adaptability, and cultural embedding of these spatial arrangements, this section challenges Global North-centric narratives and analytical paradigms. It seeks to establish a foundation for understanding the unique spatial dynamics of the Global South, including frameworks born from indigenous knowledge, informal systems, and cultural practices.
Key questions include:
What opportunities exist for reimagining spatial frameworks to align with the diverse realities of the Global South?
How can we redefine spatial paradigms to better reflect these realities?
What lessons can be drawn from these alternative models for broader urban planning and design discourse?
How can historical, informal, and indigenous spatial models reshape our analytical vocabulary and understanding of urban form?
How do these forms and their interwoven cultural, political, and environmental contexts expand our understanding of urban evolution and its underlying processes?
This theme highlights the need to develop and adapt methods and tools better suited to analysing the distinctive urban forms of the Global South. It focuses on methodological innovation, moving beyond static, data-intensive techniques developed for stable, heavily regulated urban contexts. It addresses the practical difficulties of applying conventional morphological tools—often reliant on formal cadastral data, fixed zoning patterns, and stable typologies—in environments characterized by informality, rapid land-use change, and incomplete datasets. By exploring new and experimental qualitative-quantitative hybrid methods, novel mapping techniques, non-traditional data sources, crowd-sourced information, and adaptive metrics that capture shifting spatial boundaries and mixed-use environments, this section proposes methodological recalibrations that faithfully represent the complexity of Global South urban forms and the processes that drive them. The aim is to showcase cutting-edge research strategies that can unlock deeper insights into urban development processes, spatial fluidity, and resilience.
Key questions include:
How can urban morphological methods be adapted to effectively analyse informal, hybrid, and rapidly evolving urban forms in the Global South?
What ‘other’ approaches—such as hybrid qualitative-quantitative methods, participatory mapping, or alternative data sources—can overcome the limitations of conventional tools and incomplete datasets?
In what ways can methodological frameworks be recalibrated to capture the socio-cultural, economic, and environmental diversity present within Global South cities?
Urban morphology provides a lens to interpret how socio-cultural traditions, modes of production, spatial practices, and environmental contexts manifest in the urban forms of the Global South. This theme focuses on the expressive power of morphological analysis, spotlighting development models distinctive to the Global South. Here, vernacular building traditions intersect with modern construction technologies, informal settlements blend with planned layouts, and tribal or communal land arrangements coexist with market-driven property divisions. By analysing these factors through morphological frameworks, this section illustrates how socio-cultural structures actively shape and are shaped by urban morphologies. It examines how the unique city-building traditions and adaptive spatial solutions of the Global South redefine global dialogues on urban growth, transformation, resilience, and sustainability, offering new reference points and analytic tools for understanding urban transformation worldwide.
Key questions include:
What unique city-building practices emerge from the Global South?
How do these traditions redefine the global discourse on urban growth and resilience, as reflected in urban form?
How can different spatial traditions merge with 21st-century urbanisation?
In a world where urban patterns and processes increasingly transcend geographic labels, this theme draws parallels and lessons across the Global South and Global North. It highlights how phenomena once considered peripheral—such as informal housing typologies, adaptable infrastructures, and culturally plural public realms—now influence urban landscapes worldwide. By examining the morphological implications of migration flows, climate adaptation measures, and policy innovations, the section positions Global South morphologies not as anomalies, but as valuable frameworks for confronting contemporary urban challenges globally. Moreover, theme 04 builds on this by positioning Global South morphologies as valuable frameworks for addressing worldwide urban challenges, advocating for cross-regional learning, and informing more equitable, resilient, and context-sensitive urban futures through shared knowledge and methodological exchange. This demonstrates how insights from the Global South can inform the Sustainable Development Goals, influencing not only the measurement and management of urban form but also the conceptualisation of more equitable, resilient, and context-sensitive futures for cities worldwide, driven by innovative design and policy responses. This section calls for a deeper discourse on the intrinsic characteristics of the Global South as they relate to the Global North, as well as the pedagogical considerations relevant to enquiries about the Global South.
Key questions include:
What contributions does the Global South provide as value frameworks for addressing contemporary urban challenges, integrated within other traditions?
What insights can the Global South offer regarding urban form management and the pedagogical frameworks related to the transfer of knowledge on spatial concepts from the Global North?
How can Global South and Global North interact, and moreover, how can this interaction facilitate the construction of a comprehensive framework for a Global Future?
Abstract Length: 600 words (excluding bibliography)
Submission Date: 10 September 2025
Submissions are to be made to the editors via email: morphologiesgs@gmail.com
600-word abstract with references
5 keywords
300-word bio of all contributing authors
Citation Style: Chicago Manual Style (author-date style), 16th edition
UK English
Review Process: Double-blind peer reviewed
Focus on theoretical positions, methodological approaches, or impact cases
Clear linkage to one of the designated themes
Note: Authors are welcome to contact editors with other possible themes before submission of abstracts.
The publication date is planned for January 2027. The following dates set out the planned production schedule. Dates are subject to change
15 July 2025
Call for Abstracts Open
10 September 2025
1 October 2025
Submission of 600-word abstract with references, 5 keywords, 300-word bio.
17 October 2025
Notification of acceptance, editors' comments on abstracts.
31 October 2025
Submit abstracts to publisher for approval and reviewing
1 March 2026
Submission of final text and peer reviewing
1 July 2026
Copyediting
1 August 2026
Proofing
15 October 2026
Submission of final text to Publisher
1 January 2027
Publication and press release
March/April 2027
Global Seminar
Routledge / Taylor & Francis has given an expression of interest to publish this edited volume. We therefore adhere to international publishing standards.
All submissions must be original
Plagiarism software checking and authenticity verification
Submission and peer reviewing conducted through initial abstracts
International publishing standards compliance
The editors of this volume are committed to fostering an inclusive scholarly environment, welcoming contributions from researchers of all backgrounds, ages, and career stages. We encourage diverse perspectives and voices, recognising that a wide range of experiences enriches the discourse and advances understanding within the field of urban morphology.
Volume editors reserve the right to review, request revisions, or remove submitted chapters at any stage of the editorial process. Chapters may be excluded if they do not meet the required academic standards, fail to align with the thematic scope of the volume, or do not adhere to the submission guidelines and deadlines. The editorial team will communicate with authors regarding any concerns and provide opportunities for revision where appropriate. However, the final decision regarding inclusion or removal of chapters rests with the editors, to ensure the overall coherence, quality, and integrity of the publication.