Our reasons for studying cities and state fragility are primarily the following:

• There is a close historical relationship between cities and state making and we seek to demonstrate how cities in fragile states - as social, economic, political and spatial entities - can promote or prevent the unravelling of the state.   Cities can be constitutive spaces for state formation and therefore an understanding of the conditions under which this is likely to occur, or be undermined, is central to our project.

• Cities have always played a role during times of war, whether as locations of refuges and protection or of siege and attack.  Moreover, in recent years, the vulnerability of cities as objects of war and targets of terrorist attack has become abundantly clear, such that the centrality of cities in contemporary warfare is now indisputable.  In this context, we will explore how changing trends in warfare are transforming the role of cities in processes of state collapse and reconstruction.   Violent conflict can limit the reach and legitimacy of national states and when state collapse is imminent, or where reconstruction is underway, city-level actors can play a key role in promoting peace and stimulating economic recovery.

• Over the past two decades, many cities around the world have become characterised by rising forms of violence, insecurity and illegality.  Our research considers these characteristics to be constitutive of state fragility.  As sites of high crime and insecurity, cities themselves have today become new theatres of war and are rapidly becoming associated with, or indeed paradigmatic of, a broader form of 'twenty-first century urban warfare'.

Case studies are planned in the following cities:
Ahmedebad, Arua, Bogota, Dar-es-Salaam, Goma, Gulu, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kampala, Karachi, Kigali, Kinshasa, Managua, Maputo, Medellin and Peshawar

These cities will be studied under three major categories:

• Cities and State-making - we will explore the historical role that cities have played in state-making, crisis and collapse.  Our analysis will centre on the concepts of institutional multiplicity, state capacity, contestation  and the divisibility of assets such as urban land and property rights.   We will explore issues of urban identities, institutional marginalisation or inclusivity, and the construction of urban and national citizenship.

• City Regions and the State -  many capital cities have become isolated centres of political and economic activity, essentially functioning as self-contained units divorced from their hinterland. At the same time, regional cities that do not serve as centres of national political activity thrive on formal and informal trans-national regional economies, operating largely outside the regulatory purview of the state.  CSRC research will examine why, and how, in the context of domestic and regional instability these cities not only survive but actually grow. A critical question to be addressed in this context is the extent to which city-states and regional cities work for or against the consolidation of state legitimacy and authority.

• Urban Violence and the State  - this element of the research will focus on urban centres and examine why - under conditions of stress and contestation - some cities become violent and dysfunctional, whilst other do not.   Research will seek to determine whether cities are appropriate spaces for concentrating resources as a means of taming urban violence or as a means of reconstruction after war or conflict.  In this way, we aim to provide guidance on best practice for planners and policymakers working in post-war urban areas.