Urban Studies Lab

The Urban Studies Lab (USL) at the University of Manchester develops actionable knowledge on cities as socio-eco-technical systems. Through transdisciplinary research, it provides governments, planners, architects, and investors with innovative tools to address urban inequality, sustainability, and resilience, shaping policy, guiding design, and informing investment in equitable, future-oriented urban transformation. 

Led by Prof Deljana Iossifova, research at USL focuses on urban systems as dynamic, socio-eco-technical entanglements shaped by everyday practices, power relations, and governance structures. Understanding and addressing the inequalities and vulnerabilities inherent in these systems requires context-sensitive, participatory, and transdisciplinary approaches, grounded in principles of sustainability and justice. 

We bring spatial thinking and expertise to studies of urban everyday life, social practices, and the cultures, natures, infrastructures, and architectures that condition the contemporary and future urban. Integrating decolonial methodologies into research and teaching, we critically interrogate entrenched inequalities in the processes of urbanisation and urban transformation to inform urban interventions and create meaningful impact in diverse urban contexts.