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With more individuals now living in suburban settings than in urban towns and cities, suburbanization represents the largest population shift in the post-WW2 era (Hanlon et al., 2010; Keil, 2013). More recently, suburbia has experienced growth in its domestic and international populations throughout the last twenty years, and this landscape has become an increasingly contested space of social, cultural, and political dynamics (Carpio et al., 2011).

The suburban poor accounts for a majority of the nation’s metropolitan population living below the poverty line, with more individuals now living in poverty across the suburban realm than in the central cities (Raphael & Stoll, 2010; Schouten, 2021). With almost all major metropolitan areas experiencing poverty beyond the urban core, some suburban areas are beginning to face the same social and economic challenges that faced the nearby urban core around half a century earlier (Cooke & Denton, 2015). Moreover, the ethnoracial composition of suburban areas has become significantly more diverse. Cities such as Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Newark have been discussed as having more diverse suburbs than their inner-city environments (Hall & Lee, 2010). These changing social, economic, and demographic dynamics remain significant as suburban areas have often struggled to provide access to many public and social services (Kneebone, 2017).

Cities and large urban spaces have often been the focal point of urban geography, yet suburban space is essential in shaping the economic mobility, residential living, and political activism of the wider region. There remains a critical need to further unpack the social, economic, and political processes that operate across the suburban landscape and the wider urban periphery. With this in mind, we encourage submissions of empirical, conceptual, or theoretical, research that draw on perspectives relating to the social and economic conditions across the suburban landscape, with quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods methodological approaches welcome.

Possible themes may include, but are not limited to:
• Thinking about how academic research can define the “suburban”
• The geographies of demographic change and population patterns throughout the suburban landscape
• The role of poverty and social inequality in the urban periphery
• Issues around homeownership, housing policies, and labor decentralization
• How state actors, local governance, and homeowners facilitate the planning and development of the urban periphery
• How suburban change influences political elections and outcomes, both locally and nationally
• Case studies of modern suburbia
Related research

Carpio, G., Irazábal, C., & Pulido, L. (2011). Right to the Suburb? Rethinking Lefebvre and Immigrant Activism. Journal of Urban Affairs, 33(2), 185–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2010.00535.x
Cooke, T. J., & Denton, C. (2015). The suburbanization of poverty? An alternative perspective. Urban Geography, 36(2), 300–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2014.973224
Hall, M., & Lee, B. (2010). How Diverse Are US Suburbs? Urban Studies, 47(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009346862
Hanlon, B., Short Rennie, J., & Vicino, T. J. (2010). Cities and Suburbs: New metropolitan realities in the US (1st ed.). Routledge.
Keil, R. (2013). Suburban Constellations (1st ed.). Jovis.
Kneebone, E. (2017). Suburban Poverty. The Milken Institute Review: A Journal of Economic Policy, 19(3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0432
Raphael, S., & Stoll, M. A. (2010). Job Sprawl and the Suburbanization of Poverty (pp. 1–21). Brookings Metro.
Schouten, A. (2021). Residential mobility and the geography of low-income households. Urban Studies, 58(9), 1846–1865. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020922127

Non-Presenting Participants