Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that in order to rethink the historiography of cities, the discussions of governance, the universe of policies and scholarship on migrants and cities, we need to develop a new analytical framework, which brings migrants and non-migrants into a common lens.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses city-making processes in three disempowered cities. On the basis of empirical research, it explores the intersecting pathways of people who are generally differentiated by scholars and policy makers as either migrant or non-migrant, on the city-making processes. It argues that in order to rethink the historiography of cities, the discussions of governance, the universe of policies and scholarship on migrants and cities, we need to develop a new analytical framework, which brings migrants and non-migrants into a common lens. This urges us to recognize and explicate the contemporaneity of all urban residents as city-makers, though operating within unequal networks of multiscalar power.