The rapid growth of cities fundamentally affects physical features, social interactions, and cultural and socioeconomic conditions of neighborhoods. Community and urban governance are facing a wide range of traditional and new challenges in the context of digitalization, globalization, international economic crisis, and the recent pandemic. Globally and locally, a multiplicity of socio-economic, institutional, and physical factors is shaping city developments and testing urban community’s capacity to respond to extraordinary situations such as dynamics and tensions between various stakeholders, changes in social ties and social cohesion, and socio-spatial concentrations of social problems. Building smart and equal cities has become a common goal for policy makers and academic researchers in urban studies across the globe. There are pressing needs for cross-disciplinary efforts to construct resilient and inclusive communities that promote social equity and the wellbeing of city dwellers.

This special issue welcomes interdisciplinary studies of community and urban governance in diverse countries and/or regions, with theoretical and empirical contributions in comparative perspectives. Submissions to this special issue might address one or more of the following topics:

• Dynamics between government, civil society, and private/informal sector in urban governance and wellbeing of the residents
• Digitalization and its implications for urban governance and social equality
• Neighborhood effects on socio-economic, health, and mental health outcomes
• Social cohesion and its determinants and consequences
• Social processes through which neighborhoods/communities shape wellbeing of the residents
• Social networks within and beyond neighborhoods
• Socio-spatial inequality in access to various public services and facilities (e.g., housing, education, health care)
• Innovative research methods and data collection techniques in urban studies
• Comparative urban studies related to community and urban governance