This webinar will explore important research questions about the role and position of small and medium-sized towns.

In many countries across the world, small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) play an important role in the urban system. Yet, they are often overlooked and undervalued when compared to large cities. In recent years, however, scholarly attention towards SMSTs has increased, and this work has led to a myriad of findings that encourage us to rethink some consolidated concepts and theories about urban development. In this webinar we focus in particular on a relational perspective of small and medium-sized towns, and we want to clarify that we need to go beyond population sized when studying smaller urban places.

This session will begin with a short presentation of the newly published book “A Research Agenda for Small and Medium-Sized Towns” with which we will outline the key challenges of current research on the topic. We then will move on to two to three input presentations by chapter authors of the book. We close the session with a final discussion that is also open to questions from the audience.