From the urban university to universities in urban society

From the urban university to universities in urban society. Regional Studies. The impacts of neoliberalization and the global extension of urbanization processes demand a reappraisal of the urban university for the 21st century. The history of the modern urban university, and current calls for universities to assume proactive roles as economic drivers and civic leaders, disclose problematic tendencies, including: normalizing local/global binaries; focusing on a narrow set of university–city connections; and constructing the university and the city as monolithic rational agents. In response, this paper draws on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of urban society to mobilize mediation, centrality and difference as a mode of critique and strategic orientation for a ‘new urban university’.