Robinson proposes a reformatted comparative urbanism centred on theoretical revisability and the possibility of beginning conceptualisation from any city. Her critique targets inherited methods that control difference through narrowly selected comparable cases and, in doing so, restrict the geographical range from which urban concepts can emerge. The paper’s iconic move is to place the “comparative gesture” at the heart of urban theory: comparison need not be a large formal design but can be the act of putting one case, process or insight into conversation with another in order to test and modify concepts. Theoretical propositions become provisional instruments whose limits are discovered through new urban encounters. Methodologically, Robinson expands comparison beyond variation-finding toward repetitions, interconnections and experimental juxtapositions. The paper bridges postcolonial critique and comparative methodology while redistributing epistemic authority across the urban world. Its significance lies in converting geographical diversity from a problem to be controlled into the very resource through which stronger, more mobile and more accountable theory is made.
