Cities like Belfast, Beirut, Mostar, Jerusalem, Nicosia, Kuala Lumpur and many others teach us how socio-political conditions can have massive spatial, architectural and infrastructural implications in the form of enclaves, walls, fences, or - more subtly - painted curbstones as territorial markers. Conversely, the materiality of contested cities can also exert a strong gravitational pull upon social practices. People's perception of safety, daily routines, commuting routes, or the likeliness of meeting 'others' are conditioned by the existence (or absence) of all kinds of urban artifacts.

Both aspects, the social and the material, as well as the dynamics between them, are of crucial importance for the lived reality in contested territories. However, a merely additive account - whereby some specialize in the 'soft' and others in the 'hard' aspects of urban contest - would miss the point. The social and the material are much more intimately linked than often acknowledged. With this special issue, we intend to bring these different perspectives together and thereby tackle a 'socio-material' blind spot in the related literature.

Such a nuanced understanding is required to avoid any inadvertent accentuation of tensions through shortsighted material interventions. It is even more a precondition for the creation of shared spaces where people of different backgrounds get a chance to meet, question deeply ingrained stereotypes and maybe even have coffee together. Theoretical reflections and practical implications of related challenges in eight different cities are presented in this special issue.

Guest Editor: Ralf Brand, The University of Manchester, UK