The suburban question: Notes for a research program

What we aim to do in this concluding discussion of the Special Issue is to present a broad overview of how suburban research might evolve. We offer a couple of foundational questions. The first of these is related to the many critiques of the suburbs—we ask if they now inhibit our understanding of suburban realities. The second is the way in which suburbs reflect fundamental responses to negative aspects of 19th and 20th century urban life, and whether these utopian instincts can be revived.