Introduction: “Mind the Gap”: Thinking about in-between spaces in Delhi and Shanghai

•This volume pursues three objectives.•Firstly, it conceptualizes “in-between spaces” as transcultural entanglements of global-city formation, and situates them in the non-European framework of an “Asian” urbanism.•Secondly, the collection of papers in the Special Issue understand “in-between spaces” as a way to frame urban spaces as a dynamic and fluid spatial relationship of public and private spheres.•Thirdly, this Special Issue locates in-between spaces in a new discourse of class, through which we tease out the implications of new spatial relations for issues of access, belonging and entitlements to the city.