In this article, Soja covers the research fields of regional and urban studies, which increasingly tend to blend together. He makes a case for an approach consisting in considering these two research fields together, as empirical research also increasingly allows for the simultaneous observation of these categories which used to be considered separately. Soja highlights gaps and needs with regard to research; he reports eight important thematic fields for critical and comparative regional research: 1) new regionalism, 2) the regenerating power of towns and regions, 3) regional urbanisation, 4) the end of the metropolis, 5) broadened regional urbanisation, 6) multi-scalar regionalisation, 7) regional governance and planning and 8) regional democracy.
