Indigenous people and urbanization

Despite the political achievements of Indigenous movements in various parts of the world and the considerable contribution of postcolonial theory and culture, Indigenous minorities in modern nation-states continue to suffer colonial oppression: to be posi-tioned as interlopers in imagined communities and situated at the bottom of the racial hierarchies that shape life chances (Moran, 2002; Razack, 2002). Four papers in this issue of Environment and Planning A explore the urbanisation of Indigenous peoples. They arose from a panel organised at the conference of the Urban and Regional Development section (Research Committee 21) of the International Sociological Asso-ciation in Vancouver in August 2007 which sought to raise the issue from its marginal status in the discipline.