How material objects become urban things?

The purpose of this paper is to outline the qualities that objects must have to be suitable for urban theory; that is, for enabling urban theorists to better understand urban practices as socio-material entanglements. In doing so, I stress the importance of normative visions of the city that call for the critical import of assemblage and new materialism into a field that is constitutively concerned with values and differences. Objects are characterised as material relational entities and a series of concrete examples offer cues regarding ‘urban’ objects, enabling us to better understand urban practices as socio-material entanglements. The main claim is that urban theorists need to distinguish among objects in order to maintain their normative grip over the real world. They must resist radical ontological flatness and distinguish between objects that are capable of raising broader political concerns and others that are not.