I am glad to have had a relatively productive 2025 on this blog, having penned 24 posts in total, ranging from substantial to travelogue. After I struggled to maintain momentum on this blog for some years (coinciding with more professional demands and a backlog of PhD-related writing), I hope to continue in this fashion in 2026.

There are some ideas already. I don’t want to call them resolutions, as they might fall by the wayside organically, but maybe they can act as a reminder whenever I feel I don’t have anything to do.

I have a couple of op-eds in mind, including one I plan to publish later this month on the World Urbanization Prospects’ 2025 update and the ramifications of a new methodology and population ranking. I would also like to stray from urban studies into development economics and write a piece or two on something topical that might come up later this year, perhaps in the sovereign debt space.

Then there is a return to the Yangon book. I am in touch with the Goethe Institute in Myanmar over ways of updating the guide without a complete overhaul. This is an interesting project given the political situation on the ground, but also necessary as there is not a lot of documentation of the changing urban condition amid now almost five years under an unwelcome rerun of junta rule.

I also feel more equipped to embark on an altogether new book project that might tie together a few loose ends of my intellectual journey so far. I envisage a profile of six cities (most of which I have lived in): What kind of social order does this city quietly teach its inhabitants to accept as normal? How does the built environment reflect the social compact in each of them?

There is a chapter each for New York, Yangon, Sydney, Bangkok and Tokyo. In terms of the sixth one, I am torn between London and Dubai. Although I haven’t lived in the latter, it’s probably easier analytically to make a chapter work in the array of the remaining cities. As a move is pending for this year, there’s also room for a mystery city to join the fray.

Lastly, I want to match last year’s 24 posts on this blog, so I better get started.