Closing 2019, the 39^th issue of CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios covers a wide range of articles that call upon an attentive reading. The thematic dossier, “Queering the City: Spatiality and Territoriality of LGBT Lives in the Cities of Southern Europe and the Global South”, organized by Pedro Costa and Simone Amorim as guest editors, could not be more inspiring, either because of the theme itself or the opportunity to shed more light on how cities relate (or do not) to Queer and LGBT identities. This dossier comprises an essay, two articles and an interview. Materials that together provide an illustrative and very interesting overview about Queer and LGBT reality in diverse territorial contexts, like Brazil, Italy, Spain and Portugal, allowing for a broad setting perspective.

In addition to the thematic dossier, this issue includes eight more articles, resulting from spontaneous submissions, and a book review. The first three articles share the problematics of housing as a major theme, and are complementary in the individual framework through which they deepen different approaches. “Tendências Recentes de Segregação Habitacional na Área Metropolitana de Lisboa”, authored by João Seixas and Gonçalo Antunes, focuses on the influence of housing markets on the financial capacities of families, and their role in recent trends of socio-spatial segregation in the Lisbon metropolitan system. In a very timely and detailed analysis, the authors clearly show the increasing housing costs that families have been facing in the Lisbon area, in this case. Extending the analysis to the national scale, the article “Acessibilidade Económica ao Arrendamento em Portugal: Uma Aplicação da Abordagem do Rendimento Residual” corroborates the same trends, focusing the investigation on the economic accessibility to the rental market in Portugal. In this work, Francielli Dalprá Cardoso presents results that illustrate the growing difficulties in accessing the housing rental market that are currently faced by many Portuguese families. In a feature article entitled “Housing Policies, Market and Home Ownership in Portugal: Beyond the Cultural Model”, Teresa Costa Pinto and Isabel Guerra deliver a retrospective examination that is essential to contextualize and better understand the findings presented in the two previous studies, as well as to frame the most recent policies and housing problems in Portugal.

Turning to the theme of cultural diversity in Lisbon, two articles are also presented. The first one, “A Lisboa Cosmopolita e o Fascínio da Diversidade”, by Nuno Oliveira, explores the idea that cosmopolitanism goes beyond cultural diversity to become a kind of promotional territorial brand, used by different actors, for different purposes. Contextualized in a specific area of Lisbon (Arroios), this analysis demonstrates how these symbolic tools can work in the regeneration of urban space, as well as in the defence of a cultural diversity, which can also be promotional and touristifiable. The second one, “Imigração, patrimónios culturais e coesão social em contexto de superdiversidade: estudo de caso de uma abordagem participativa na Freguesia de Arroios”, by Nuno Dias, focuses on the same territory of Lisbon to present a case study also based on cultural diversity, but targeting a more methodological perspective. Resulting from a broader project, this article offers a participatory methodology of spatiocultural mapping with positive outcomes, both in terms of interactions between immigrant and host communities, and of entities and associations involved in the urban context of superdiversity in which they all act.

In the sixth article, Annelise Caetano Fraga Fernandez and Almir Cezar Batista Filho put forward a theme, which has been under-explored within the scope of this journal, despite the studies that are also being carried out in this area in Portugal. “Agricultura familiar urbana: limites da política pública e das representações sociais” is based on the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and analyses how Brazilian agrarian policy has been applied (or not) in an urban context. Despite its focus on a specific political reality, this topic opens perspectives for pressing issues that need to be discussed, such as the sustainability of cities.

The seventh article also explores a perspective towards sustainability. Authored by Carla Nogueira, Hugo Pinto and João Filipe Marques, “Innovative and transition potential of intentional sustainable communities: towards an exploratory conceptual model” presents an exploratory study about intentional sustainable communities engaged in developing mechanisms for social innovation and transformative change. The issues raised by this article could not be more opportune, given the potential of the social innovation sector to meet the new needs that are emerging and starting to be identified.

To wrap up this issue, a quite distinct article is presented. “A publicação da investigação científica produzida no LNEC nas Revistas Arquitectura, Binário e Técnica” comprises an exhaustive analysis of the publications in the three mentioned journals devoted to architecture, urbanism and engineering. Authored by Patrícia Bento d'Almeida, Teresa Marat-Mendes and Michel Toussaint, this text is an excellent contribution to the dissemination and better knowledge of scientific and technical research developed at the prestigious Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil for the most relevant decades in the history of Portuguese architecture and urbanism.

In the book review section, Carolina Henriques presents a critical review of Espaços da Urbanização: o Urbano a partir da Teoria Crítica (Rio de Janeiro, Letra Capital: Espaço das Metrópoles, 2018) by Neil Brenner. According to Carolina Henriques, it is a provocative book and an essential reading for all who are devoted to urban studies. While the reading provides an excellent introduction to urban critical theory, the clear and pedagogical writing makes it useful for students that want to expand their knowledge about the urban condition and the proposal of critical theory.

This issue's cover features a photo by Pedro Costa in the main street of the Village, the LGBT neighbourhood in Montreal. A succession of threads with colourful rubber balls cover all the streets of this neighbourhood, with differing colours from block to block. Seen from below, or from above, they form a big rainbow, the symbol of the LGBT community.

A quick final note, closing the editorial, to give notice to our readers that this 39^th issue is the second one published by CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios under the indexation of Scopus® database, achieved earlier this year. We also take this chance to thank all authors, reviewers, the editorial team and other collaborators who have participated in the activities of this journal and contributed to this quality recognition, wishing you all an excellent 2020, with much success and good readings.