The city, the dark continent. The history of urban research is a story of exploring other spaces, the neighborhoods of the poor, the outsiders. Through methodologically and analytically groundbreaking studies - from Henry Mayhew's monumental work on the London poor to the project of Bourdieu's student Loïc Wacquant, who learned professional boxing to explore Chicago's South Side - Rolf Lindner reviews the history of urban research since the 19th century. He introduces the themes and methods of urban ethnography and also discusses the motives and obsessions of the researchers who have repeatedly been drawn to the eerie parts of the city.