In its latest issue #15 Rotterdam-based MONU magazine set out on a daring journey to investigate, as chief editor Bernd Upmeyer proclaims, “one of the most fascinating and biggest issues of our time and in culture, or what is left of it: the non-ideological – or better post-ideological – conditions of our society when it comes to cities.” At a time when the news is full of reports on breathtaking riots erupting in European cities, revolutionary chain reactions and their cruel suppression in the Arabic world, the rejuvenation and continuation of the world’s most isolated and propagandistically charged dictatorial empire in Asia, among many others, assuming a post-ideological condition might seem contradictory. Now even more than in recent history, ideological battles are being fought and their physical and violent revolutionary implementation transforms the reality of many urban territories. How can it be that, when it comes to urbanism, the non-ideological and post-ideological gains relevance? This strange gap between enormous and meaningful political and social transformations, on one hand, and urbanism’s inability to make sense of them, to relate to them and ultimately to find the faith to engage them, on the other hand, is investigated from various perspectives in MONU #15. Analogous to Thomas Ruff’s photographs from his “Nacht Series”, which apply the night vision technology employed in the Gulf War, using an optical device in order to carry out an exploration of cities in the dark, the authors contributing to this issue of MONU examine the various and manifold relationships between urbanism and political, cultural and economic ideologies or rather their interruption, misinterpretation or absence through interviews, critical essays, manifestos and experimental projects. In doing so specific case studies are elaborated and more general cultural observations are formulated. On reading through the issue it becomes evident that, indeed, a crucial topic has been touched, which is not merely concerned with a certain mode of pursuing urbanism, but moreover with the general question of urbanism’s relevance and positioning at the beginning of the 21st century. Is urbanism a discipline of the past, as Rem Koolhaas once proclaimed? Are we a generation of faithless, incapable of true convictions? Might this even be a good thing in certain contexts? And how can urbanism find its way back to relevance and social responsibility without falling into the many ideological and pseudo-ideological traps that are set up for it? One can hope that MONU #15 “Post-Ideological Urbanism“ will instigate further investigations and discussions and eventually urbanistic actions dealing with a problem field that truly is located at the very heart of the discipline.