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The aim of this thematic issue is to analyse the processes and mechanisms by which land is produced, mobilised and captured in metropolises. This involves identifying the various categories of stakeholders involved, tracking their strategies, the basis of their social legitimacy, their evolution, and their rationale for location and action, in other words, their territorial anchoring. The issue looks at the reasons for the presence of these stakeholders, how they occupy space, legal arrangements, social and economic objectives, arrangements, the processes of social division of space and the construction and reproduction of socio-spatial inequalities. This issue aims to answer these questions from a comparative perspective, looking at geographical contexts, public policies, and the strategies and practices of the actors involved. Firstly, a ‘geopolitical’level of comparison will enable us to assess and analyse the contextual effects that imply the differentiated temporalities of metropolisation dynamics. A second level is that of scientific fields, to identify the land analysis methods used by the various components of the social sciences and the positions that may result. Finally, a third point aims to understand the interplay of scales, between national and local public policies and international ‘injunctions’.