Fragment Urbanism: Politics on the Margins of the City

McFarlane, C.

Abstract

Fragmentation is a keyword in the history of critical urban thought. Yet the products of fragmentation – the fragments themselves – tend to receive less attention. In this paper, I develop a politics of urban fragments as a contribution to debates both in urban theory and in urban poverty and inequality. I examine inadequate and broken material fragments on the economic margins of the urban global South, and ask how they become differently politicized in cities. I develop a three-fold framework for understanding the politics of fragments: attending to, generative translation and surveying wholes. I build these arguments through a focus on a fundamental provision – urban sanitation – drawing on research in Mumbai in particular, as well as Cape Town, and connecting those instances to research on urban poverty, politics and fragmentation.

Citation

McFarlane, C. (2018). Fragment Urbanism: Politics on the Margins of the City. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 36(6), 1007-1025. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818777496

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 30, 2018
• Online Publication Date: May 22, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2018
• Deposit Date: Apr 30, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 5, 2018
• Journal: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
• Print ISSN: 0263-7758
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-3433
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1007-1025
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818777496
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1327950