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All Outputs (62)

The density dialectic: Between hard and gentle densification in London (2024)
Journal Article
Habermehl, V., & McFarlane, C. (in press). The density dialectic: Between hard and gentle densification in London. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research,

Density is critical to cities, but how might we conceive and research its role in urban development? We argue that a conceptualisation of the ‘density dialectic’ offers a productive response. Drawing on research on urban development in Tower Hamlets... Read More about The density dialectic: Between hard and gentle densification in London.

Density textures: The crowd, everyday life, and urban poverty in Manila (2024)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C., Saguin, K., & Cunanan, K. (in press). Density textures: The crowd, everyday life, and urban poverty in Manila. Urban Geography,

While there is a long and varied history of research on urban density, there is little work examining how high-density urbanism (HDU) is perceived and experienced amongst marginalised residents. Yet, paying attention to how residents understand densi... Read More about Density textures: The crowd, everyday life, and urban poverty in Manila.

Density and pandemic urbanism: Exposure and networked density in Manila and Taipei (2023)
Journal Article
Chen, H., McFarlane, C., & Tripathy, P. (2024). Density and pandemic urbanism: Exposure and networked density in Manila and Taipei. Urban Studies, 61(8), 1526-1544. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231211011

Density has been a key focus in research on the urban dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of this work has debated the role of density in infection rates. In contrast, we develop a comparison of the management of pandemic urbanism in two high d... Read More about Density and pandemic urbanism: Exposure and networked density in Manila and Taipei.

Density and precarious housing: Overcrowding, sensorial urbanism, and intervention in Hong Kong (2023)
Journal Article
Chen, H., & Mcfarlane, C. (2023). Density and precarious housing: Overcrowding, sensorial urbanism, and intervention in Hong Kong. Housing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2023.2280033

This paper offers an approach to understanding high-density living in precarious housing. Developing a conception of housing density based on ‘density expressions’ and ‘density modalities’, we argue for a focus on how domestic density is experienced... Read More about Density and precarious housing: Overcrowding, sensorial urbanism, and intervention in Hong Kong.

Way-finding agendas through Transactions (2023)
Journal Article
Esson, J., Breines, M., Brickell, K., Hope, J., Yee Koh, S., Lawrence, A. M., …Sparke, M. (2023). Way-finding agendas through Transactions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12651

This is the first in a series of occasional editorials in which we guide our readers through groups of papers that we consider to be ‘way-finding’ contributions to geographical debates. Our emphasis on ‘way-finding’ and navigating through scholarly w... Read More about Way-finding agendas through Transactions.

Density as a politics of value: regulation, speculation, and popular urbanism (2023)
Journal Article
Habermehl, V., & McFarlane, C. (2023). Density as a politics of value: regulation, speculation, and popular urbanism. Progress in Human Geography, 47(5), 664-679. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325231189824

Density is at the centre of urban change, and is often politicised. Building on Geographical and Urban scholarship, we set out a critical approach to understanding density through a focus on value. Following a review of key approaches to density, we... Read More about Density as a politics of value: regulation, speculation, and popular urbanism.

Pathways to Urban Equality through the Sustainable Development Goals: Modes of Extreme Poverty, Resilience, and Prosperity (2023)
Journal Article
Lavell, A., McFarlane, C., Moore, H. L., Woodcraft, S., & Yap, C. (2023). Pathways to Urban Equality through the Sustainable Development Goals: Modes of Extreme Poverty, Resilience, and Prosperity. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 15(1), 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2023.2226099

There has been a tendency for debates around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to focus on particular Goals or Targets. What tends to get lost, however, is the bigger picture. In this paper we ask: to what extent and under what conditions do t... Read More about Pathways to Urban Equality through the Sustainable Development Goals: Modes of Extreme Poverty, Resilience, and Prosperity.

Post-Pandemic Cities: An Urban Lexicon of Accelerations/Decelerations (2023)
Journal Article
Guma, P., Hodson, M., Lockhart, A., Marvin, S., McFarlane, C., McGuirk, P., …Wiig, A. (2023). Post-Pandemic Cities: An Urban Lexicon of Accelerations/Decelerations. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 48(3), 452-473. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12607

COVID-19 has stimulated renewed societal and academic debate about the future of cities and urban life. Future visons have veered from the ‘death of the city’ to visual renderings and limited experiments with 15-minute neighbourhoods. Within this con... Read More about Post-Pandemic Cities: An Urban Lexicon of Accelerations/Decelerations.

Sanitation challenges in Dar es salaam: the potential of Simplified Sewerage Systems (2023)
Journal Article
Yap, C., McFarlane, C., Ndezi, T., & Makoba, F. D. (2023). Sanitation challenges in Dar es salaam: the potential of Simplified Sewerage Systems. Environment and Urbanization, 35(1), 12-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/09562478221146722

In the context of growing urbanization, sanitation in many cities is in acute crisis with severe social and environmental consequences. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of sanitation for all by 2030 is increasingly elusive. Municipalities have... Read More about Sanitation challenges in Dar es salaam: the potential of Simplified Sewerage Systems.

Perceptions of atmosphere: air, waste, and narratives of life and work in Mumbai (2022)
Journal Article
Tripathy, P., & McFarlane, C. (2022). Perceptions of atmosphere: air, waste, and narratives of life and work in Mumbai. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 40(4), 664-682. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758221110574

How do residents on the socioeconomic margins of the city experience and perceive atmosphere? How does the concept of atmosphere change when we write it from a context of impoverished and stigmatized residents? Drawing on research in neighborhoods ne... Read More about Perceptions of atmosphere: air, waste, and narratives of life and work in Mumbai.

Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life (2022)
Journal Article
Joiner, A., McFarlane, C., Rella, L., & Uriarte-Ruiz, M. (2022). Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life. Social and Cultural Geography, https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2022.2143879

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically transformed the fundamentals of city management and everyday life. Density has been at the centre of this transformation. But how were densities managed during the pandemic? What are the political implications? And... Read More about Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life.

Urban health challenges: Lessons from COVID-19 responses (2022)
Journal Article
Ruszczyk, H. A., Castán Broto, V., & McFarlane, C. (2022). Urban health challenges: Lessons from COVID-19 responses. Geoforum, 131, 105-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.03.003

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a re-examination of our societies and in particular urban health. We argue that urban health needs to address three inter-related challenge areas – the unequal impacts of climate change, changing patterns of urbanizat... Read More about Urban health challenges: Lessons from COVID-19 responses.

Interrogating ‘urban social innovation’: relationality and urban change in Berlin (2021)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C., Langley, P., Lewis, S., Painter, J., & Vradis, A. (2023). Interrogating ‘urban social innovation’: relationality and urban change in Berlin. Urban Geography, 44(2), 337-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2021.2003586

The relationship between the city and ‘innovation’ is long and varied, but in recent years there has been a new focus on the potential of innovation to catalyse economic, social, and environmental change. This has led to a debate around whether and h... Read More about Interrogating ‘urban social innovation’: relationality and urban change in Berlin.

Repopulating density: Covid-19 and the politics of urban value (2021)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C. (2023). Repopulating density: Covid-19 and the politics of urban value. Urban Studies, 60(9), 1548-1569. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211014810

How might concepts of ‘value’ and ‘population’ illuminate the present and future of urban density? The Covid-19 pandemic prompted a public debate on density in the city. While some initially blamed density for the spread of the virus, others rightly... Read More about Repopulating density: Covid-19 and the politics of urban value.

The Crowd and Citylife: Materiality, Negotiation, and Inclusivity at Tokyo’s Train Stations (2021)
Journal Article
Chowdhury, R., & McFarlane, C. (2022). The Crowd and Citylife: Materiality, Negotiation, and Inclusivity at Tokyo’s Train Stations. Urban Studies, 59(7), 1353-1371

In the history of urban thought, density has been closely indexed to the idea of citylife. Drawing on commuters’ experiences and perception of crowds in and around Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station, this article offers an ethnographic perspective on the relat... Read More about The Crowd and Citylife: Materiality, Negotiation, and Inclusivity at Tokyo’s Train Stations.

Introduction: rethinking urban density (2020)
Journal Article
Chen, H., Chowdhury, R., McFarlane, C., & Tripathy, P. (2020). Introduction: rethinking urban density. Urban Geography, 41(10), 1241-1246. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1854531

In this piece, we introduce a special issue on “Rethinking Urban Density” which asks: what are the meanings and implications of density in cities today? How might we understand and research it? This collection offers a set of reflections on urban den... Read More about Introduction: rethinking urban density.

The force of density: political crowding and the city (2020)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C. (2020). The force of density: political crowding and the city. Urban Geography, 41(10), 1310-1317. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1837527

This commentary examines the politics of density in urban protest and social movements, drawing on examples from Hong Kong and Mumbai. The ‘force’ of density, I argue, is an emergent property shaped through the combinatory relations and forms of pres... Read More about The force of density: political crowding and the city.

Crowdfunding cities: Social entrepreneurship, speculation and solidarity in Berlin (2020)
Journal Article
Langley, P., Lewis, S., McFarlane, C., Painter, J., & Vradis, A. (2020). Crowdfunding cities: Social entrepreneurship, speculation and solidarity in Berlin. Geoforum, 115, 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.06.014

Situated at the intersection of urban and economic geography, this paper develops and illustrates a three-step research agenda to further critical understanding of relations between crowdfunding and cities. First, we explore how crowdfunding is enrol... Read More about Crowdfunding cities: Social entrepreneurship, speculation and solidarity in Berlin.

De/re-densification: a relational geography of urban density (2020)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C. (2020). De/re-densification: a relational geography of urban density. City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 24(1-2), 314-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2020.1739911

In this article, I set out an approach to cities and urbanization through a relational geography of urban density. While density has long been central to the urban question, I argue for a focus on the relationship between densification, de-densificat... Read More about De/re-densification: a relational geography of urban density.