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Density as threshold and resource: Urban life and futures in Dar-es-Salaam (2025)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C., Kombe, W., Muheirwe, F., & Nuhu, S. (in press). Density as threshold and resource: Urban life and futures in Dar-es-Salaam. Annals of the Association of American Geographers,

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly urbanising, producing new geographies of densification and sprawl. Amidst the debate about the current and future patterns of informal urbanization, the ways in which residents perceive and experience urban de... Read More about Density as threshold and resource: Urban life and futures in Dar-es-Salaam.

THE DENSITY DIALECTIC: Between Hard and Gentle Densification in London (2025)
Journal Article
Habermehl, V., & McFarlane, C. (online). THE DENSITY DIALECTIC: Between Hard and Gentle Densification in London. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13319

Density is critical to cities, but how might we conceive and research its role in urban development? We argue that a conceptualization 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.

In Desperate Need: Public Sanitation in Contemporary London (2024)
Journal Article
Habermehl, V., & McFarlane, C. (2025). In Desperate Need: Public Sanitation in Contemporary London. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 57(1), 193-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.13108

There has been a collapse in the number of public toilets in UK cities. Austerity cuts, a lack of legal requirements, and a failure to prioritise sanitation has led to significant health and equality impacts. Research on public toilets in the Global... Read More about In Desperate Need: Public Sanitation in Contemporary London.

Urban geography I: Conceptualisation with and beyond the global-local dialectic (2024)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C. (2025). Urban geography I: Conceptualisation with and beyond the global-local dialectic. Progress in Human Geography, 49(1), 99-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325241295294

In this report, I explore recent work in urban geography to reflect on one of its pervasive ‘thought-infrastructures’: the global-local dialectic. This dialectic features as a prominent force in how we debate, write, and teach cities and urbanization... Read More about Urban geography I: Conceptualisation with and beyond the global-local dialectic.

“There, seated upon the toilet, apparently in the midst of defecation, was the president of the United States” : Toilets and Elite Politics in the USA and UK (2024)
Journal Article
Nieuwenhuis, M., & Mcfarlane, C. (2024). “There, seated upon the toilet, apparently in the midst of defecation, was the president of the United States” : Toilets and Elite Politics in the USA and UK. Political Geography, 115, Article 103228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103228

What can we learn about elite politics from the humble toilet? How do the relations between toilets, bodies, and waste materially and discursively reveal, and become enrolled within, the summits of state political power? While there has been a growth... Read More about “There, seated upon the toilet, apparently in the midst of defecation, was the president of the United States” : Toilets and Elite Politics in the USA and UK.

Density textures: The crowd, everyday life, and urban poverty in Manila (2024)
Journal Article
McFarlane, C., Saguin, K., & Cunanan, K. (online). Density textures: The crowd, everyday life, and urban poverty in Manila. Urban Geography, https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2024.2401715

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.

Changing climate, changing geographies? (2024)
Journal Article
Bulkeley, H., & McFarlane, C. (2024). Changing climate, changing geographies?. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 49(4), Article e12718. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12718

Ever since climate change came to occupy a place on the research and policy landscape in the 1980s, geography and geographers have been at the forefront of understanding its dynamics and social, economic, ethical, and political consequences. In this... Read More about Changing climate, changing geographies?.

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.-Y., & Mcfarlane, C. (2025). Density and precarious housing: Overcrowding, sensorial urbanism, and intervention in Hong Kong. Housing Studies, 40(1), 27-45. 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., Mcfarlane, C., McLean, J., & Sparke, M. (2024). Way-finding agendas through Transactions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 49(1), Article e12651. 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., McMeekin, A., Ortiz, C., Simone, A., & 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.

Care for Transactions (2023)
Journal Article
Bailey, A. J., Breines, M., Emmerson, P., Esson, J., Halvorsen, S., Hope, J. C., Joronen, M., Koh, S. Y., Krishnan, S., Lai, K., McFarlane, C., McLean, J., Reid, L., & Sparke, M. (2023). Care for Transactions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 48(1), 2-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12592

In this editorial we ask key questions about what it means to publish ‘a journal’ in a world of publishing which is driven by individual article metrics and online access. Seeing the value of journals as venues for intellectual debate, we therefore s... Read More about Care for Transactions.

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. (2024). Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life. Social and Cultural Geography, 25(2), 181-198. 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.