Staff profile

My work focusses on the experience and politics of the city. I explore how cities are known, lived and politicised. This includes research on urban living, densities, fragments, and learning across different cities, focussing in particular on the economic margins. My current work seeks to understand:

1: The production, experience and perception of density in cities (https://www.dur.ac.uk/dencity/). This research examines how high urban densities are shaped and lived in different domains, including density and crowds in public space, on the move, and in the neighbourhood and home. This work is supported by a European Research Council Consolidator grant;

2: The making and remaking of urban worlds. I am interested in how urban 'fragments' of different kinds - material bits-and-pieces, forms of knowledge, and styles of expression - become caught up in the experience and politics of being urban. This work closely connects with my interest in densities and is brought together in Fragments of the City: Making and Remaking Urban Worlds (University of California Press, 2021);

3: The relations between sanitation and the city. Much of my work focusses on the growing urban sanitation crisis, including how it unfolds at different intersections of place, density and inequality, and how to respond to it. This work also connects to my research on urban poverty and equality, for example through an ESRC-GCRF project on equality in which I am one of several co-investigators (https://www.urban-know.com).

I am author of 'Learning the City: Knowledge and Translocal Assemblage' (Blackwell), a book focussed on the intersections between urban inequality, politics, and learning, as well as related edited collections, including: 'Global Urbanism: Knowledge, Power and the City' (Routledge, with Michele Lancione), 'Smart Urbanism: Utopian Vision or False Dawn?' (Routledge, with Simon Marvin and Andres Luque-Ayala), 'Infrastructural Lives: Urban Infrastructure in Context' (Earthscan-Routledge, with Steve Graham), 'Urban Navigations: Politics, Space and the City in South Asia' (Routledge, with Jonathan Anjaria), and 'Urban Informalities: Reflections on the Formal and Informal' (Ashgate, with Michael Waibel).

My work has been previously supported by a Leverhulme Prize, an ESRC project on urban sanitation (https://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/everyday_sanitation/, with Stephen Graham and Renu Desai), and an ESRC project on urban social innovation (http://community.dur.ac.uk/pursi/, with Joe Painter, Paul Langley, Sue Lewis, and Antonis Vradis).

Blog: https://cityfragment.wordpress.com 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ColinMcFarlane3

• Politics - State - Space (PSS)
• Urban Worlds

• Everyday Sanitation: A comparative study of Mumbai's informal settlements

• 2018: Density assemblages: intensity and the city in a global urban age(£1075745.00 from Interreg (ERDF) Europe)
• 2018: Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW)(£78793.55 from ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics (INNOGEN))
• 2015: IAA - TESTING THE POTENTIAL OF SELF-BUILDING(£6319.05 from ESRC)
• 2014: Philip Leverhulme Prize(£70000.00 from The Leverhulme Trust)
• 2011: Assembling Smart Cities(£4700.00 from One NorthEast)
• 2009: EVERYDAY SANITATION(£175375.21 from ESRC)
• 2008: EVERYDAY INFRASTRUCTURE(£3816.00 from British Council Manchester)

Available for media contact about:

• Citizenship, state and governance: Cities; urban development; urban politics; urban India.

Authored book

• McFarlane, C. (2021). Fragments of the City: Making and Remaking Urban Worlds. Oakland, California: University of California Press.
• McFarlane, C. (2011). Learning the city: knowledge and translocal assemblage. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
• McFarlane, C., Desai, R. & Graham, S. (2011). Everyday Sanitation: Informal Settlements in Mumbai. Durham University/AlphaGraphics.

Book review

• McFarlane, C. (2011). Book review forum: David Harvey, Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies of Freedom. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009; 352 pp.: 9780231148467, US$27.50/£19 (hbk). Dialogues in Human Geography 1(1): 107-110.
• Jeffrey, A., McFarlane, C. & Vasudevan, A. (2007). Spectacle, State, Modernity: A Commentary on Retort's “Afflicted Powers”. Geopolitics 12(1): 206-222.

Chapter in book

• McFarlane, C. (2021). Future Densities: Knowledge, Politics and Remaking the City. In Grammars of the Urban Ground. Amin, A. & Lancione, M. Duke University Press.
• McFarlane, C. (2019). Urban fragments: a subaltern studies imagination. In Subaltern Geographies. Jazeel, T. & Legg, S. Athens, GA: Georgia University Press. 210-230.
• McFarlane, C (2019). Fragments. In Keywords in Radical Geographical Thought: Antipode at 50. Jazeel, T. Kent, A., McKittirck, K. & Theodroe, N. Wiley.
• McFarlane, C. (2019). Learning from the City: a Politics of Urban Learning in Planning. In Companion to Planning in the Global South. Watson, V., Bhan, G. & Srinivas, S. Routledge.
• McFarlane, C. & Desai, R. (2019). The Urban Metabolic Commons: Rights, Civil Society, and Subaltern Struggle’. In Releasing the Commons: Rethinking the Futures of the Commons. Amin, A. & Howell, P. Routledge. 158-173.
• McFarlane, C. (2019). Assembling the everyday: incremental urbanism and tactical learning. In SAGE Handbook of the 21st Century City. Burdett, R. & Hall, S. Sage.
• McFarlane, C. (2016). Encountering was it (not) there. In Encountering the City. Urban Encounters from Accra to New York. Darling, J. & Wilson, H. Ashgate. 229-232.
• Lancione, M. & McFarlane, C. (2016). Becoming Infrastructure: Body, Waste and the City. In Urban Cosmopolitics: Agencements, Assemblies, Atmospheres. Blok, A. & Farias, I. Routledge. 45-62.
• McFarlane, C. (2015). Learning cities. In Urban Theory: New Critical Perspectives. Jayne, M. & Ward, K. Routledge.
• Graham, S., Desai, R. & McFarlane, C. (2015). De-Networking the Poor: Revanchist Urbanism and Hydrological Apartheid in Mumbai. In Beyond the Networked City: Infrastructure Reconfigurations and Urban Change in the North and South. Couthard, O. & Rutherford, J. Routledge.
• McFarlane, C. (2014). Studies in Comparative Urbanism. In Companion to Development Studies. Desai, V. & Potter, R. Hodder Education. 296-298.
• McFarlane, C. & Vasudevan, A. (2014). Informal Infrastructures. In Handbook of Mobilities. Adey, P., Bissell, D., Hannam, K., Merriman, P. & Sheller, M. Routledge. 256-264.
• Luque, A., McFarlane, C. & Marvin, S. (2014). Smart urbanism: cities, grids and alternatives? In After Sustainable Cities?. Hodson, M. & Marvin, S. Routeldge. 74-90.
• McFarlane, C., Desai, R. & Graham, S. (2014). Politics of sanitation: Informality and the constitution of urban metabolic life in Mumbai. In Inclusive Urbanization: Rethinking Policy and Practice in the Age of Climate Change. Shrestha, K., Ojha, H.R., McManus, P. Rubbo, A. & Dhote, K.K. Guilford Press.
• McFarlane, C. (2011). Sanitation in Mumbai's Informal Settlements: Governance, Infrastructure, and Cost Recovery. In Migration and Integration: Reflections on Our Common Future. Bade, K.J, Lorentz, B. & Pries, L. Europaische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig. 123-136.
• Anjaria, J.S. & McFarlane, C. (2011). Conceptualising the City in South Asia. In Urban Navigations: Politics, Space and the City in South Asia. Anjaria, J.S. & McFarlane, C. New Delhi and London: Routledge. 1-22.
• McFarlane, C. (2010). Everyday interruptions: urban life in the global South. In Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructure Fails. Graham, S.D.N. New York: Routledge.
• McFarlane, C. (2010). Entries for 'Mumbai' and 'Squatter Movements'. In Encyclopedia of Urban Studies. Hutchison, R., Aalbers, M., Beauregard, R. & Crang, M. London: Sage.

Edited book

• Lancione, M. & McFarlane, C. (2021). Global Urbanism: Knowledge, Power and the City. Routledge.
• Marvin, S., Luque-Ayala, A. & McFarlane, C. (2016). Smart Urbanism: Utopian Vision or False Dawn?. Routledge.
• Graham, S. & McFarlane, C. (2015). Infrastructural Lives: Politics, Experience and the Urban Fabric. Earthscan-Routledge.
• McFarlane, C. & Waibel, M. (2012). Urban Informalities: Reflections on the Formal and Informal. Ashgate.
• Anjaria, J.S. & McFarlane, C. (2010). Urban Navigations: Politics, Space and the City in South Asia. Cities and the Urban Imperative Series. London and New Delhi: Routledge.

Edited Journal

• Bailey, Adrian J., Breines, Markus, Emmerson, Phil, Esson, James, Halvorsen, Sam, Hope, Jessica Chloe, Joronen, Mikko, Koh, Sin Yee, Krishnan, Sneha, Lai, Karen, McFarlane, Colin, Reid, Louise & Sparke, Matthew (2023). Care for Transactions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Wiley.
• Wiig, A., Karvonen, A., McFarlane, C. & Rutherford, J. (2022). Splintering Urbanism at 20: Mapping Trajectories of Research on Urban Infrastructures. Journal of Urban Technology, 29 (1, 1-11): Taylor and Francis.
• McFarlane, C. (2021). Editorial: Geography in the World. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.
• Chen, H.Y., Chowdhury, R., McFarlane, C. & Tripathy, P. (2020). Rethinking Urban Density. Urban Geography, 41 (10): Taylor and Francis.
• McFarlane, C. & Robinson, J. (2012). Experiments in Comparative Urbanism. Urban Geography, 33 (6, 765-773).
• Anderson, B. & McFarlane, C. (2011). Introduction and Conclusion to Special Issue on 'Assemblage and Geography'. Area, 43 (2).
• Jeffrey, A., McFarlane, C. & Vasudevan, A. (2008). Introduction: A Symposium on Global Shadows. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 29, 251-253
• McFarlane, C. & Rutherford, J. (2008). Political Infrastructures: Governing and Experiencing the Fabric of the City. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32 (2, 363-74).
• Jeffrey, C. & McFarlane, C. (2008). Performing Cosmopolitanism: Introduction to the Special Issue. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 26 (3, 420-427).
• Legg, S. & McFarlane, C. (2008). Ordinary urban spaces: between postcolonialism and development. Environment and Planning A, 40 (1, 6-14).

Journal Article

• Guma, Prince, Hodson, Michael, Lockhart, Andrew, Marvin, Simon, McFarlane, Colin, McGuirk, Pauline, McMeekin, Andrew, Ortiz, Catalina, Simone, AbdouMaliq & Wiig, Alan (2023). Post-Pandemic Cities: An Urban Lexicon of Accelerations/Decelerations. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
• Yap, Christopher, McFarlane, Colin, Ndezi, Tim & Makoba, Festo D (2023). Sanitation challenges in Dar es salaam: the potential of Simplified Sewerage Systems. Environment and Urbanization 35(1): 12–29.
• McFarlane, Colin (2023). Density and the compact city. Dialogues in Human Geography 13(1): 35–38.
• McFarlane, Colin, Langley, Paul, Lewis, Sue, Painter, Joe & Vradis, Antonis (2023). Interrogating ‘urban social innovation’ relationality and urban change in Berlin. Urban Geography 44(2): 337-357.
• Joiner, Abigail, McFarlane, Colin, Rella, Ludovico & Uriarte-Ruiz, Michelle (2022). Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life. Social & Cultural Geography 1.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Castán Broto, Vanesa & McFarlane, Colin (2022). Urban health challenges: Lessons from COVID-19 responses. Geoforum 131: 105-115.
• Joiner, Abigail, McFarlane, Colin, Rella, Ludovico & Uriarte-Ruiz, Michelle (2022). Problematising density: COVID-19, the crowd, and urban life. Social and Cultural Geography
• 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
• Chowdhury, Romit & McFarlane, Colin (2022). The Crowd and Citylife: Materiality, Negotiation, and Inclusivity at Tokyo’s Train Stations. Urban Studies 59(7): 1353-1371.
• McFarlane, Colin (2021). Repopulating density: Covid-19 and the politics of urban value. Urban Studies
• Chen, Hung-Ying, Chowdhury, Romit, McFarlane, Colin & Tripathy, Priyam (2020). Introduction: rethinking urban density. Urban Geography 41(10): 1241-1246.
• McFarlane, C. (2020). The force of density: political crowding and the city. Urban Geography 41(10): 1310-1317.
• Langley, P. Lewis, S. McFarlane, C. Painter, J. & Vradis, A. (2020). Crowdfunding cities: Social entrepreneurship, speculation and solidarity in Berlin. Geoforum 115: 11-20.
• McFarlane, C. (2020). De/re-densification: a relational geography of urban density. City 24(1-2): 314-324.
• Heslop, J., McFarlane, C. & Ormerod, E. (2020). Relational Housing Across the North-South Divide: Learning Between Albania, Uganda, and the UK. Housing Studies 35(9): 1607-1627.
• Yap, C. & McFarlane, C. (2020). Understanding and Researching Urban Extreme Poverty: A Conceptual-Methodological Approach. Environment and Urbanization 32(1): 254-274.
• McFarlane, C. (2019). The Urbanization of the Sanitation Crisis: Placing Waste in the City. Development and Change 50(5): 239-1262.
• McFarlane, C. (2018). Fragment Urbanism: Politics on the Margins of the City. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36(6): 1007-1025.
• Bulkeley, H., Luque-Ayala, A., McFarlane, C. & MacLeod, G. (2018). Enhancing urban autonomy: towards a new political project for cities. Urban Studies 55(4): 702-719.
• McFarlane, C. & Söderström, O. (2017). On alternative smart cities: from a technology-intensive to a knowledge-intensive smart urbanism. City 21(3-4): 312-328.
• McFarlane, C. & Silver, J. (2017). Navigating the city: dialectics of everyday urbanism. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 42(3): 458-471.
• McFarlane, C., Silver, J. & Truelove, Y. (2017). Cities within Cities: Intra-Urban Comparison of Infrastructure in Mumbai, Delhi and Cape Town. Urban Geography 38(9): 1393-1417.
• McFarlane, C. & Silver, J. (2017). The Poolitical City: “Seeing Sanitation” and Making the Urban Political in Cape Town. Antipode 49(1): 125-148.
• Lancione, M. & McFarlane, C. (2016). Life at the urban margins: sanitation infra-making and the potential of experimental comparison. Environment and Planning A 48(12): 2402-2421.
• McFarlane, C. (2016). The Geographies of Urban Density: Topology, Politics and the City. Progress in Human Geography 40(5): 629-648.
• Desai, R., McFarlane, C. & Graham, S. (2015). The politics of open defecation: informality, body, and infrastructure in Mumbai. Antipode 47(1): 98-120.
• McFarlane, C. & Desai, R. (2015). Sites of entitlement claim, negotiation and struggle in Mumbai. Environment and urbanization 27(2): 441-454.
• McFarlane, C, Desai, R. & Graham, S. (2014). Informal Urban Sanitation: Everyday Life, Poverty and Comparison. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 104(5): 989-1011.
• Mizanur, M.R., Atkins, P.J. & McFarlane, C. (2014). 'Factors affecting slum sanitation projects in Dhaka City: learning from the dynamics of social-technological-governance systems'. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development 4(3): 346-358.
• MacLeod, D.G. & McFarlane, C. (2014). Introduction: Grammars of Urban Injustice. Antipode 46(4): 857-873.
• Graham, S., McFarlane, C. & Desai, R. (2013). Water wars in Mumbai. Public Culture 25(1_69): 115-141
• McFarlane, C. (2013). From sanitation inequality to malevolent urbanism: the normalisation of suffering in Mumbai. Geoforum 43(6): 1287-1290.
• Anderson, B., Kearnes, M., McFarlane, C. & Swanton, D. (2012). On assemblages and geography. Dialogues in Human Geography 2(2): 171-189.
• Jeffrey, A., McFarlane, C. & Vasudevan, A. (2012). Rethinking enclosure: space, subjectivity, and the commons. Antipode 44(4): 1247-1267.
• McFarlane, C. (2012). The entrepreneurial slum: civil society, mobility, and the co-production of urban development. Urban Studies 49(13): 2926-2947.
• McFarlane, C. (2012). Rethinking informality: politics, crisis and the city. Planning Theory and Practice 13(1): 89-108.
• McFarlane, C. (2011). Assemblage and critical urbanism. City 15(2): 204-224.
• McFarlane, C. (2011). Encountering, describing and transforming urbanism: concluding reflections on assemblage and urban criticality. City 15(6): 731-739.
• McFarlane, C. (2011). The city as a machine for learning. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 36(3): 360-376.
• McFarlane, C. (2011). On context: assemblage, political economy and structure. City 15(3-4): 375-388.
• McFarlane, C. (2011). The city as assemblage: dwelling and urban space. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 29(4): 649-671.
• Jazeel, T. & McFarlane, C. (2010). The limits of responsibility: a postcolonial politics of academic knowledge production. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35(1): 109-124.
• McFarlane, C. (2010). The Comparative City: Knowledge, Learning, Urbanism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 34(4): 725-742.
• McFarlane, C. (2009). Translocal assemblages: space, power and social movements. Geoforum 40(4): 561-567.
• Vasudevan, A., McFarlane, C. & Jeffrey, A. (2008). Spaces of Enclosure. Geoforum 39: 1641–1646.
• McFarlane, C. (2008). Postcolonial Bombay: decline of a cosmopolitan city? Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26(3): 480-499. Reprinted with permission in the South Asian Journal for Culture (2010).
• McFarlane, C. (2008). Urban Shadows: Materiality, the 'Southern city', and Urban Theory. Geography Compass 2(2): 340-358.
• Jeffrey, A., McFarlane, C. & Vasudevan, A. (2008). Guest Editors Introduction: Debating Capital, Spectacle and Modernity. Public Culture 20(3): 531-538.
• McFarlane, C. (2008). Governing the contaminated city: infrastructure and sanitation in colonial and postcolonial Bombay. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32(2): 415-435.
• McFarlane, C. (2008). Sanitation in Mumbai's informal settlements: state, 'slum' and infrastructure. Environment and Planning A 40(1): 88-107.
• Jazeel, T. & McFarlane, C. (2007). Responsible Learning: Cultures of Knowledge Production and the North-South Divide. Antipode 39(5): 781-789.
• McFarlane, C. (2006). Transnational development networks: bringing development and postcolonial approaches into dialogue. The Geographical Journal 172(1): 35-49.
• McFarlane, C. (2006). Crossing Borders: development, learning and the North-South divide. Third World Quarterly 27(8): 1413-1437.
• McFarlane, C. (2006). Knowledge, learning and development: a post-rationalist approach. Progress in Development Studies 6(4): 287-305.
• McFarlane, C. (2004). Geographical Imaginations and spaces of political engagement: Examples from the Indian Alliance. Antipode 36(5): 890-916.