Colin McFarlane is a Professor of Geography at the University of Durham. His research focuses mainly on the global sanitation crisis in cities across the world. He's previously written and co-authored three books on sanitation and urban life.
Praise for Learning the City * : * McFarlane's work stands out in that it tells us how residents from various walks of life actually learn to operate in heterogeneous and often volatile urban environments. Instead of assuming that urban dwellers walk around with preconceived maps in their heads, this book provides a comprehensive account of the various practices, mobilizations and tools they use over time so that the city becomes a staging area for new capacities and potentials -- AbdouMaliq Simone In a world where the usual North-South dichotomies are being disturbed, McFarlane's emphasis on a postcolonial approach to practices of learning is a valuable framework. -- Ananya Roy Praise for Fragments of the City * : * One of the most original urban scholars of his generation...Richly layered and generous in its propositions, it shows us what an innovative grammar for grasping the complexity of our city worlds could look like. -- Filip De Boeck McFarlane crafts a vital experiment, working with a composition of fragments to suggest alternative forms for researching, writing, and imagining life in the urban margins. -- Suzanne Hall Praise for Global Urbanism * : * Will serve as a guidepost for how we reflect about and act upon urbanization for the foreseeable future. -- Professor Roger Keil