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Life at the urban margins: Sanitation infra-making and the potential of experimental comparison

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  • Michele Lancione
  • Colin McFarlane

Abstract

How is life at the urban margins made and remade? In this paper, we examine this question in relation to ‘sanitation urbanism’, and through attention to what we call ‘infra-making’, defined as the interstitial labour of human and non-human agencies and atmospheres that take place in the production of forms of sanitation. We do so through close engagement to sanitation at the margins of two very different cities across the global North–South divide: Turin and Mumbai. Despite the apparent impossibility of comparing such different cities, in the paper we develop a form of ‘experimental comparison’ that is oriented at understanding the everyday making of specific urban processes around urban sanitation. We argue that a comparative focus on how urban life at the margins is made and remade is important for critical urbanism. Our experimental comparison leads us to a discussion of the relationship between specification and generalisation, in which the latter is positioned not as an end-point but as an informant serving to enlighten understanding and intervention in specific contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Lancione & Colin McFarlane, 2016. "Life at the urban margins: Sanitation infra-making and the potential of experimental comparison," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(12), pages 2402-2421, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:48:y:2016:i:12:p:2402-2421
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X16659772
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jennifer Robinson, 2011. "Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Colin McFarlane & Renu Desai & Steve Graham, 2014. "Informal Urban Sanitation: Everyday Life, Poverty, and Comparison," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 104(5), pages 989-1011, September.
    3. Michele Lancione, 2014. "Assemblages of care and the analysis of public policies on homelessness in Turin, Italy," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 25-40, February.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ramesh, Niranjana, 2022. "An experiment with the minor geographies of major cities: infrastructural relations among the fragments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114952, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Adams, Ellis Adjei & Byrns, Sydney & Kumwenda, Save & Quilliam, Richard & Mkandawire, Theresa & Price, Heather, 2022. "Water journeys: Household water insecurity, health risks, and embodiment in slums and informal settlements," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    4. Julie Ren, 2022. "A more global urban studies, besides empirical variation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1741-1748, June.
    5. Xin Feng & Kiera Chapman, 2020. "‘The tiger’s leap’: The role of history in legitimating the authority of modern Chinese planners," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(13), pages 2681-2696, October.
    6. Shaun SK Teo, 2022. "Shared projects and symbiotic collaborations: Shenzhen and London in comparative conversation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1694-1714, June.
    7. Yaffa Truelove & Natasha Cornea, 2021. "Rethinking urban environmental and infrastructural governance in the everyday: Perspectives from and of the global South," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 231-246, March.
    8. Niranjana R, 2022. "An experiment with the minor geographies of major cities: Infrastructural relations among the fragments," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1556-1574, June.
    9. Frances Brill, 2022. "Constructing comparisons: Reflecting on the experimental nature of new comparative tactics," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1754-1759, June.

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