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Critical Commentary: Repopulating density: COVID-19 and the politics of urban value

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  • Colin McFarlane

Abstract

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 cautioned against those claims. As the pandemic progressed, an imaginary of density-as-pathology gave way to a more nuanced geographical understanding of the urban dimensions of the crisis, focused on connections, spatial conditions, domestic ‘overcrowding’ and poverty. Throughout, an interrogation and reflection on urban density and its future unfolded, throwing into question the historical relationship between ‘value’ and ‘population’ in understandings of density. I argue for a new politics of value based on shifts in three interconnected domains – governance, form and knowledge – and identify implications for research on density in urban studies.

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  • Colin McFarlane, 2023. "Critical Commentary: Repopulating density: COVID-19 and the politics of urban value," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(9), pages 1548-1569, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:9:p:1548-1569
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980211014810
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Colin McFarlane, 2019. "The Urbanization of the Sanitation Crisis: Placing Waste in the City," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(5), pages 1239-1262, September.
    2. Creighton Connolly & Roger Keil & S. Harris Ali, 2021. "Extended urbanisation and the spatialities of infectious disease: Demographic change, infrastructure and governance," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 245-263, February.
    3. Facundo Alvaredo & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Lucas Chancel & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "World Inequality Report 2018," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01885458, HAL.
    4. Hung-Ying Chen, 2020. "Cashing in on the sky: financialization and urban air rights in the Taipei Metropolitan Area," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 198-208, February.
    5. Shima Hamidi & Sadegh Sabouri & Reid Ewing, 2020. "Does Density Aggravate the COVID-19 Pandemic?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(4), pages 495-509, October.
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    1. Mike Hodson & Andy Lockhart & Andrew McMeekin, 2024. "How have digital mobility platforms responded to COVID-19 and why does this matter for ‘the urban’?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(5), pages 923-942, April.

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