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Repopulating density: Covid-19 and the politics of urban value

McFarlane, Colin

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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, focussed 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 inter-connected domains - governance, form, and knowledge - and identify implications for research on density in urban studies.

Citation

McFarlane, C. (2023). Repopulating density: Covid-19 and the politics of urban value. Urban Studies, 60(9), 1548-1569. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211014810

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 9, 2021
Online Publication Date Jun 9, 2021
Publication Date 2023-07
Deposit Date Apr 12, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Urban Studies
Print ISSN 0042-0980
Electronic ISSN 1360-063X
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 60
Issue 9
Pages 1548-1569
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211014810
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1250021

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).






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