Crisis and the urban imagination

What are ideas like ‘polycrisis’ doing to how we think and research the urban? How might we ensure that discourses and conditions of polycrises do not erode our collective sense of possibility? How might we remain attentive to the politics of visibility of crises, i.e. to those crises we choose to see and those that might remain obscured but which are worthy of greater attention? In this short piece, I consider these three questions and their relation to the larger imperative of staying alert to how the designation of crises can not only populate, but colonise the critical imagination.

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Publication Details

Journal
Dialogues in Urban Research
Published
2025-10-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/27541258251386395
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Urbanization and City Planning
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
18.53
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article

Crisis and the urban imagination

Colin McFarlane
3 citations
Dialogues in Urban Research
Urbanization and City Planning
18.53
article

Crisis and the urban imagination

Colin McFarlane
article en
3 citations

Abstract

What are ideas like ‘polycrisis’ doing to how we think and research the urban? How might we ensure that discourses and conditions of polycrises do not erode our collective sense of possibility? How might we remain attentive to the politics of visibility of crises, i.e. to those crises we choose to see and those that might remain obscured but which are worthy of greater attention? In this short piece, I consider these three questions and their relation to the larger imperative of staying alert to how the designation of crises can not only populate, but colonise the critical imagination.

Dialogues in Urban ResearchVol. 3(3)
Durham University (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Urbanization and City Planning
18.53
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