Urban Planning and GovernanceHistorical Geography and Geographical ThoughtGeographies of human-animal interactions

Colin Mcfarlane

2026.3.20PROGRESS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

DOI: 10.1177/03091325261435173

Abstract

Crisis-thinking has become increasingly central to critical urban thought and practice. In this report, I reflect on what the proliferation of ‘crisis-thinking’ might do to how the urban is conceived, researched, and politicised. What might it enable, and what might it make us less able to see and do? What might the growth of crisis-thinking, and in particular of poly crisis-thinking, do to how we see urban possibility? I close with a reflection on what it might mean to imagine a critical urbanism without crisis-thinking.

Citation format

MCFARLANE, Colin. Urban geography II: Crisis-thinking and critical urbanism. PROGRESS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2026.