Crisis-Thinking and Critical Urbanism

Crisis-thinking has become increasingly central to critical urban thought and practice. In his talk, Prof Colin McFarlane will 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 polycrisis-thinking, do to how we see urban possibility? And what it might mean to imagine a critical urbanism without crisis-thinking?

For more info and a sign-up form, see: Crisis-Thinking and Critical Urbanism - Centre for Urban Studies - University of Amsterdam

Discussant is Julie Ren (Associate Professor in Urban Geographies at the University of Amsterdam). Her recent work explores how crisis-thinking shifts the spaces of possibility for geographical research practice and global theory formation, for example seen in the recent Special Feature in City on Critical Geographies of Everyday Crisis (2026).

The lecture will be moderated by Jannes Willems (Assistant Professor in Urban Planning at the University of Amsterdam). 

This lecture is part of our International Summer School on Urban Infrastructures, taking place at the University of Amsterdam from 6-9 July 2026.