Learning the City: Knowledge and Translocal Assemblage

“Learning the Cityis a critical academic contribution useful for scholars of the field.  found it particularly useful for my research on policy circulation of Bus Rapid Transit concepts through the South African city . . . While Learning the Cityis probably too sophisticated for younger readers, it is sure to become indispensable for academics of the discipline.”  (Geography Helvitica, 1 December  2012)

"Through Learning the City McFarlane has made a major contribution to our understandings of the urban. In its commitment to the diverse and lively practices through which the city is learned and known, in its engagement with the diverse forms of agency and political practices through which agency is assembled and re-assembled the book enlivens understandings of spatial politics. It is also a text that is animated by a powerful sense of hope that cities might come to bere-assembled in different ways that are more equitable and more open to different agentic forces and contributions." (Society and Space, 1 November 2012)

"There will certainly be a range of contributors that join in on the exciting task of making these links. In Learning the City, McFarlane successfully manages to open the black box of urban learning in widening the perspective to acknowledge diverse urban learning practices, which may even bear a transformative potential in certain contexts." (International Planning Studies, 23 October 2012)

"Learning the City makes an exhaustive case for framing our studies of knowledge and power through the optic of the learning assemblage. Its revelatory power is arguably profound: for McFarlane, it promises nothing short of understanding the power to forge a different kind of city (p. 179). In the 21st century city, the material and analytical stakes of learning could not be higher." (Antipode, 1 September 2012)

‘Learning the City is an important and theoretically sophisticated piece of work. It is like a good movie: you need to re-view it in your mind several times to position yourself… McFarlane’s innovative theory of urban learning is very helpful to an understanding of contemporary urbanism and of how it can be changed for the better. Its great merit is to make us see cities as complex learning assemblages and milieus.’—Urban Geography (34.1), Book Review Forum— Neil M. Coe, Ananya Roy, Kevin Ward, Andrew Harris, Ola Söderström, Tim Bunnell with Colin Mcfarlane

"Innovative in its approach and rigorous in its coverage, this book is an important contribution to the field of urban studies and human geography. It challenges the standard format of the research monograph and introduces new vectors of knowledge and debate to the study of cities. In a world where the usual North-South dichotomies are being disturbed, McFarlane's emphasis on a postcolonial approach to practices of learning is a valuable framework."
—Ananya Roy, University of California

"McFarlane's work stands out in that it tells us how residents from various walks of life actually learn to operate in heterogeneous and often volatile urban environments.  Instead of assuming that urban dwellers walk around with preconceived maps in their heads, this book provides a comprehensive account of the various practices, mobilizations and tools they use over time so that the city becomes a staging area for new capacities and potentials."
—AbdouMaliq Simone, Goldsmith College, University of London