Waste and the City: The Crisis of Sanitation and the Right to Citylife

Sanitation is fundamental to urban public life and health. We need Sanitation for All.

In an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Waste in the City is a call to action on one of modern urban life's most neglected issues: sanitation infrastructure. The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the devastating consequences of unequal access to sanitation in cities across the globe. At this critical moment in global public health, Colin McFarlane makes the urgent case for Sanitation for All.

The book outlines the worldwide sanitation crisis and offers a vision for a renewed, equitable investment in sanitation that democratises and socialises the modern city. Adopting Henri Lefebvre's concept of 'the right to the city', it uses the notion of 'citylife' to reframe the discourse on sanitation from a narrowly-defined policy discussion to a question of democratic right to public life and health. In doing so, the book shows that sanitation is an urbanizing force whose importance extends beyond hygiene to the very foundation of urban social life.

Author: Colin McFarlane
Publisher: Verso
Published: 08/15/2023
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.60w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781839760549
ISBN10: 1839760540
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | Public Policy | City Planning & Urban Development
- Social Science | Sociology | Urban
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social

About the Author
Colin McFarlane is a Professor of Geography at the University of Durham. His research focuses mainly on the global sanitation crisis in cities across the world. He's previously written and co-authored three books on sanitation and urban life.