Claire Mercer

Taken together, these papers offer new ways of thinking with the concept of the frontier that encompasses revisions to established urban theory ('the rent gap'), new concepts from beyond urban studies ('articulation'), new materials (sand), and new geographies (the coast)

Ecologies of alterity: rethinking the coastal frontier The urban seashore is often seen as a natural frontier, its sands and seawater deemed an exceptional geography to be made productive through industrialization and urbanization. The coastline of Che...

Niranjana R extends theories of agrarian urbanisation to the oceanic in order to critically reflect on representations of Chennai’s coastline as an urban frontier, arguing that fishing can be understood as an agrarian activity that disrupts rural/urban binaries

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Demarcating the granular frontier: planetary urbanization without an inside In its age of global crisis, sand has acquired a conspicuous profile as an urban resource and undercover vector of statecraft. Amidst mounting reports of the disastrous effects of sand mining stoke...

Situating the case of Singapore within the global geographies of sand extraction, William Jamieson's paper identifies three 'granular frontiers' that demonstrate how sand constitutes a critical but understudied 'outside' of the capitalist urban process

doi.org/10.1080/0272...

Urbanization without guarantees: articulation, rentier capitalism and occupancy on the agrarian urban frontier This article engages with the work of Stuart Hall to examine conditions of agrarian city-making on India’s urban frontier. The article draws on Hall’s writings on articulation and marxist method to...

Drawing on Staurt Hall to discuss agrarian urbanisation in Gurgaon, @termcern.bsky.social argues that the agrarian world operates as an 'articulating principle' that structures capitalist urban expansion 'without guarantees'

doi.org/10.1080/0272...

Rethinking rent gaps from the Amazon: urban contestation and extractive frontiers in Ecuador Contemporary postcolonial urban geographies aim to challenge dominant knowledge production by providing a more in-depth understanding of the frontiers of capital reproduction. This article explores...

In their contribution, @angrygeographer.bsky.social and Michael Janoschka rethink rent gap theory through an ethnographic case study of frontiers of resource extraction and extended urbanisation in the Ecuadorian Amazon

doi.org/10.1080/0272...

Urban Geography New Urban Frontiers. Volume 46, Issue 8 of Urban Geography

'New Urban Frontiers'

This @urbangeography.bsky.social special issue edited by me and @clairemercer.bsky.social has now been published online: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rurb20/4...

A thread on the papers 👇

Who deserves the city? Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears th...

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming. africasacountry.com/2025/09/who-...

New urban frontiers The frontier is undergoing a resurgence as a productive spatial trope in urban geographical research. This article provides a critical overview of this “frontier moment” and contextualizes it withi...

'New urban frontiers'

This essay by me and @clairemercer.bsky.social is the introduction to a forthcoming @urbangeography.bsky.social special issue

We argue that the frontier is a powerful conceptual lens that can generate new insights into the urban

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In this episode, you will hear:

Claire Mercer
Roger Keil
Mariam Genes and
@nitin-bathla.bsky.social

USF International Fellowships 2025 - deadline 16th July 2025

📣 USF International Fellowships 2025 - apply now!

This fully-funded program offers 3-9 month sabbatical research visits for urban scholars from the Global South.

Read more & apply here: urbanstudiesfoundation.org/funding/inte...

Deadline 16th July 2025

House-building in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Author Claire Mercer talks about her new book and how the suburb and the middle classes construct each other.

Claire Mercer, author of THE SUBURBAN FRONTIER, writes about how the suburb and the middle classes construct each other through her research in Tanzania: www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/h...

#AAG2025

Looking forward to this book forum organized by the Duke Africa Initiative on 26 Mar with @cgastrow.bsky.social and @shakirahh.bsky.social

Honored and thankful to be awarded the 2025 ISA Peace section Best Global South Scholar Book Award.
@isanet.bsky.social

www.isanet.org/News/ID/6582...

Agents of change? The challenges of understanding empowerment through international development 6.30pm Mon 31 Mar | Jo Sharp | Free public event at LSE

Join us for the Sylvia Chant lecture 2025 - Prof Jo Sharp will reflect on empowerment and international development over 25 years drawing on her research in Egypt and Tanzania.

LSE Monday 31st March 6.30pm

Details 👇🏻

@profjosharp.bsky.social

Come and join us at LSE!

Job ad for Asst Prof in Urban Environmental Geography

jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Human Geography Attend Urbanisation, Planning & Development Seminars in the Department of Geography and Environment, LSE.

www.lse.ac.uk/geography-an...

See below for our line-up of speakers in the Human Geography Seminar Series Winter Term 2025

USF Seminar Series Awards 2024

We are now accepting applications for the next round of USF Seminar Series Awards funding! 🏙️ The deadline is 17th February 2025, and you can read more about the call on our website. 📢 Please share 📢 www.urbanstudiesfoundation.org/funding/semi...

Two permanent Assistant Professorships in Human Geography at Durham! With expertise in geographies of nature, climate change, & just and sustainable futures...

durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

South–South Theoretical Dialogues: The Tanzanian Experience (1974–76) in Milton Santos’ Spatial Theory The Brazilian geographer Milton Santos is known for his sophisticated theorisation of geographical space. Less well known, however, is the role that Milton Santos’ experience at the University of Dar...

Milton Santos: the Dar es-Salaam years and their impact on one of the most important spatial thinkers. Some histories were yet to be written. Superb stuff in @antipodeonline.bsky.social
#geosky
#africapolsky
#socialtheory
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The Aesthetics of Belonging | Claudia Gastrow | University of North Carolina Press After centuries of colonial rule, the end of Angola's three-decade civil war in 2002 provided an irresistible opportunity for the government to reimagine the...

My book is out! The Aesthetics of Belonging explores how urban aesthetics shape experiences and practices of political belonging:

uncpress.org/book/9781469...

Thanks Joshua!

The Suburban Frontier by Claire Mercer - Paper Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

www.ucpress.edu/books/the-su...

New book published (and free to download) with #ucpress ‘The suburban frontier: middle class construction in Tanzania’

The rise of Africa's suburban middle classes 6.30pm Tue 26 Nov | Deborah James, Claire Mercer, Susan Parnell, Ola Uduku | Free public event at LSE

The suburban frontier: middle class construction in Dar es Salaam

Hybrid book launch, 26th Nov, 18.30

Details here 👇🏻

I mad a starter pack for African Studies. Let me know who else should be in here!

go.bsky.app/6MQyxpG

We are launching the multi-authored extravaganza that is 'Living the Urban Periphery' at a hybrid event in Sheffield on 29 November, 2.30-4pm.

Come and join in person or online - details below!

www.sheffield.ac.uk/urban-instit...

The rise of Africa's suburban middle classes 6.30pm Tue 26 Nov | Deborah James, Claire Mercer, Susan Parnell, Ola Uduku | Free public event at LSE

The suburban frontier: middle class construction in Dar es Salaam

Hybrid book launch, 26th Nov, 18.30

Details here 👇🏻