Dr Charlotte Cator

  • Marie Curie Fellow (Urban Studies & Social Policy)

Biography

My research is concerned with questions around the just and sustainable organisation of our economies. Working interdisciplinarily, I am interested in analyses and critiques of capitalism in an urbanised world as well as alternative to them. 

In my current MSCA postdoctoral project, I study waste in the city from a local as well as a global perspective, by analysing waste and the (in)formal ways of generating, handling and potentially avoiding it in Glasgow and Mexico City within a comparative framework.

In my PhD (Copenhagen Business School, 2024), I studied the conditions and potentials for transformative social change and alternative economies in Amsterdam.

 

Research interests

  • Alternative urban economies
  • Waste
  • Capitalism
  • Critical urban theory
  • Climate politics
  • Urban political ecology
  • Qualitative methods

Research groups

Publications

Prior publications

Article

Matthew Thompson, Charlotte Cator, David Beel, Ian Rees Jones, Martin Jones, Kevin Morgan (2024) Amsterdam’s circular economy at a world-ecological crossroads: postcapitalist degrowth or the next regime of capital accumulation? Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Crossref. (doi: 10.1093/cjres/rsae022)

Grants

  • Seeing Waste Like a City: Towards Just Circular Economies in Glasgow and Mexico City. 
    Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) URBANWASTE, 101202819. R. Beveridge and C. Cator (2025-2027). 

Image of Charlotte Cator

Dr Charlotte Cator on Bluesky