Ground Control: Fear and happiness in the twenty-first-century city

Description

Britain's streets have been transformed by the construction of new property - but it's owned by private corporations, designed for profit and watched over by CCTV. Have these gleaming business districts, mega malls and gated developments led to 'regeneration', or have they intensified social divisions and made us more fearful of each other? Anna Minton's acclaimed and passionate polemic, now updated to cover the UK property collapse and London's controversial Olympic Park, shows us the face of Britain today. It reveals the untested - and unwanted - urban planning that is changing not only our cities, but the nature of public space, of citizenship and of trust.

Anna Minton is the recipient of five national journalism awards. She was former staff writer for the Financial Times and writes regularly for the Guardian. Anna is the author of The Joseph Rowntree Foundation Viewpoint on fear and distrust and is a member of the writers' panel for The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

Anna Minton has done us a service with this book . . . compelling * The Sunday Times * A sharp and urgent anaylsis of our changing towns and cities * Metro * A timely and powerful study . . . revelatory * Guardian * Compelling . . . raises important questions about the meaning of liberty in contemporary society and what we are prepared to defend today * Times *