Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilites and the Urban Condition

Description

We live in a rapidly urbanising world, in a global society. Networked infrastructures, such as telecommunications, transport, energy and water, are the resources shaping our contemporary cities. Splintering Urbanism makes an international and interdisciplinary analysis of the complex interactions between infrastructure networks and urban spaces. It delivers a new and powerful way of understanding contemporary urban change, bringing together discussions about: globalization and the city technology and society urban space and urban networks infrastructure and the built environment developed, developing and post-communist worlds. With a range of case studies, illustrations and boxed examples, from New York to Jakarta, Johannesberg to Manila and Sao Paolo to Melbourne, Splintering Urbanism demonstrates the latest social, urban and technological theories, which give us an understanding of our contemporary metropolis.

"'Graham and Marvin's Splintering Urbanism is the first analytical geography of the network society. It skillfully blends up-to date information on metropolitan development, theoretical insights, and a good knowledge of debates in the field. It demonstrates that electronic based networks segregate as much as they connect, and they do so selectively. It is required reading for students of spatial transformation, on the cutting edge of research in urban studies.' - Manuel Castells, University of California at Berkeley 'Splintering Urbanism is a crucial text for architects and urban designers who are interested in the roles of network infrastructure in shaping the future of our cities.' - William Mitchell, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning, MIT, USA 'Splintering Urbanism is an enormously important book. It connects new (digital) aspects with conventional infrastructural conditions and challenges.' - Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago and LSE 'A truly path-breaking book and a tremendous achievement, Splintering Urbanism's great strengths are its global perspectives, its wide range of material and case studies, and the ways these are integrated to form new ways of looking at the cities.' - Steven Pinch, University of Southampton, UK 'Splintering Urbanism will be one of the most widely read and cited books in urban studies for some time. The book delivers an original, state-of-the-art and comprehensive analysis of changing infrastructure networks - especially telecommunications - in contemporary urban areas. It offers a fresh way of viewing and understanding city metamorphosis on a rapidly urbanizing planet. The book clearly shows how networked infrastructures are set in place and how they help explain the economic, social and political power of urban areas. The book is so innovative, interdisciplinary and contemporary that it is basically without competition.' - James Wheeler, University of Georgia, USA 'Inspiring! Splintering Urbanism is the most comprehensive book to date on the socio-cultural history of urban infrastructure. It includes an impressive global coverage, historical foundations and insightful analysis on the most recent urban-technology dynamics. A must read for scholars and practitioners in city planning, history of technologies and urban geography' - Yuko Aoyama, Clark University, USA 'Graham and Marvin...bring to the fore a long-neglected but critical foundation of cities that makes the "space of flows" possible, revealing lucidly its connections to urban planning, transportation and telecommunications, and cyberspace...Splintering Urbanism shows powerfully how our notions of time and space reflect the ways in which the geography of cities is periodically torn apart and reconstituted.' - Barney Whart, Florida State University, USA 'Splintering Urbanism's comprehensive analysis of the impact on cities of the privatization and unbundling of infrastructure networks, especially telecommunications, is highly original, timely and deeply provocative. Urban designers, policy makers and architects will find compelling evidence here of a new challenge to the role of cities.' - Ellen Dunham-Jones, Director of the Architecture Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA"