Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization

by Neil J. Brenner

In 1970, Henri Lefebvre put forward the radical hypothesis of the complete urbanization of society, a circumstance that in his view required a radical shift from the analysis of urban form to the investigation of urbanization processes. Drawing together classic and contemporary texts on the "urbanization question", this book explores various theoretical, epistemological, methodological and political implications of Lefebvre's hypothesis. It assembles a series of analytical and cartographic interventions that supersede inherited spatial ontologies (urban/rural, town/country, city/non-city, society/nature) in order to investigate the uneven implosions and explosions of capitalist urbanization across places, regions, territories, continents and oceans up to the planetary scale.

Genres: Geography, Cities

Mass Market Paperback

First published March 14, 2014

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another Stalin, this one with far less power, but a kink to build hives where the proletarians would work till they die. Some would call that gulag, but Brenner prefers Urbanization.