Splintering Towers of Babel
Paradoxical Architectures and Urban Infrastructures
Liora Bigon author Edna Langenthal author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:21st Jul '23
£135.00
Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.
Splintering Towers of Babel focuses on and redefines soft infrastructures and critical infrastructure projects. It explores key issues in contemporary urban studies including town planning histories, architecture, heritage, colonialism and postcolonialism, philosophy, and ethics.
The book combines transdisciplinary perspectives on the key historical, philosophical, and political issues associated with urban experiences, built forms, and infrastructure networks. It explores uneven dimensions in contemporary urbanisms and develops spatial phenomenological thinking with reference to the northern and southern hemispheres. This book connects the past and the present, in addition to Western and global South geographies, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Its main contribution is to broaden readers' understanding of infrastructure through the lens of the humanities and to engage with political, poetical, and ethical perspectives.
This book is tailored to scholars working in the fields of urban planning, urban geography, architectural history, urban design, infrastructure studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, African studies, and philosophy.
‘Splintering Towers of Babel is a kaleidoscopic study of urbanism in different cultural settings and times. The book employs a wide array of theories, perspectives, and methods to provoke new thinking about what a city is, what it does, and what it means at different scales around the world. This multidisciplinary book promises to be a valuable compendium for anyone interested in the past and present of cities and their future.’
- Akin Ogundiran, Professor of Africana Studies, Anthropology and History, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
‘With the Biblical story of Babel as a sound thematic backbone, and in a dazzling multidisciplinary exploration across time and space, this original book offers a plethora of insights to rethink the historical, phenomenological and sociotechnical complexities and paradoxes inherent in the urban condition.’
- Filip De Boeck, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Leuven, and co-author of Suturing the City: Living Together in Congo’s Urban Worlds.
ISBN: 9781032527970
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 562g
198 pages