Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism

Description

Evil Paradises, " edited by Mike Davis and Daniel Bertrand Monk, is a global guidebook to phantasmagoric but real placesOCoalternate realities being constructed as ?utopiasOCO in a capitalist era unfettered by unions and state regulation. These developmentsOCoin cities, deserts, and in the middle of the seaOCoare worlds where consumption and inequality surpass our worst nightmares. Although they read like science fiction, the case studies are shockingly real. In Dubai, where child slavery existed until very recently, a gilded archipelago of private islands known as ?The WorldOCO is literally being added to the ocean. In Medell n and Kabul, drug lordsOCoin many ways textbook capitalistsOCoare redefining conspicuous consumption in fortified palaces. In Hong Kong, Cairo, and even the Iranian desert, burgeoning communities of nouveaux riches have taken shelter in fantasy Californias, complete with Mickey Mouse statues, while their maids sleep in rooftop chicken coops. Meanwhile, Ted Turner rides herd over his bison in 2 million acres of private parkland. Davis and Monk have assembled an extraordinary group of urbanists, architects, historians, and visionary thinkers to reflect upon the trajectory of a civilization whose deepest ethos seems to be to consume all the resources of the earth within a single lifetime.