Politics of Urbanism: Seeing like a city

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To see like a city, rather than seeing like a state, is the key to understanding modern politics. In this book, Magnusson draws from theorists such as Weber, Wirth, Hayek, Jacobs, Sennett, and Foucault to articulate some of the ideas that we need to make sense of the city as a form of political order. Locally and globally, the city exists by virtue of complicated patterns of government and self-government, prompted by proximate diversity. A multiplicity of authorities in different registers is typical. Sovereignty, although often claimed, is infinitely deferred. What emerges by virtue of self-organization is not susceptible to control by any central authority, and so we are impelled to engage politically in a world that does not match our expectations of sovereignty. How then are we are to engage realistically and creatively? We have to begin from where we are if we are to understand the possibilities. Building on traditions of political and urban theory in order to advance a new interpretation of the role of cities/urbanism in contemporary political life, this work will be of great interest to scholars of political theory and urban theory, international relations theory and international relations. Front Cover Politics of Urbanism Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: re-imagining the political 1. Urbanism as governmentality From urbanism to governmentality Regionalism and globalism Urbanism as a security regime 2. Ontologies of the political Questioning the dominant ontology City, state, empire Urbanism as a political production 3. Politics of urbanism as a way of life The modern state and the Occidental city Human ecology and urbanism as a way of life Catallactics and the unplanned cosmos The uses of disorder 4. The art of government Beyond the problematic of the state Uninflationary critiques Towards a different political science? 5. Seeing like a state, seeing like a city Seeing like a state Seeing like a city Seeing like a theorist 6. Oikos, nomos, logos Logos/nomos, oikos/polis Eco-governmentality, urbanism, and republicanism Politics and violence Freedom or freedom from freedom? 7. From local self-government to politics Understanding local self-government The places of local self-government The traces of politics Conclusion: otherwise than sovereign Notes References Index