The Inevitable Specificity of Cities

What is a city? What deter­mi­nes its spe­ci­fi­ci­ty? What shapes its qua­li­ty? The evo­lu­ti­on of the con­tem­po­ra­ry city does not fol­low a line­ar move­ment. It is shaped by trans­for­ma­ti­on pro­ces­ses that are direc­ted toward often distant and con­flic­ting goals. Even though cities are inscri­bed into glo­bal pro­ces­ses and net­works, they deve­lop their own spe­ci­fic ways of deal­ing with the­se con­di­ti­ons. They tend to pro­du­ce and repro­du­ce their own spe­ci­fi­ci­ty, their own pat­terns and cha­rac­ter traits. Using the cate­go­ries of ter­ri­to­ry, power, and difference—also len­ding the book its structure—the texts ana­ly­ze dif­fe­rent case stu­dies of cities and urba­ni­zed ter­ri­to­ries, ran­ging from the Cana­ry Islands to Hong Kong and Nai­ro­bi, unfol­ding the distinc­ti­ve­ness of their phy­si­cal and social existences.