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Circulation and Urbanization is a foundational investigation into the history of the urban. Moving beyond both canonical and empirical portrayals, the book approaches the urban through a genealogy of circulation - a concept central to Western political thought and its modes of spatial planning. Locating architectural knowledge in a wider network of political history, legal theory, geography, sociology and critical theory, and drawing on maritime, territorial and colonial histories, Adams contends that the urban arose in the nineteenth century as an anonymous, parallel project of the emergent liberal nation state. More than a reflection of this state form or the product of the capitalist relations it fostered, the urban is instead a primary instrument for both: at once means and ends. Combining analytical precision with interdisciplinary insights, this book offers an astonishing new set of propositions for revisiting a familiar, yet increasingly urgent, topic. It is a vital resource for all students and scholars of architecture and urban studies. This book is part of the Society and Space series, which explores the fascinating relationship between the spatial and the social. These stimulating, provocative books draw on a range of theories to examine key cultural and political issues of our times, including technology, globalisation and migration.

ResumenEste ensayo analiza el auge de la "ecociudad" dentro de un amplio contexto político e histórico. Exponiendo así no solo lo que la "ecociudad" representa por sí misma, sino también una tendencia, dentro de la historia del urbanismo y de la arquitectura moderna, que la liga estrechamente a la dialéctica de crisis y reforma. De esta misma manera, se examina la relación entre la retórica de la sostenibilidad y la representación del proyecto, la cual hoy en día parece dominar el diseño mismo de la "ecociudad" una invención cuya consistencia física siempre parece eclipsada por sus promesas éticas universales. La consecuencia de ese tipo de pensamiento, el cual es criticado típicamente por no cumplir completamente con sus promesas, señala un problema aun más profundo. Un problema que ha acompañado al proyecto urbano tal vez desde el siglo diecinueve, y solo ahora, ante la persuasión ideológica de la globalización y el libre mercado del capitalismo, adquiere claridad. El argumento que se expone aquí es precisamente que al responder a la crisis ecológica a través de nuevos modos de urbanización, se desplaza a la verdadera crisis (ecológica) al ser sustituida por una sugerencia distinta y más sutil: la "verdadera" crisis que confrontamos es el colapso del capitalismo liberal.AbstractThis essay attempts to frame the rise of the "eco-city" within a larger political and historical context in order to expose not only what the "eco-city" itself represents, but also to uncover a certain tendency within the history of modern architecture and urban design, tied to the dialectic of crisis and reform. In so doing, it examines the relationship between rhetoric and representation that now seems to dominate the actual design of an "eco-city" itself gure whose physical consistency always seems overshadowed by its universal promises of ethical goodness. The consequences of such thinking, which are typically criticized for not delivering completely on its promises, point to a much deeper problem at handone which has accompanied ...