Topothesia : planning, colonialism, and places in excess / Ameeth Vijay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vijay, Ameeth, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City planning.

Public administration.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (327 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Topothesia reads urban planning as a mode of speculative fiction, one inextricably linked to histories of British colonialism and liberalism through a particular understanding of place. The book focuses on town planning from the late nineteenth century to the present day, showing how the contemporary geography of Britain--sharply unequal and marked by racial division-- continues ideologies of place established in colonial contexts. Specifically, planning allows for the speculative construction of future places that are both utopian in their ability to resolve political disagreement and at the same tantalizingly realizable, able to be produced in concrete reality. This speculative imaginary, I argue, is only possible within the ideological framework of colonialism and the history of empire within which it developed"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I. Improving places: liberal colonialism and the speculative imaginary of early

Planning garden cities: the art and craft of making place in Edwardian Britain

Planning as imperial cultivation in the work of Patrick Geddes

Part II. Diminishing horizons: the ambivalent temporalities of development

Capturing the city: regeneration, policing, and the ghosts of postcolonial Britain

The end of London: temporalities of the gentrified city

Leveling up: Zadie Smith's NW and the development of the planned self

Geographies of discontent: brexit and the politics of abandonment.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Vijay, Ameeth Topothesia

ISBN:

9781531503208

1531503209

OCLC:

1373338576