Crumbling Territories: Rules, Rights and Values

The European territories described in this book seem to float in a sea of crumbs, making them alien to convincing forms of thought or design. Their fragility and density are closely related to the crisis they are experiencing. Crisis with different origins and different effects: a shift in the relationship between capital and labor; a tendency for falling profit rates; a more inflexible relationship between the economy and resources; climate change; population aging; increased inequality; and institutional crises. Their current state cannot be understood using time-honored topics such as history, geography, and urban planning; instead, it raises questions involving the redesign of space, rules, rights, and values in a time-lapse leading us further and further away from the twentieth century. The eight short paragraphs on the next few pages discuss several aspects of this gradual exit from the twentieth century. These are the theories we pursue in this book—theories that this book has a duty to support