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Planetary Cities: Fluid Rock Foundations of Civilization
Theory, Culture & Society ( IF 2.517 ) Pub Date : 2021-09-13 , DOI: 10.1177/02632764211030986
Nigel Clark 1
Affiliation  

Whereas recent framings of planetary urbanization stress the planet-scaled impacts of contemporary urban processes, we might also conceive of cities as being constitutively ‘planetary’ from their very outset. This article looks at two ways in which the earliest urban centres or ‘civilizations’ on the floodplains of the Fertile Crescent harnessed the deep, geological forces of the Earth. The first is the tapping and channelling of sedimentary processes, central to what Wittfogel referred to as hydraulic civilizations (1963). The second is the use of high-heat technologies to smelt and forge metals, which can be construed as a capture of igneous processes. What both sets of practices have in common is that they involve skilled intervention in fluid-solid phase transitions between solid rock and flowing particulate matter. Viewing cities as constitutively geological or planetary in this way can help us reimagine the challenges posed to urban spaces by looming transformations in Earth systems.



中文翻译:

行星城市:文明的流体岩石基础

虽然最近的行星城市化框架强调了当代城市进程在行星范围内的影响,但我们也可以从一开始就将城市视为构成性的“行星”。本文着眼于新月沃地泛滥平原上最早的城市中心或“文明”利用地球深层地质力量的两种方式。第一个是沉积过程的挖掘和引导,这是 Wittfogel 所说的水力文明(1963)的核心。第二种是使用高温技术来熔炼和锻造金属,这可以解释为对火成岩过程的捕获。两组实践的共同点是,它们涉及对固体岩石和流动颗粒物质之间的流固相变的熟练干预。

更新日期:2021-09-13
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