Governing By Design : Architecture, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century

Aggregate (COR); Abramson, Daniel (CON); Allais, Lucia (CON); Dutta, Arindam (CON); Harwood, John (CON)

ISBN 10: 0822961784 / ISBN 13: 9780822961789

Published by University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 15814148-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Governing By Design : Architecture, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822961784
• ISBN 13: 9780822961789
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Governing by Design offers a unique perspective on twentieth-century architectural history. It disputes the primacy placed on individuals in the design and planning process and instead looks to the larger influences of politics, culture, economics, and globalization to uncover the roots of how our built environment evolves.<br><br><br>In these chapters, historians offer their analysis on design as a vehicle for power and as a mediator of social currents. Power is defined through a variety of forms: modernization, obsolescence, technology, capital, ergonomics, biopolitics, and others. The chapters explore the diffusion of power through the establishment of norms and networks that frame human conduct, action, identity, and design. They follow design as it functions through the body, in the home, and at the state and international level. <br><br><br>Overall, Aggregate views the intersection of architecture with the human need for what Foucault termed \u201cgovernmentality\u201d&amp;mdash;societal rules, structures, repetition, and protocols&amp;mdash;as a way to provide security and tame risk. Here, the conjunction of power and the power of design reinforces governmentality and infuses a sense of social permanence despite the exceedingly fluid nature of societies and the disintegration of cultural memory in the modern era.

About the Author

<b>The Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative </b>is dedicated to advancing research and education in the history and theory of architecture. Since 2006, Aggregate has held dozens of workshops and symposia throughout North America in partnership with major universities, exhibitions, and research centers. Aggregate presents innovative scholarship on its website we-aggregate.org, and in 2012 published the collected volume <i>Governing by Design: Architecture, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century</i>.<b></b>