(2008-10-01) Sterling Balkan Urbanization

Bruce Sterling dissets the description of an art exhibit on Balkanized Urbanization. the situation in South Eastern Europe is prototypical (((yep, you bet))) for Urban Development in transitional and post-conflict situations, from Prishtina to Belgrade (((to New Orleans to Galveston Tx to Detroit Mi))), where weak or missing institutional structures (((hey, where did that real-estate bank go?))) make it impossible to achieve the regulation of construction processes. (Failed State, Social Capital)

Their specific forms result from a new intermeshing of spaces through visual worlds communicated by the media, migratory movements and cash flows. (((I think maybe we should scrap all the old, regulated buildings and just have rich, highly-mediated jet-set gypsies scampering around with laptops brimming with electronic cash. They can sleep in tents and eat tofu.))) (Nations-Lite)