Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Ground Control: Fear and happiness in the twenty-first-century city
Britain's streets have been transformed by the construction of new property - but it's owned by private corporations, designed for profit and watched over by CCTV. Have these gleaming business districts, mega malls and gated developments led to 'regeneration', or have they intensified social divisions and made us more fearful of each other?
Anna Minton, Penguin,
26 January 2012
Why temporary architecture could be an enduring trend
Given that since the beginning of the Great Recession the construction business has slowed dramatically and that some of the most popular cultural–and inventive retail–projects have been pop-up shops and food trucks, letting go of past conceptions of architecture’s permanence might be the most enduring design phenomenon of the 2010s.
Reena Jana,
Smart Planet, 21 December 2011
Electric selves?
The social web: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and the host of other technologies that invite us to connect to each other through a variety of internet-based interfaces seem to be technologies that provoke existential questions. Who are we? What are we? Where are we going?
Rob Clowes,
Culture Wars, 31 October 2011
After the Riots: what makes a city?
The uncomfortable truth (for some) is the one told by Jane Jacobs, New York community campaigner back in the early 1960s: that local authorities cannot construct a ‘sense of community’.
Michael Owens,
Independent, 17 October 2011
Is fracking environmentally friendly?
Andrew Simms and Rob Lyons debate whether the fracking process of gas extraction is safe
Rob Lyons & Andrew Simms,
Guardian Comment is free, 23 September 2011
The Lure of the City: from slums to suburbs
Cities, by their very nature, are a mass of contradictions. They can be at once visually stunning, culturally rich, exploitative and unforgiving.
Austin Williams and Alastair Donald (editors), Pluto Press,
20 September 2011
Developers threaten Beirut's architectural heritage
Once the jewel of the Mediterranean, parts of Beirut are now in a state of shambles. Decades of civil war and Israel's bombardment five years ago has left some buildings pockmarked with bullet holes, others just bombed-out shells. But the buildings that survived bullets and bombs are now under threat from the wrecking ball.
Rebecca Collard,
National (UAE), 16 September 2011
Here comes the yuan: a city’s bid to revive its fortunes through the local and the global
Liverpool is using its bruised beauty to its advantage. It won its bid to be the 2008 European Capital of Culture, which boosted tourism. The revamped city centre, reopened that year, is tasteful and modern; the nearby Albert Dock, once teeming with stevedores, bustles with bars and restaurants. The next step is to attract investment from overseas.
Economist, 3 September 2011
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