Mean Streets: Post-Fordist Cities & Political Repression, Part One

In the first of a two-parter, we trace the evolution of the modern city from industrialisation to the 1970s, when a trio of crises laid the foundation for an anti-political backlash

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Image: A photograph taken on Leyden Street, London, during the 1979 ‘Winter of Discontent’ (Source: Maurice Hibberd/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Even in Death, They Will Still Degrade You ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO For this week’s newsletter, Gregk uses a resurfaced comment by filmmaker Joe Russo from 2023 to provide some commentary on the modern AI craze and the historical ties between technology, pornography, and violence.

Sources:

Robert A. Beauregard (2006), When America Became Suburban

Jordan T. Camp & Christina Heatherton [eds.] (2016), Policing the PlanetL Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter

Peter Eisinger (2000), ‘The Politics of Bread and Circuses: Building the City for the Visitor Class’, Urban Affairs Review [35:3]

Antonio Gramsci (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks

Stuart Hall et al (1978), Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order

Margaret Kohn (2004), Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatisation of Public Space

Mark Neocleous (2021), A Critical Theory of Police Power

Paul A. Passavant (2021), Policing Protest: The Post-Democratic State and the Figure of Black Insurrection