Productive Universals – Specific Situations – Critical Engagements in Art, Architecture, and Urbanism

“Are we ready again to ask universal questions? The editors and authors of this timely and refreshing volume say emphatically: Yes! But do not fear the old specter of transcendence. Each essay is packed with particulars, in a running dialogue about the specific conditions under which universals appear, and about their performative effects. Each asks: What is a universal, and what does it do? For whom, how, and why? And each responds with new critical scholarship in architecture, urbanism, and the visual arts, refashioned here as a highly particular science of universality.” Reinhold Martin, Columbia GSAPP, New York

“To counter the populist pull of a post-truth era this collection dares to return to a thought of universality—and successfully introduces the applicable concept of the productive universal. It must work! Planetary urbanism, the algorithmic management of a global population, and climate crises are all at stake. This thought-provoking book invites architects and urbanists to think through the friction of concrete occasions toward concerns that are universally shared.” Hélène Frichot, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm