by Nathan Mahaffey

ABSTRACT: Understanding the city requires understanding its processes of development. This essay stirs a dialectical exploration between social processes of ‘evolution’ and ‘revolution’.  The objective is to question through which types of processes can the city be shaped by its inhabitants. 

INTRODUCTION

This essay will explore ‘what makes a good city’ and seek to understand the role that informality has to play in the ‘evolution’ rather than ‘revolution’ of the city. Daniel Quinn’s book Beyond Civilization will provide the conceptual framework to analyse relevant literature. This radical, yet simple book takes a broad view of the past failures of civilization, why we are still stuck in the same cycles, and proposes an alternative vision for the future. The use of this book will serve two purposes: first, to connect and compare other critical texts, but also to test the validity of the book itself. The…