SPLINTERING URBANISM -STEPHEN GRAHAM & SIMON MARVIN

SPLINTERING URBANISM
-STEPHEN GRAHAM & SIMON MARVIN
V.S.VIGNESWAR 3104

DEFINITIONS
Dictionary Meaning :
SPLINTERING: -Splitting or breaking up into parts.
-Fragmentation
URBANISM: -The pattern of behavior , relationships and modes of thought
characteristic of urban life.
Author’s definition :
SPLINTERING URBANISM:
The dialectical and diverse sets of processes surrounding the parallel
unbundling of infrastructure networks and the fragmentation of urban space is
described by the broad umbrella term ‘Splintering Urbanism’.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A VIEW OF THE CITY AS A SOCIO-TECHNICAL PROCESS IN THE
AFTERMATH OF GLOBALISATION.

THE MODERNIST IDEAL
INFRASTURUCTURE/TECHNOLOGY AS
ICONS

DIFFERENT PIPES BENEATH A LONDON STREET JUNCTION
-THE CITY IN ITS MANY LAYERS/THE UNSEEN PARALLEL CITY

UNDERSTANDING SPLINTERING URBANISM
-CONSTRUCTING THE MODERN NETWORKED CITY
-THE COLLAPSE OF THE INTEGRATED IDEAL
-PRACTICES OF SPLINTERING URBANISM
-THE CITY AS SOCIOTECHNICAL PROCESS
Understanding of Splintering Urbanism-
The historic, practical and theoretical understanding of the processes of splintering
urbanism. It is an exploration on the construction of the previously dominant paradigm of
infrastructural development, which is also Modern Infrastructural Ideal .Also it explores a
range of forces that are unravelling this idea .It looks in detail at the parallel practices which
unbundle infrastructural networks and fragment urban landscapes .Beyond this it develops a
theoretical perspective to help explain interlinked fragmentation of cities and splintering of
infrastructure.

EXPLORING THE SPLINTERING METROPOLIS
-Dharavi, Mumbai
Dharavi from the comfort
of your airplane seat.
An act of infrastructural neglect and a splintered metropolis.

THE SAME CITY-MUMBAI

PIPES AS “INFRASTRUCTURE”- THE PARADOX OF THE FRAGMENTED CITY

YOU CAN SEE IT BUT YOU CANT
GET IT.

-GATED COMMUNITIES
CREATION OF EXCLUSIVE FACILITIES
-A SPLINTER OF URBANITY

THE CASE OF IT PARKS

TCS CAMPUS,BANGALORE- A MINI CITY

WIPRO,BANGALORE

THE CASE OF IT PARKS:
IT Parks have evolved as highly secured and secluded campuses which are poorly
connected or rather disconnected to the local urbaness but highly connected
globally by means of technology.
The creation of ‘Fast Lanes’ in ‘developed’
countries

DUBAI

EXPLORING THE SPLINTERING METROPOLIS
• SOCIAL LANDSCAPES OF SPLINTERING URBANISM
• ‘GLOCAL’ INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE SPLINTERING OF URBAN
ECONOMIES
This chapter is about Exploring the Splintering Metropolis .It explores the
processes of splintering urbanism across the world’s cities in considerable
detail .It does so by first reconstructing the urban social landscape. The
latter part is about the relationships between urban economies and global
infrastructure.

PLACING SPLINTERING URBANISM
• THE LIMITS OF SPLINTERING URBANISM
• THE DANGERS OF SPLINTERING URBANISM
• PLACING SPLINTERING URBANISM : THE WIDER CONTEXT
• CHALLENGING HEGEMONIES: RESISTANCE AND THE LIMITS OF
SPLINTERING URBANISM
Placing Splintering Urbanism.
This part takes stock of the preceding discussion and explores ways
in which the complex politics and spatialities of contemporary cities
inevitably limit the degree to which network spaces of cities can be totally
segregated from each other. There is also an analysis of the limits and
resistance which splintering urbanism face.

THE AIM OF THE BOOK
-A broad exploration of processes of urban splintering in a wide variety of cities
which provides a basis for others to follow up some of the question raised in
this book.
-Highlight the merits of a perspective that manages to be simultaneously
critical, transdisciplinary, international and socio-technical
-Help forge powerful new views of the rapidly changing nature of urban life in
our rapidly urbanising planet
-Finally, The construction of a critical urbanism of the networked city is the
main aim of this book.