What is a city? What determines its specificity? What shapes its quality? The evolution of the contemporary city does not follow a linear movement—it is shaped by transformation processes that are directed toward often distant and conflicting goals. Even though cities are inscribed into global processes and networks, they tend to produce and reproduce their own specificity, their own patterns and characteristic traits. 

The aim of this book is not to promote a romantic view of the city, nor a discussion of specificity as a means to argue against globalisation. It is not a hymn to contextuality nor is it a plea for the return of the genius loci. This book takes an uncompromising look at urban territories in various parts of the world. It identifies specific characteristics that are not spectacular and would not be used on picture postcards. Instead, they convey a specific profile of urban patterns that underpin the uniqueness of the city’s material and social existence. This thesis only reveals its full significance and explosiveness in the context of globalisation, the global extension of networks of production and consumption, the homogenisaton of living conditions and daily life on a global scale, and the ensuing spread of urban areas over the planet.

Using the categories of territory, power, and difference—which also lent the book its structure—the texts analyse case studies of cities and urbanised territories, from Naples and the Canary Islands to Hong Kong and Nairobi.