Ground Control

Fear and happiness in the twenty-first-century city

Britain's streets have been transformed by the construction of new property - but it's owned by private corporations, designed for profit and watched over by CCTV. Have these gleaming business districts, mega malls and gated developments led to 'regeneration', or have they intensified social divisions and made us more fearful of each other?

Anna Minton's acclaimed and passionate polemic, now updated to cover the UK property collapse and London's controversial Olympic Park, shows us the face of Britain today. It reveals the untested - and unwanted - urban planning that is changing not only our cities, but the nature of public space, of citizenship and of trust.

Anna Minton has done us a service with this book . . . compelling

The Sunday Times

About Anna Minton

Anna Minton is a writer, journalist and Reader in Architecture at the University of East London. She is the author of Ground Control (2009) and Big Capital: Who is London for? (2016), which were published to widespread acclaim. The Royal Commission's Fellow in the Built Environment between 2011 and 2014, she is a regular contributor to the Guardian and a frequent broadcaster and commentator.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241957806
  • Length: 288 pages
  • Price: £3.99
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