Sam Wetherell

I thought this was very good as a short history of each of the 6 things he looks at (industrial estate, shopping precinct, council estate, private housing estates, shopping malls, science/business parks) - if obviously not comprehensive, at least bringing up a lot of really interesting stuff, hence the 4 stars. I was pretty consistently fascinated!

At the same time I'm not sure that he does a good job making new points. The connecting point of securitisation and spaces being privatised is clearly explained but otherwise I was often unsure about what he was saying. Then there's stuff I disagree with, like accepting the propaganda of the "free market" that a consumerist shopper is a free subject with unconstrained desires, opposing it to the planned shopper looking for a certain basket of goods that was the subject of postwar planning. Idk I think it's a great book for the history but some of the more "critical theory" stuff didn't feel well argued… (altro)