The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 came to symbolize the dawn of a new era of openness and connectivity. Yet today, the world is ever more divided, demarcated, and - quite literally - fortified. We are living in a guarded age.
Why and how has this happened? Where will it take us? In this book, David J. Betz explores the expansion of fortified physical infrastructure at every level of the global political economy. In cities, where security is increasingly 'designed in' to public buildings and spaces as they are reshaped to mitigate mass terror attacks. Within corporations, who are burying their electronic assets in deep underground caverns and behind the leaded walls of ex-nuclear war bunkers against a range of threats and feared contingencies. In many urban areas, where the default condition of civil life is to be walled, gated, watched, and guarded. Year after year, hundreds of miles of linear obstacles - walls, ditches, and watchtowers - are added to national borders. Practically everywhere you look there are signs of innovative fortification, often designed to be overlooked. The Guarded Age reveals the barriers which most have observed but few - until reading this book - have truly seen.
| ISBN: | 9781509544042 |
| Publication date: | 27th October 2023 |
| Author: | David Betz |
| Publisher: | Polity Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 256 pages |
| Genres: |
Politics and government |
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 came to symbolize the dawn of a new era of openness and connectivity. Yet today, the world is ever more divided, demarcated, and - quite literally - fortified. We are living in a guarded age.
Why and how has this happened? Where will it take us? In this book, David J. Betz explores the expansion of fortified physical infrastructure at every level of the global political economy. In cities, where security is increasingly 'designed in' to public buildings and spaces as they are reshaped to mitigate mass terror attacks. Within corporations, who are burying their electronic assets in deep underground caverns and behind the leaded walls of ex-nuclear war bunkers against a range of threats and feared contingencies. In many urban areas, where the default condition of civil life is to be walled, gated, watched, and guarded. Year after year, hundreds of miles of linear obstacles - walls, ditches, and watchtowers - are added to national borders. Practically everywhere you look there are signs of innovative fortification, often designed to be overlooked. The Guarded Age reveals the barriers which most have observed but few - until reading this book - have truly seen.
The Guarded Age features in the following genres: Politics and government
The Guarded Age is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Guarded Age was written by David Betz and published by Polity Press
The Guarded Age has 256 pages
£49.50