Overview

As the world rapidly urbanizes, its cities sink themselves into the ground in sprawling tendons of tunnels - conduits for transport, utility, communication, shelter and storage. The excavation of these spaces, at ever-increasing depths and speed, has changed our lives in ways that we tend to take for granted. For the first time, this book charts the global reach of urban underground spaces, bringing together a collection of 80 stories of subterranean sites around the world. The book draws out the extraordinary range of meanings suggested by urban underground spaces, whether their power as places of hope, fear, memory, labour and resistance, or their capacity to evoke both long histories and futures in the making. Illustrated with often breathtaking photographs, Global Undergrounds creates a new sense of the richness and global diversity of urban underground spaces.

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9781780235769

Table of Contents

Reviews

<i>Global Undergrounds</i> takes us fascinatingly deep into the unknown worlds of the urban subterrane: the hidden zones where we store, hide, secure, repress, bury and extract. For a book so concerned with darkness, it dazzles in its curiosity, wit and knowledge. This bunker-Baedeker opens a new vision of the city to us - the vertical city, extending far above our heads and far below our feet. --Robert Macfarlane, author of Landmarks and The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

Global Undergrounds takes us fascinatingly deep into the unknown worlds of the urban subterrane: the hidden zones where we store, hide, secure, repress, bury and extract. For a book so concerned with darkness, it dazzles in its curiosity, wit and knowledge. This bunker-Baedeker opens a new vision of the city to us - the vertical city, extending far above our heads and far below our feet. --Robert Macfarlane, author of Landmarks and The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

Well worth dipping into for its worldwide take on the sheer variety of ways we humans have spun our subterranean webs. . . . These underground stories remind us that buried spaces are places of protection as well as of the fearfully unknown, of hope and of political resistance, of science as well as persistent chthonic mythology. There's always a quirky and sometimes a grisly journey to be had beneath our streets. --London Evening Standarda Global Undergrounds serves as a catalog that positions eighty underground sites of urban, suburban, and rural development, and most segments offer a connection to the culture of the present and the past. . . . Diverse authors offer approaches as academics, official visitors, tourists, or adventurers, engaging with spaces and places that usually remain hidden from both sight and mind. --Popmatters

"""The volume takes a unique shape, composed of eighty brief essays, each around two pages, from twenty-six contributors. Their geographic reach is truly global, touching every continent. Each contribution analyzes an underground site, memorably and often personally, in a style that varies from autobiographical to journalistic or ethnographic, which strongly suggests travel narrative. The book is richly illustrated with color images, mostly photographs by the contributors. Though not as systematic as an encyclopedia, the collection was similarly assembled from voluntary contributions. More scholarly than an atlas or travel guide but equally attuned to particular spaces, places, and their various social uses and meanings, the book could well inspire travel or urban exploration.""-- ""H-Urban"" ""Treats the subject properly and carefully the editors acknowledge that this is a world not often seen, one hidden to nearly all, yet one which holds a fascination for anyone who wonders what lies beneath their feet. It is done extremely well, specially as the layout is appealing, being enriched with color photographs of sometimes obscure underground places it is a book to dip into that becomes difficult not to dip into the next section of engaging text. . . . Cavers, mine historians, and urban explorers will all enjoy this read. . . . A substantial and attractive book book with diversity as its major strength.""-- ""Descent Magazine"" ""Well worth dipping into for its worldwide take on the sheer variety of ways we humans have spun our subterranean webs. . . . These underground stories remind us that buried spaces are places of protection as well as of the fearfully unknown, of hope and of political resistance, of science as well as persistent chthonic mythology. There's always a quirky and sometimes a grisly journey to be had beneath our streets.""-- ""London Evening Standard"" ""Global Undergrounds serves as a catalog that positions eighty underground sites of urban, suburban, and rural development, and most segments offer a connection to the culture of the present and the past. . . . Diverse authors offer approaches as academics, official visitors, tourists, or adventurers, engaging with spaces and places that usually remain hidden from both sight and mind.""-- ""PopMatters"""

Global Undergrounds takes us fascinatingly deep into the unknown worlds of the urban subterrane: the hidden zones where we store, hide, secure, repress, bury and extract. For a book so concerned with darkness, it dazzles in its curiosity, wit and knowledge. This bunker-Baedeker opens a new vision of the city to us the vertical city, extending far above our heads and far below our feet. --Robert Macfarlane, author of Landmarks and The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

Author Information

Paul Dobraszczyk is a writer and researcher based in Manchester. He is the author of Iron, Ornament and Architecture in Victorian Britain (2014) and Into the Belly of the Beast: Exploring London's Victorian Sewers (2009). Carlos Lopez Galviz is a lecturer and research fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. He is the co-editor of Going Underground: New Perspectives (2013). Bradley L. Garrett is a social geographer at the University of Southampton. His books include Explore Everything: Place-hacking the City (2013) and Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital (2014).

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