Our evolution is an ongoing story that contains diverse spatial practices and dynamic everyday life relational connected far beyond the human. It has reached a decisive point where the metabolic complexities of cities with their underlying interdependencies are at an evolutionary turning point in their becoming. On the one hand, there is an emerging collective awareness about the state of the human and more-than-human world(s) and the impacts of our cumulative spatial practices. This is reflected in popular rhetoric and actions to counteract biodiversity collapse, resource grabbing, economic uncertainty, housing unaffordability, the increasing global greenhouse gas emissions at the planetary scale, displacement in light of the conflict and the rise of technological innovation related to artificial computation (Anderson et al. in Dialogues Hum Geogr 2:212–215, 2012; Davis (2022), Ernstson and Swyngedouw (2019) Politicizing the environment in the Urban Century. In Ernstson and Swyngedouw (eds), Urban Political Ecology in the Anthropo-obscene: Interruptions and Possibilities pp 4. Routledge.; Fry in remaking cities: an introduction to urban metrofitting, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017; Morton in Environ Plan D Soc Space 33:831–849, 2015; Morton (2016). Dark ecology: For a logic of future coexistence. Columbia University Press.; Morton (2017) Humankind: Solidarity with non-human people. Verso Books.; Sasaki in cities 27:S3–S9, 2010; Swyngedouw New Geogr 1:20–27, 2017). On the other hand, less conscious practices are prevalent in diverse activities within cities, for example, when considering the perception of safety, small everyday life deeds, spatial practices of underprivileged population groups, or playful encounters in public spaces that we often take for granted. They impact people and other animate objects, such as insects or birds, live in cities and shape the production of the ‘real’ in unforeseen and unpredictable ways. However, both aspects are two sides of the same coin that cast a shadow that relationally entangles them. From an ecological perspective, (Gould and Eldredge in Models Paleobiol 1972:82–115, 1972; Gould and Eldredge in Nature 366:223–227, 1993) suggest that the evolution of life occurs in swift spurts instead of following the slow and steady path that Darwin initially introduced. Long periods of stasis with little activity in terms of extinctions or the emergence of new species are interrupted by intermittent bursts of activity; they called it a punctuated equilibrium (Gould and Eldredge in Models Paleobiol 1972:82–115, 1972; Gould and Eldredge Nat 366:223–227, 1993). To pinpoint sporadic bursts of activities that hold adaptive capacities within cities, this chapter follows a line of flight where fragments of these casted shadows contribute to the ongoing production of the ‘real’ in cities. The idea of Flux Cities will function as the method to search for possible emerging turning points that bring together different accounts of events related to public space. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the role of working with Flux Cities from a post-structural perspective to enable different ways of creating knowledge related to punctuated equilibrium, which mainstream social science and urban disciplines have largely ignored.

On Designing Exteriority from within Through Flux Cities in Public Space

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发表日期：

2025年

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Gregor Mews

摘要

Our evolution is an ongoing story that contains diverse spatial practices and dynamic everyday life relational connected far beyond the human. It has reached a decisive point where the metabolic complexities of cities with their underlying interdependencies are at an evolutionary turning point in their becoming. On the one hand, there is an emerging collective awareness about the state of the human and more-than-human world(s) and the impacts of our cumulative spatial practices. This is reflected in popular rhetoric and actions to counteract biodiversity collapse, resource grabbing, economic uncertainty, housing unaffordability, the increasing global greenhouse gas emissions at the planetary scale, displacement in light of the conflict and the rise of technological innovation related to artificial computation (Anderson et al. in Dialogues Hum Geogr 2:212–215, 2012; Davis (2022), Ernstson and Swyngedouw (2019) Politicizing the environment in the Urban Century. In Ernstson and Swyngedouw (eds), Urban Political Ecology in the Anthropo-obscene: Interruptions and Possibilities pp 4. Routledge.; Fry in remaking cities: an introduction to urban metrofitting, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017; Morton in Environ Plan D Soc Space 33:831–849, 2015; Morton (2016). Dark ecology: For a logic of future coexistence. Columbia University Press.; Morton (2017) Humankind: Solidarity with non-human people. Verso Books.; Sasaki in cities 27:S3–S9, 2010; Swyngedouw New Geogr 1:20–27, 2017). On the other hand, less conscious practices are prevalent in diverse activities within cities, for example, when considering the perception of safety, small everyday life deeds, spatial practices of underprivileged population groups, or playful encounters in public spaces that we often take for granted. They impact people and other animate objects, such as insects or birds, live in cities and shape the production of the ‘real’ in unforeseen and unpredictable ways. However, both aspects are two sides of the same coin that cast a shadow that relationally entangles them. From an ecological perspective, (Gould and Eldredge in Models Paleobiol 1972:82–115, 1972; Gould and Eldredge in Nature 366:223–227, 1993) suggest that the evolution of life occurs in swift spurts instead of following the slow and steady path that Darwin initially introduced. Long periods of stasis with little activity in terms of extinctions or the emergence of new species are interrupted by intermittent bursts of activity; they called it a punctuated equilibrium (Gould and Eldredge in Models Paleobiol 1972:82–115, 1972; Gould and Eldredge Nat 366:223–227, 1993). To pinpoint sporadic bursts of activities that hold adaptive capacities within cities, this chapter follows a line of flight where fragments of these casted shadows contribute to the ongoing production of the ‘real’ in cities. The idea of Flux Cities will function as the method to search for possible emerging turning points that bring together different accounts of events related to public space. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the role of working with Flux Cities from a post-structural perspective to enable different ways of creating knowledge related to punctuated equilibrium, which mainstream social science and urban disciplines have largely ignored.