One of the most important and yet overlooked elements of the technology of our civilisation is the city. The roads, the bridges, the buildings the utilities – all of the mechanisms that allow humans to live in very close proximity at great scale, for mutual benefit. Cities developed not merely because people wanted to live close to each other for social reasons, which has always been the case (though not always in such numbers), but because humans needed to be close to economic resources. The design and architecture of our cities has been an immensely political function, allowing the planners to organise our societies according to their preferences and judgement.
State Legitimacy 