This inaugural double issue of the serial publication ZONE examines the physical, political, and perceptual transformations redefining the contemporary city. These transformations are explored through historical studies of transformations in the urban system, through theoretical essays which map out the evolution of related social and economic structures (such as the state, the family, and the factory), and through experimental artist projects and critical dossiers. Contributors include Christopher Alexander, Alice Aycock, John Baldessari, Annie Cot, Manuel DeLanda, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, William Labov, Michael Piore, and Paul Virilio – among many others.
Michel Feher, a Belgian philosopher, is the author of Powerless by Design: The Age of the International Community and the editor of Nongovernmental Politics and Europe at a Crossroads, among other titles. Founder of Cette France-là, a monitoring group on French immigration policy, Feher is also a founding editor of Zone Books.