The Appetite for Ruin Imagery
Posted on the 09 June 2015 by Cathy Leaves
@cathyleaves
The metaphor of nature reclaiming the city, whether used in negative or redemptive terms, neutralizes the actual processes that have had such a destructive impact on the city: virulent racism, anti-unionism, and industrial restructuring. This neutralization is compounded by the fact that most ruin imagery rarely contains evidence of an urban populace — many observers are surprised to learn that Detroit still has almost seven hundred thousand residents.
Jacobin: The Ruins of Capitalism, June 5, 2015