This class explores the relation between state sovereignty and the global urban imagination through the lens of the special economic “zone.” The zone has gained prominence in the latter half of the 20th century, becoming what we might call a form of “Ex-City”—an emerging global urban form characterized by an export-oriented, state-led, infrastructure oriented planning. It is an expression of a particular image of modernity in late 20th century and early 21st century capitalism. It holds within it the seamless promises of globalization at its most optimistic, and the fears of globalization at its most nefarious. More than a site of production, the zone has become an urban form in its own right, developing into forms of cities across the world. This course looks at the phenomenon of the Zone as a key location for exploring the social and cultural impact of globalization on urban space, and the role of exception in the changing nature of sovereignty. We will conceptually locate the trajectory of the export-oriented zone and its analogues and supplement the standard account by re-thinking the Zone as an incipient urban form that incorporates classically modernist fantasies in the context of contemporary logics of sovereignty and accumulation. 
















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