Cities after oil—2

In line with a general foreboding emerging from the analysis of the future of our cities—and indeed concerning our civilisations as such—that has made its appearance in the pages of CITY , this paper investigates in detail how civilisations collapse. It looks at the systemic forces that produce the general self‐consciousness of civilisations that leads to their relinquishing responsibility for their own future. In the case of our civilisation we can see a number of ingredients that include an early adoption of individualistic thinking that tends to the belief that looking after one’s self is better for society than trying to look after society as such (to précis Adam Smith). The postmodern condition and the unalloyed pursuit of consumption in our age is, however, altogether more extravagant than any past civilisation and this paper goes into considerable detail on the way in which our passion for the automobile has come to possess our culture and is screening out any realistic sense of responsibility for what is now looking like a catastrophic collapse ahead. This paper is the centrepiece of a trilogy appearing in the pages of CITY . The first paper appeared in the last issue and pointed both to the failure of the debate on sustainable development (and sustainable cities) and our dependence of vast throughputs of energy that in a few short years will start to dry up. In the next issue, I will be presenting the most likely scenario of collapse that will be unfolding over the coming decades, finishing with a discussion of how we need to conceptualise this and do what we can to survive the consequences.