Owen Hatherley & Juliet Jacques: Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances

From the grandiose histories of grand state building projects to the minutiae of street signs and corner pubs, from the rebuilding of capital cities to the provision of the humble public toilet, Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances (Verso) argues for the city as a socialist project. Combining memoir, history, portraits of particular places and things, and taking in figures from Adam Curtis to Zaha Hadid, Owen Hatherley argues for those who have tried to create and imagine a better modernity, outlining a vision of the city as both as a place of political argument and dispute, and as a space of everyday experience – one that we shape as much as it shapes us.

Hatherley was in conversation with Juliet Jacques, whose debut short story collection Variations is published by Influx Press.