ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how both conceptual development and empirical exploration of the urban night can expand our understanding of global urban life more broadly. It outlines a vision of urban life which puts forward the city as a machine, through which environment, self and society co-produce one another. The chapter proposes that if theories of urbanization are to go global, then they require a conceptualization which connects together earth, social relations and the self. In a world of cities we explore different components that make up the urban versions of these three ecologies. The ecology of the self in urban life is characterized by the intensity of our interactions with people, objects, bodies and buildings within these relatively small spaces. This globalizing of urban encounters also means that there is a socialized element to the self–world relationship, as is emphasized by Felix Guattari through his inclusion of social relations as one of the three ecologies.
