• Vintage Pelican paperback cover of The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life by Richard Sennett, featuring a cream background, bold black and teal typography, and a geometric illustration of teal and grey cubes progressively fractured and displaced.
  • Title page spread of The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life by Richard Sennett, showing yellowed pages, centered serif typography, and the Penguin Books imprint at the bottom of the right-hand page.
  • Copyright, dedication, and contents page spread of The Uses of Disorder by Richard Sennett, showing yellowed pages, a dedication (“For Carol”) and publication details on the left, and a contents list outlining chapters on identity, anarchism, and city life on the right.
  • Spine of the Pelican paperback edition of The Uses of Disorder by Richard Sennett, showing a turquoise spine with black lettering, Pelican logo at the base, and light edge wear.
  • Back cover of the Pelican paperback edition of The Uses of Disorder by Richard Sennett, featuring a turquoise background, black summary text about urban life and anarchism, publication details at the bottom, and visible scuffing and edge wear.
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THE USES OF DISORDER: PERSONAL IDENTITY AND CITY LIFE by Richard Sennett [1973]

THE USES OF DISORDER: PERSONAL IDENTITY AND CITY LIFE by Richard Sennett [1973]

£10.00 GBP
£10.00 GBP
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Penguin Books, 1973 | Softcover, 159pp | 18 × 11 cm | First Pelican Edition

A sharp, prescient critique of modern urban life by sociologist and historian Richard Sennett. The Uses of Disorder argues against over-regulated cities and rigid social order, proposing instead that complexity, friction and “creative disorder” are essential conditions for personal growth and collective vitality.

Written at the height of post-war urban planning and social engineering, Sennett’s text dismantles the fantasy of the perfectly managed city, exposing how excessive order produces alienation, dependency and emotional immaturity. Drawing on sociology, psychology and political theory, he makes a radical case for cities as places of productive instability — where identity is shaped through exposure, difference and unresolved tension.

A key Pelican title of the early 1970s, this is a foundational work in urban theory, countercultural sociology and critical social thought, and remains strikingly relevant in the age of algorithmic governance and “smart” cities.

Cover design by Richard Moon.

Very good vintage condition: Mild rubbing and edge wear to covers. Page toning typical of Pelican paper stock. Internally clean, complete and firmly bound. No inscriptions.

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