The Airport and the City: Toward a Philosophy of the Aerotropolis

Abstract As a city centered on its airport’s vast influence, the aerotropolis’s existence has an inherent tension: It is a stable city for people to stay put and dwell, with the notion of leaving at the foreground of urban life. As a conception, the aerotropolis requires investigation to reveal its significance for humankind and its place in an ontology of cities. When the aerotropolis is situated in such a manner, we see how it differs significantly from other kinds of cities throughout history that depend on travel, such as river and port cities. After unpacking these points, a view emerges illustrating how the cumulative effects of urban and aviation technologies have made the instrumental elements of the nonhuman world less significant to city life. In turn, defining the aerotropolis as a unique sort of city that shapes human experience in particular ways becomes a vital task for understanding how technology-human relations can progress.