Cities as Industry

In this episode, we speak again with Conrad Hamann as we dissect another fundamental layer of urban development: the city as industry. If cities were once defined by ideological and religious order, industrial modernity reconfigured them into factories of progress and production—landscapes of extraction and acceleration. Industry was not merely an economic function; it was a defining urban idea, and a remapping of power. Smoke billowing from factories was once a sign of economic vitality and civic virtue, but with industry also came stratification, pollution, and the entanglement between economic advancement and environmental degradation. This episode traverses the industrial city's evolution—from railways as the connective tissue of empires, to the automobile fracturing urban coherence and ushering in sprawl,highways, and logistical spines that redefined mobility and access. Conrad discusses Australian industrial cities like Melbourne, Sydney, and Geelong, and explores how former industrial zones such as Docklands, Pyrmont, and Fisherman's Bend have adapted over time. Now, in an era of digital economies and dematerialised labour, the question becomes: are cities still industrial, or have they become pure software—factories of data, energy, and capital? Have we simply substituted one form of extraction for another, replacing coal with data and production lines with algorithmic efficiencies? If industry no longer requires proximity, what holds the city together?Check out the references from this episode.