This original collection examines how architectural ideas, social models and building forms circulate round the world and become mediated and adapted to local conditions. The book shows how types such as skyscrapers, mosques or living history museums are imported, adapted and contested in different societies and how urban landscapes are reshaped by the global circulation of models drawn from elsewhere.

Written by scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds –architecture, anthropology, geography, linguistics, science studies and sociology – the book draws its inspiration from a series of different approaches and offers both original theoretical reflection and carefully crafted case-studies.