Essays chart the shift of the concept of universality from essence to modality, from the abstract and static to the performative and productive.In today's increasingly digitalized and neoliberal societies, debates on universals and specifics have gained new momentum. This volume discusses the entanglements of the universal in the fields of art, architecture, and urbanism from the nineteenth century to the present. Highlighting the interrelation of the specific and the universal in each historical situation, these essays venture an epistemic shift of the concept of universality- from essence to modality, from the abstract and static to the performative and productive. Contributors Ursula Biemann, Gaia Caramellino, Filippo De Pieri, Johan F. Hartle, Samia Henni, Christa Kamleithner, Anne Kockelkorn, Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans, Emily E. Scott, Laila Seewang, Manuel Shvartzberg Carri , Ariane Varela Braga, Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Alla Vronskaya, Andrew Stefan Weiner, Nina Zschocke