Sounds like the author has become obsessed with the idea. I suspect the article could be condensed into a paragraph or two but as you say has been wrapped up in pseudo intellectual psychobabble.

It's often interesting to do a 'what if' and to look at the consequences. What if we built a strip bisecting London East to West which is enclosed by a huge wall? On the face of it, it's a dumb proposition to begin with but sometimes you can spark some good (workable) ideas by using this method. I don't think the author was trying to do that though!