Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(Davies
1984
). More recently, the term 'world cities' has become popular, usually
describing large cities that are the command centres of the world economy, although
some other cities in the world should have that designation because their global role
is as a centre of some world religion. These and other examples of adjectival de-
scriptions were, however, primarily descriptive. The new set of adjectival descrip-
tions, that are being called 'city or urban themes' in this study, have a different ra-
tionale. They summarize some innovative strategy, or policies, that are designed to
solve some specific problems of contemporary urban places, boosting such features
as the future sustainability, vitality, appearance, fairness and life-styles of centres,
either through the adoption of a series of new activities, or through modification of
the old. Hence, the themes are not just
passive
descriptors or ones designed to draw
attention to some characteristics of cities, such as contested or unequal cities. They
have been designed with an
activist
agenda in mind, to improve the quality of our
current urban centres by changing certain features of urban places, such as making
them healthier, or safer or more sustainable. Even themes that are also descriptive,
of certain conditions, such as Winter Cities, summarize a series of policies designed
to make better accommodation to the harsh conditions of cold climates.
The number and variety of these new themes does make the current period seem
rather unique. However the idea of using some adjectival theme to promote a new
approach to urban development is not really new. Two examples from the end of
the nineteenth century will demonstrate that there were other times in the past when
frustration with the trends in urban development at the time led to new ideas to solve
these problems. The most well-known was the Garden City movement inspired by
the work of Ebenezer Howard (
1898
) in England which advocated a new sort of
settlement combining the best of town and country through a social co-operative
process of development. Another was the 'City Beautiful' movement (Hall
1988
)
which was initially developed in America to make the central areas of cities more
attractive. It was recognized that few American cities had the range of interesting
historic buildings found in European cities where centuries of urbanization had left
a heritage of structures that enhanced their image, provided local pride, and brought
many visitors in to admire their morphologies and quality of life. Advocates of the
City Beautiful set out to improve the look of their central areas, or at least part of
it, mainly through putting classical facades or other Greek and Roman traits on
buildings, and adding park spaces and avenues. However, little thought was given
to the consequences of redeveloping these spaces, which often meant that the for-
mer occupants, mainly the poor and disadvantaged, had no alternative but to move
elsewhere, often into more overcrowded conditions. This is the type of injustice
that keeps on being repeated in many urban renewal schemes today, projects that
are often based on profit maximization rather than on the needs of the people. Since
cities, as Harvey (
1973
,
1989
) has constantly reminded us, are the primary places
where a social surplus is generated and sequentially reinvested, these urban projects
routinely create new phases of wealth for the owners of capital, but also increase the
inequalities since so many do not share in the surplus. It is an issue that still needs
a solution in the eyes of many critics of current developments, which has led to
increasing calls for greater fairness and justice in cities.
