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C‘ilies, Vol. 13. No. 1, p. I, 19% Elscv~~ Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain

Editorial

The urban question

In this issue, we are fortunate to have the text of an interview with noted urbanist Manuel Castells. In it, he talks with Alexander Cuthbert (who recently published on Hong Kong in this journal) about his body of work and his views of the future. The interview is particularly interesting on a number of levels; Caste113 thoughts on information technology are provocative, as are his views on the role of the former Soviet Union in the construction of the current world order. His comments on the way in which the line between capitalism and crime is continually being redrawn are also food for thought.

Castells has always been in the forefront of debate about how we think about cities. As Sandy Cuthbert reminds us, The Urban Question was a pathbreaking book in a field of sentimental decay: I remember vividly the manner in which one senior British urban sociologist of the period dismissed it as ‘humbug’. In time, Castells turned against his Althusserian analy- ses and was again attacked by the reigning elite, although by this time it was from a neo-Marxist perspective. None the less, his volume The City and the Grassroots remains as one of the earliest exam- ples of urban research that moved beyond the fac- tory gates and examined social movements that were directed against the state and local state (and did so in a cross-cultural and trans-historical manner).

In the past decade, much of Castells’s work has drawn connections between urban development and the changes that are continually shaping the global economy. Such correlations were once common- place - mercantilist centres had their own specializa- tions in African slaves or Asian spices - but our understanding diminished during a period of academic concentration on suburbanization and capital circulation (and to be consistent, this was a tendency fuelled by works like Castells’s own

Monopville). Now, he emphasizes that we need a synoptic view, and one that places cities amid the flows of information and capital that constitute the world economy.

In a brief discussion, Castells manages to lay out some important sketches and ones that connect neatly with the other papers featured in this issue. He makes some cutting remarks about planning for example, and indicates how crucial it is that planners develop innovative perspectives on their responsibi- lities. This is particularly true as regions become increasingly heterogeneous and as pockets of wealth exist alongside pockets of great penury. This has been defined as a process of ‘thirdworlding’ by writers such as Katz and Koptiuch, that brings literal slave labour camps to the margins of Hollywood, just as it has juxtaposed fawelas and condominiums in Mexico City and Rio. Increasingly, there are nativist political movements that try to smooth out these differences by removing the homeless, and returning the immigrants: as if the world of the 1950s could be recreated if only all those who have ridden the flows across outmoded national boundaries could somehow be returned, like genies to the bottle of the traditional nation state. But the response of the poor and the homeless is more likely to be some form of collective action - an urban social move- ment, in fact, of the type discussed in The City and the Grassroots.

Even in a brief paper, then, we get a glimpse of Manuel Castells’s past contributions to urban studies and his ability to craft fascinating perspectives on a shifting world. I am sure that many of us look forward to his new volume, scheduled for publica- tion this year, with great anticipation.

Andrew Kirby