Abstract
Cities and Crisis: New Critical Urban Theory is an edited volume that brings together ten chapters by leading scholars and researchers arguing the need to revive the understanding of urban theory because of the implications of the 2008 global financial crisis. In examining and rethinking the contemporary urban theories in the context of the 2008 financial crisis, the book looks into two specific forms of evidence: crisis perspective and their interpretation of globalisation. Each chapter discusses the centrality of a need to consider the economic climate and its implications. This is initially reflected in the insightful editors’ ‘Introduction’ (Chapter 1) and offers interesting perspectives on extraordinary event of the 2008 crisis and calls for the reinvigoration of urban theory. The chapter explains how the crisis presents new challenges to urban theory, especially in relation to contemporary urban theories which the author asserts ‘have failed to grasp historical and theoretical perspective of capitalist financial crisis’ (p. 1). The chapter points out that while the global imbalances that externally instigated the crisis are still unattended, they also have challenging and disastrous implications for global climate change. The chapter presents a pithy introduction to the significant role of cities in the crisis and argues that ‘cities have embodied what the crisis and its aftermath meant in the spatially condensed form’ (p. 1).
Chapter 2 (‘Global cities, world power, and G20 capital cities’) and Chapter 3 (‘Was the US sub-prime crisis in the prime mover?’) demonstrate that the power of cities does not exist independently of their nation-state power in the given world order and highlights the importance of institutional factors within nation-states in impacting on the crisis of cities. Goran Therbon (in Chapter 2) argues that cities of power are greatly located in national capital cities and cities have to be approached to be more than a business location as global city and global network proponents emphasise. Pickvance (in Chapter 3) explores specific institutional factors that caused the crisis in Britain and argues that the banking systems in the global power nations – USA and UK – were flawed as they developed in a ‘fundamentally unstable way’ (p. 31). Pickvance concludes that the minimal degree of reform in the banking system and its regulation shows the continuing dominance of the financial sector – indicating that a future banking crisis is entirely possible.
In Chapter 4 (‘After Wall Street?’) Michael Indergaard discusses the role and efforts of various groups and organisations at different levels of a nation in planning the green economy. Indegaard’s discussion looks particularly at the elite clean and green collar movement within the green economy, which is developed as a new institutional framework that may work as a vision for green urban development. He concludes that such a framework not only goes beyond the current urban development model but also opens up the new developmental model in various ways. In Chapter 5, Stefan Gartner explores the advantages of regional banks embedded in Germany vis-à-vis borderless global banks in the USA and UK. Gartner questions whether local outlets of international banks that are concentrated in the world’s financial hubs could serve customers more efficiently than Germany’s region-based banks. The chapter concludes by explaining how strongly regulated and regionally oriented banking system also reduces the risk of financial crises.
Jeromy Krase and Timothy Shortell (in Chapter 6) visualise the impact of the crisis on neighbourhoods in New York city and discuss how the financial crisis has destroyed and transformed urban neighbourhoods through visual data. The chapter is particularly interesting to readers offering vivid visual images supporting the discussion, explaining how sociological analysis of visual data can be a tool to understand how neighbourhoods are changing as a result of the global financial crisis and that these transformations demonstrate the complex effects of economic decline.
Alex Hicks and Ryan Hicks in Chapter 7 focus on the port city, which they point out as an important domain of study so far neglected over global and network cities in the global urban hierarchy. Through their research findings, the authors argue that that the risks these cities face hardly invalidate the relevance of the corporate production-based global urban hierarchy. The chapter asserts the significance of the geographical location and the natural environment being as inseparable as global production and finance. In Chapter 8 (‘Athens and the politics of the sovereign debt crisis’) Nicos Slouitis argues how the destiny of the city is not shaped by local or even national elites but by intra-EU state relations. In Chapter 9 Sophie Body-Gendrot argues by drawing on examples of crisis-related urban movements that an increasing dissatisfaction with austerity policies, while rescuing the banks, has been a trigger to protests and movements expressed visibly in public spaces. These protests and movements as manifestations of urban unrest provide valuable cues for understanding and analysing the social forces, power relations, political-institution arrangements, marginalisation and exclusion and possible alternatives of empowerment.
In the final chapter ‘Financial crises and spatial income inequality: The case of Tokyo’, Kuniki Fujita discusses the relationship between the growth of urban income inequality and spatial polarisation. Kuniki investigates the case of Tokyo and discusses Japan’s two financial crises: the 1990 crisis and 2008 global financial crisis. Studying the spatial income inequality as it increases in Tokyo’s neighbourhoods, the author explains the strong correlation between Japan’s two financial crises and Tokyo’s spatial income inequality growth patterns.
The book throws light on the significance of social and economic adversities as they have the power to restructure cities and allow for a new kind of urban experience. There is consequently a need for a renewed understanding of contemporary urban theory to address the emerging challenges. One of the main strengths of the book is its ability to present strongly the dynamic interrelationship between history, theory and practice. While the book discusses several diverse and interesting perspectives of the deep and implicit relationship between finance and cities, a more thematic structuring of the chapter would have enabled the reader to grasp the issues better. Also more contributions focusing on the visual analysis and manifestations of some of the issues discussed (as in Chapter 6) would have expanded the reach of the book to more spatially and visually aligned disciplines within urban studies. Overall the book is definitely an important contribution to urban theory and opens up new trajectories for understanding and developing contemporary urban theory. The insights offered will be useful for students and researchers from diverse disciplines of urban studies, geography, urban planning and development, conflict studies and urban sociology.