Urbanism, Colonialism, and the World-Economy

Recent years have witnessed a surge in public awareness concerning the impact of world economic forces on cities. In this challenging book, the author argues that though the consciousness is new the phenomena themselves are not. For the past two centuries at least, world economic, political and cultural forces have been major factors shaping cities, patterns of urbanization and the physical and spatial forms of the built environment. The book explores and documents the cultural and spatial links between metropolitan core and colonial periphery and examines the historical foundations of the world urban system. It also examines the social production of building and urban form, and demonstrates their potential for understanding economic, political, socail and cultural change on a global scale.