Capitalist City

The world of modern capitalism is a global network both of corporations and of cities - 'world command cities' such as New York, London and Tokyo; 'specialized command cities' which concentrate on particular industries, such as Detroit; 'state command cities' such as Washington and Brasilia; and so on. These cities, linked by an organizational web of transnational corporations, are the pins holding the capitalist world economy together in the new international division of labour.

In The Capitalist City a group of eminent scholars analyzes the intricate relationships among cities, state policies and urban politics at a time of economic restructuring at global, national and local levels to provide an original and timely contribution to one of the most important areas of political and social science.

Part I Introduction

1 Cities and the New International Division of Labor: An Overview 3

Part II Theoretical Perspectives: The Global Economy, the State and the City

2 World-System Theory and the Study of Comparative Urbanization 37

3 Cities and the International Division of Labor 66

4 Urban Theory Reconsidered: Production, Reproduction and Collective Action 87

Part III Economic Restructuring in Cities: A Global Perspective

5 The Politics of Dependency in Deindustrializing America: The Case of Buffalo, New York 113

6 Growth and Informalization at the Core: A Preliminary Report on New York City 138

7 Detroit and Houston: Two Cities in Global Perspective 155

8 Economic Restructuring and the Internationalization of the Los Angeles Region 178

9 Lima and the New International Division of Labor 199

Part IV State Responses to Global Restructuring

10 The State, Capital and Urban Change in Britain 215

11 Plant Closures in Socialist France 237

12 Urbanization, the Informal Economy and State Policy in Latin America 252

Part V Local Responses to Global Restructuring: Community, Household and Urban Politics

13 Community and Corporations in the Restructuring of Industry 275

14 Urban Survival Strategies, Family Structure and Informal Practices 297

15 Local Mobilization and Economic Discontent 323

16 Restructuring and Popular Opposition in West German Cities 343

17 Urban Protest and the Global Political Economy: The IMF Riots 364

List of Contributors 387

Index 389

Michael Peter Smith is author of The City and Social Theory (1980) and City, State and Market. Joe R. Feagin is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, and author of The Urban Real Estate Game (1983). The world of modern capitalism is a global network both of corporations and of cities - 'world command cities' such as New York, London and Tokyo; 'specialized command cities' which concentrate on particular industries, such as Detroit; 'state command cities' such as Washington and Brasilia; and so on. These cities, linked by an organizational web of transnational corporations, are the pins holding the capitalist world economy together in the new international division of labour.

In The Capitalist City a group of eminent scholars analyzes the intricate relationships among cities, state policies and urban politics at a time of economic restructuring at global, national and local levels to provide an original and timely contribution to one of the most important areas of political and social science.