Modern Urban Theory in Question

Author(s): Philip Cooke

Source: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , 1990, Vol. 15, No. 3
(1990), pp. 331-343
Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British
Geographers)

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/622675

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 331

Modern urban theory in question

PHILIP COOKE

Reader, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Wales Cardiff, Cardiff CF1 3

Revised MS received 3 May, 1990

ABSTRACT
The modem city gave rise to modern urban theory. Essentialist metaphors drawn from biology or eco
been used to explain modern urban processes. Recently a literature has emerged which suggests a bre
between modern and post-modern ways of theorizing the city and other spheres of social life. A nu
critiques of this view are considered. Following a discussion of similarities and differences between the mo
theory, and the post-modem city and its theory, it is suggested that there are many continuities as we
between them.

KEY WORDS: Post-modernism, Urban theory, City, Difference

INTRODUCTION found being deployed as the lens through which

This paper will explore the argument that urban commentator observes the object of inter
explanations
of the nature of the city advanced from thecommentators
Some 1930s have, of course, taken a negat
to the 1970s have been brought into questionview of the by advent of the post-modem perspect
changes in the nature of cities themselves. (e.g., Habermas,
This is a 1987; Harvey, 1989) seeing it
materialist argument, unaffected by idealist assump-
allowing barbarism in through the front door. Oth
tions about the immutability and universality of
are less hostile (Dear, 1986; Soja, 1989; Grego
theory or the belief that the 'essences' 1989),
of material
welcoming the innovation and freshness of
existence remain unchanged by history. The proposal
viewpoint. In this paper I will explore some of t
that the cultural, political and economic organization
debate before advocating a pragmatic, middle-
of European society is changing significantly
position. (see,
I will argue that modem urban theo
for example, Jacques and Hall, 1989) is is taken most exhausted-something which righ
becoming
ish commentators
seriously in this analysis. Whether the changes are as have suspected for some t
(Saunders
significant for North American and South-East and Williams, 1986)---and that a new, m
Asian
societies is questionable. To some extent, it can be theorization of the contemporary cit
appropriate
argued Europe is experiencing the twin forces to
waiting ofbe born. However, I do not necessa
Americanization and Japanization at the celebrate
same time. its demise, nor do I think that pos
But, as Europe becomes an increasingly potent has entirely swept it away as its archit
modernism
economic, cultural and, perhaps, political entity in its to be sweeping out the monuments
ture appears
sixties
own right, its own specificities are changing affluence. Rather, I argue that what is ca
as much
through endogenous as exogenous pressures. 'post-modernism' is in fact a critique of 'modernism
Recent commentators upon the changes all
in Western
its guises ranging from philosophy to architect
urban culture (Soja, 1989; Harvey, 1989; Cooke,
(see, for extended comment, Cooke, 1989b; 19
1989a; 1990) have placed some emphasis on
and the chal- practices to films and novels. I ar
business
lenge posed to modern concepts of urbanity
that by
thethe
critique is long overdue but that bec
advent of a post-modern perspective. This perspec-
post-modern theory has no strong claim to be p
tive visibly influences the urban process,grammatic-to
the forms propose policies by which soci
taken by urban investment, the social relations
might found
systematically be developed and advanc
in cities, the urban economy, and the very itappearance
does not in fact depart fundamentally from
as well as the reality of cities. The perspective is alsoprogrammatic, almost manifesto-rid
much more

Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. N.S. 15: 331-343 (1990) ISSN: 0020-2754 Printed in Great Britain

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 332 PHILIP COOKE

modernism itthe presumes to

time. Despite the fact that hindsight suc
is supp
post-modernismto be perfect are
and should thus
not be used toint eval
irrevocably opposed.
theory, it is difficult to resist when its progen
In developing the
often believe argument
it to be universalistic with regard
asking three to time and space. Oddly enough,
questions and for histor
see
in three sections
materialists,before progr
who ought to recognize the disposa
The first question
lity, as times is: What
change, of is
the theories used m
to inter
answering that, I works
reality, the shall review
of Marx are constantly quarr
theories (for fuller
for illumination discussi
of the present in terms of his
which, from analysis. The field is repleteperspec
different with irony, but one
with the question:
conceive of what the What is like
modern city looked th f
The second question is: urban
the perspectives of the modern Whattheorists.
theory? Note For the urban
the ecologists, the modern
linking of city'pw
theory'. This is
Darwinian the way
social organism, an arena ofincompetitw
course treats invasion and succession, organic evolution and
post-modernism
Denzin (1986), Kellner
vival. There is a further irony here(1988
in that Darwi
(1988) or biology was itself
Huyssen in large measure aThe
(1987). metapho
the question:early
What
capitalist societyiswherepost-m
competition produc
This might be the
heartlessly high leveltheory, i
of births, deaths and ama
placed modern urban
mations theory
of firms. From this i
perspective, the mod
to that provocation
city is conceived as awill
centred, evolving
beentity ex w
definitive. high density commercial activity in its core, dom
ing the most accessible, valuable and desirable
estate. On the fringes of the centre, occupying
WHAT IS MODERN URBAN THEORY?
desirable, cheaper but still accessible areas, are
Modern urban theory is totalizing. small
This is not
business districts, rooming house distri
necessarily-as it has mostly been taken (see Harvey, and such like. And squeezing this
market-areas
1987; 1989)-a criticism. What is problematic about
up against the commercial heart are the big indu
totalization is, as Fredric Jameson (1989)zones,
has so linked
ably to long-distance transport, close
shown, a tendency to reductionism and unidimension-
markets for labour and selling produce. Interspe
with these industrial areas are various kinds of wo
ality. What has to be theorized is, not a universalistic
system, but a system of differences. This ing class and what we might now call 'underc
is difficult,
and modern urban theory failed to copehousing,
adequately
privately rented in the main. Different
located
with complexity. Thus, for the Chicago School, here too is the 'bright lights' or 'upto
(most
correlate
notably in Robert Park's work) cities were to the commercial 'downtown', may
ecological
systems (see Smith, 1988), for urban rent red light area and various ethnic ghettos. Bey
theorists
these differentiated areas are the more homogen
they were perfect markets tending to equilibrium,
for urban managerialists they were, first,middle-class
systems and commuter-dominated suburbia,
tanced from
of exclusion with governmental gatekeepers, and the hurly-burly of the inner city
secondly, systems of exclusion with marketized
connected to workplaces in the downtown are
public
gatekeepers, and for structuralist Marxists they or
wereprivate transportation links. The mod
city is goods
systems for allocating collective consumption thus centred, hierarchical, purposive (mo
and services. In each case, and without much
making carica-
through commerce and industry), selec
turing these perspectives can be seen to and (for
have the middle-classes), distanced. These te
been
weak in dealing with difference (thoughare thedeployed
stature by Hassan (1985; see also Cooke, 1
of the work of the Chicago School is shownand Harvey,
by its 1989 who also deploy them) as de
relative sophistication in this respect). nators of modernism in its multifarious forms
they theory
Let us take a few examples of modern urban work quite well in the urban context too.
to see both how they perceived the cityChicago
and theSchool ethnography was an importa
but limited
extent to which their prognoses make sense in the tool for discovering the diversity of
city'sunfair
present context. This is, of course, a totally widely differentiated populations. But
thing to do, although practically everyonesequent
does iturban
all ecologists replaced explanation w

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 Modern urban theory in question 333
mere description. The neo-classical urban land rent
contemporary urban real estate, especi
theorists such as Alonso (1964) took have a waterfront
this description location.
as broadly accurate but sought toLast, explain
whatit
ofbysuburbia? It has, in genera
reducing it to the behavioural outcomes of market-
but become more differentiated as (in Britai
driven rational economic men (sic). Men trade off
public-owned estates become private,
space for accessibility, enduringworking-class
long journeys residents
to have moved t
work in exchange for long back gardens. Commerce
cheaper inner suburbia, the (old) middle-cl
solidated its
has a high utility for centrality, suburbanites for grip
per- on outer suburbia an
beyond
ipherality; industry has a high utility it to small, rural towns. But subur
for accessibility,
become
small businesses and poorer people for a location
survival in the for newer, cleaner ind
depths of the inner-city. out-of-town shopping centres and leisur
The limitations of these perspectives are plain
Moreover, muchto of the high technolog
see but rather than seeking an intrinsic
which critique,
clusters inthe
satellites around some of
cities
point is to try and conceptualize the is essentially suburban in character
contemporary
city (bearing in mind the pitfalls extent,
of generalization)
there has been something of a tur
by negation, looking for ways in which
out, a present-day
partial reversal, unevenly develo
cities converge or diverge with the classic
modernist percep-motifs. Industry is inc
modernist
tion. First, most cities retain and be
have enhanced
found the
in the suburbs rather than inside t
central commercial core. There was new
a period when
middle the
classes reoccupy parts of for
suburbanization of offices threatened that
trial charac-
space its grandparents may have be
teristic, and there is at least one city-Phoenix,
with. But this is not a complete overturn
Arizona-which simply does not ahave it, but
process that
of development within the s
other American suburb in search of a city,
modern city. Los
Angeles, has in the 1980s developed a very
But modernist
there is another, less individualistic
downtown, high-rise commercial core, much to
the modern the
city, and here we may, throu
astonishment of its detractors, as seeSoja (1989)
rather has changes. This is the the
greater
shown. Cities elsewhere in the world mainly
the conform
Fordist city. Although this theorizat
to the modernist pattern in this origins
respect.inSecondly
Europe, especially in the work
(1977), itself
large-scale industry has largely absented its correlate
from exists also in North
the inner areas of the city duringthethework
intervening
of Walker (1978; 1981) and, mo
years. The restructuring of theFlorida
1970s and
and Feldman
early (1988). There are im
1980s left often large industrial areas of city
tinctions in derel-
these theorizations, governe
ict and unused. Small business, by
thecontrast,
different con-
modes of regulation obtainin
tinues to find a home, even enlarging its presence
continents. In the European case, the stat
in some inner cities as Scott (1988) and responsible
directly Mulgan for the construction
(1989) suggest. sector housing. This was especially true
However, some of this inner-city small-firm
and France, the Netherlands and Denmark,
growth is more likely to be media and arts-related,
so in as
Belgium, West Germany or Spain w
well as being tied to the expandinghousing
financial services
was provided by non-state agencie
industries, than the 'industrial districts'
In the ofAmerican
old. More-case, relatively little pu
over, this is precisely the terrain on whichwas
housing struggles
built, though the Communi
between the remnants of old industrial quarters
Programme and
produced such developments
newer, gentrifying residential andnorth-eastern
consumption inner
uses city areas, most obvio
are now occurring, as Zukin (1988) has so
York. ably illus-
Rather, state policy at federal level,
trated. This, then, constitutes the third dimension
Keynesian of
pathway, resulted in the easing
difference from the position obtaining in provision,
credit the modernrelaxation at local level
city: the recolonization by the middle-class
zoning, and of thenational roadbuilding p
major
inner city, perhaps more accurately the fuelled
which 'new middle
the demand for and supply
class', those with 'cultural capital' tohousing
invest (Bourdieu,
on a massive scale for a rapidly
1984; Featherstone, 1987). Old industrial
private buildings,
sector housing market. Suburba
warehouses, decaying Victorian tenements
private housingare
was also a feature of urb
amongst the most rapidly valorising
ment elements ofcities but it was relativel
in European

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334 PHILIP COOKE

most countries except Brita

Bijlmermeer an
southern numerous
European British
countries.
Of course, the modern
Industry city
was plas
eyes was not only
Castells
a setting
saw Ford
fo
consumption developed
of housing, itsit reg
was
for developmentslonger organize
within indu
industry. However,
circuits'the
were defi
to
research into the
the modern
'grands city
ense
perspective wasHowever,
in the indus
provisi
more general associated
production of
prima th
including collective
associated workf
commerci
ties that seemedlarge
to capital
be no
providi
urban cities. To
development. Thus
that the
ex
be argued that French
this perspec
perspectiv
shared the orthodox
dynamicsview of o
coll
ements: new
suburban 'ensembles
growth; a
ness district; as groups
inner city sough
instab
replaced the residential
rooming-house area
an
tricts. The keylink interests
theoretical w
dif
cification of causality.
oppressiveFor the
work
in the urban expressio
competitive social m
sumer preferences.
activity For the
remained p
lay in the A
pursuitmilder
of version
conflict
powerful Britain
controllers ofwhere ur
finance
increases andtothe
be urban
being pl
con
further their capacity
ticians or for
public
against the powerless
of housing inner
and l
small business interests.
the theory was r
Where the actors
American such
andasEue
differed pivotal
significantly power
was in
o
state's generaldiscriminating
role in urban a
structuralists low-value
such as areas,
Castells,
(see Pickvance,move1976)
up perce
the ho
becoming hegemonic
credit in this
provision.
not merely modernity
instrumental in
forthe
fi
own agenda.city.
This Weber
was to had
ass
better educated workforces
highest form in
of
collective consumption-mod
organization, and
ings, linked toto be seen
public as W
hospital,
leisure power
facilities, oftenover
on the
the url
renewal schemes The
in rise ofThis
cities. neol
democratic has dealt
project. a
Such sever
hous
seen as city
socialist as a
housing,system
forer
European tion
concept issues.
of mass,Su
w
chimed with increasingly
the modernist maid
tralized social Britain) into
engineering, ins
of
through sumptionist
architecture, andpeit
architects like Le
the Corbusier
rightist w
the
ing in his Unites
reducesd'Habitat
people's
Nantes, for either
example.side of
Elsewheth
British (Saunders,
architects copied 1984
and m
style as in thesector are
Copenhagen thou
Fin

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 Modern urban theory in question 335
all) for the Labour Party, everyone else who
in Lyotard's (1984)can
initial thoughts on the subject
choose private housing, education and health
Certainly, the early is
debate on Post-modernism found
to be expected to vote Conservative. That
Habermas owner-
(1985) treating it not only as anti-theory
occupation in Britain is now abovebut a 63 per
threat cent
to the very foundations of the Enlighten
suggests-if the theory has any ment,
credibility-that
Reason and Western metaphysics. The anti
never again can the Conservatives be beaten
theoretic in
slant, though, derives from the perception
Britain. However, the existence ofof
areas,
a realsuch
problemas the
regarding the foundations of
older industrial regions, where there is both
knowledge. high is that as we all know, but
The problem
owner-occupation and high historicconveniently overlook-theory seeks to equate sub
levels of Labour-
ject and object
voting is only too conveniently forgotten in thisin aper-
way that is universally true, bu
spective. The neo-Weberian theory it of
cannot. For that to be the case, the theory would
consumption
sectors as status groups whose political
have to preferences
replicate the world. So theory is, practically
are determined by housing tenurespeaking,
seems aas improb-
form of narrative. Stories about the world
able as the Weberian theory that bureaucracy
are produced by is the
individuals and good ones are con-
highest, most efficient form of resource allocation
curred with in numbers of people, but they
by large
capitalist society. remain narrative artefacts, ways of seeing, logica
Hence, the modern city does not, apart
schematic from
grids placed over our perception of the
important differences in the assignation
world into of causality
which some parts fit better than others, as
to the processes by which it receives its characteristic
a result of which some degree of illumination may
form, differ significantly in the main perspectives that
ensue.

have been discussed. It is a structure The modern urban

dominated by theories discussed ear
an increasingly large commercial centre, typified
good examples by
of this attempt at grand ex
high-rise, high-density office blocks, retailing
narrative. Formalls
the urban ecologists, the gr
tive isclass
and public buildings. It retains a working biology.
inner-We reject that story be
know-despite
city from which much large-scale industry what sociobiology now tri
and many
smaller businesses have fled, leavingus-that
ethnicsocial practices cannot be reduc
ghettos,
large-scale, public sector, high density housing
level of andanimal behaviour. For the
plant and
crumbling, former lower middle-class residential
neoclassicists the narrative is one of socia
areas. There are suburbs which, beingno longer purely into narrow economic c
essentialized
residential, have been joined by Butdecentralizing
that story excludes such alternative, un
industry and new out-of-town commercial and retail-
rationalities as those which lead people to
ing facilities. Residential suburbs tural
are segregated by
or communitarian values higher in th
income groups. The whole is managed by
priorities. public
The story of the modern city as a s
officials who have often appeared theto share the
allocation of collective consumption
objective interests of private finance industry.
equally Indus-
partial in its neglect of the impo
trialists, meanwhile, play little direct part relations
market in influenc-
in structuring the city. And
ing the affairs or the developmental trajectory
narrative of the
of the city as a condensation of cla
city. The key question is: to what extent
over does that
the control of the built environment n
picture hold for today? Has the modern
non-classcity been
bases of social identity. Caste
significantly transformed by tendencies which
showed these to are
be of great significance in t
referred to as 'post-modern'? To answer thatvalue
of urban question
through reviving derelict ar
it is first necessary to consider what the theory
ists' quarters of
or distinctive cultural living an
post-modern society looks like, and spaces.
then ask whether
Weberian theories of managerialist
it has relevance for urban theory. seeking behaviour are equally partial.
Post-modern theory draws attention
WHAT IS POST-MODERN SOCIAL problems of representation, subject-object
THEORY? and the necessarily selective, therefore
nature of 'knowledge'. The implication of t
It is questionable whether post-modernism is theory
all theories, to the extent that they pr
since so much of the writing that goes under grounds
the name for cultural, social or political act
is opposed to generalization, against grand narrative
some extent repressive because they privile
and rejects attempts at metatheory, most obviously
kinds of explanation at the expense of o

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 336 PHILIP COOKE

problem is, in 'the ending of sense,

one what is called the Modern
aAge.proble
Just as
it is, Antiquity wasa
particularly, followed by several centuries of Oriental
problem of e
ascendency, which Westerners provincially call the Dark
(see, for example also Graham, 19
Ages, so now the Modern Age is being succeeded by a
of totalization that post-moder
post-modern period' (Mills, 1959, p. 184).
positive side this points to a ne
toattempt to totalize by theorizin
ences rather In this newof
than epoch he universals.
thought that the Enlighten- O
this may be ment hopes of freedom through
humanly reason would have
impossible
So, to been subverted
proceed, it by the
is Weberian 'iron cage' of
necessar
various modernity
positions and that
that we were headed
have for a society bee
face of these of 'cheerful robots', mindlessly consuming
problems. It and
is cle
modernists unconcerned about
think progressive politicalbut
alike, action. it i
guide to the differentBaudrillard extends these shades
fears into a deeply of
post-modern pessimistic view of the world in whichand
thinking, modern struc- in t
some common elements that form the main lin- tures such as class, the division of labour and political
eaments of this critical perspective. I will do this by economy have been dissolved into a world of images,
presenting four views which I shall label respectively a blurring of cultural, geographical and philosophical
those of: the Apocalyptics; the Sceptics; the Critics; distinctiveness, and the interpenetration of the dif-
and the Pragmatics. ferent spheres of society. This is represented in ideas
such as the aestheticization of politics or the com-
The Apocalyptics modification of culture, each of which designate a
The apocalytic version of post-modernism is associ- breakdown of social structures. The only guidance in
ated with the work of Baudrillard (1988). The origins place of the old structures is supplied by simulated
of Baudrillard's theories lie in his disaffection with realities presented to the impressionable masses by
historical materialism, his enthusiastic embrace of advertising, video-culture, television and so on.
certain ideas of Marshall McLuhan regarding the Because reality cannot be grasped, these simulations
domination over social life exerted by the mass- become reality, or hyper-reality and people act out
media, and his belief that media hegemony has their lives on the model provided by soap operas,
dissolved the structures of society into a dense, pop-videos and shopping malls.
undifferentiated mass and with it brought 'the end of While Baudrillard points to some disturbing
history'. This latter phrase, which has given rise to a characteristics of contemporary society (and Kroker
raging debate as a result of a recent article in the USA and Cook, 1986 inflate Baudrillard's pessimism to the
(Fukuyama, 1989) on post-modernism in the context heights of excess) it is clear that he is as trapped in
of the collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe, a unidimensional, totalizing perspective as those
reveals certain similarities with the neoconservative whom the post-modernists criticize. Of particular
views of Daniel Bell (1989) who invented the similar concern is his patronising view of 'the masses' being
concept of 'the end of ideology' in the 1950s. In his totally taken in by sign-systems. In effect Baudrillard
many writings since then on post-industrial society mistakes certain effects of contemporary culture for
and cultural contradictions in capitalism (Bell, 1973; its complete condition. He has in this sense been
1976) he sees post-modem culture as destroying the taken in by his own propaganda (see also Collins,
Weberian bourgeois world of bureaucracy, techno- 1989; Kellner, 1989b).
cracy, the capitalist economy, democratic politics and
religious values by its hedonism, narcissism, and The Sceptics
reliance on instinct, impulse and will. This radically The clearest example of a theorist who has explored
individualized culture he sees as the working out into and articulated the key elements of post-modernism,
a dominant, though distorted, form of the rebellious yet who is far from promoting them as other than
sub-cultures which thrived in the bohemian world an ambiguous cultural expression of late capitalist
of artistic modernism, developed into the 'sixties' market economics, is Fredric Jameson. Jameson
counter-culture, and are now running capitalist (1984a; 1984b; 1985; 1989) is not apocalyptic in his
society. Even before Bell began this somewhat eccen- view of post-modern tendencies, though some of his
tric, culturally reductionist analysis, C. Wright Mills commentary on the hedonism, glorification of con-
(1959) had written sombrely of: sumption, and apparent detachment from historically

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 Modern urban theory in question 337
progressive, emancipatory socialin forces
post-modern culture. The recycling of modern
occupies
styles creates the
similar ground to that more pessimistic sense-almost schizophrenic-of a
strain.
Seeking to unravel postmodernismpermanent
from the present. Together, these two problems
inside,
he recognizes that there are numerous opposing
imply compliance not rebellion. It has been argued
positions taken by those who(see Cooke,
have 1990; Hutcheon, 1988) that Jameson's
addressed
postmodern issues. These are: usage of the word parody is too restrictive, as is his
reading of post-modernist treatments of history. The
latter is clearly present in what is often presented as
(i) reactionary antimodernists (e.g., Quinlan Terry*)
post-modernist culture, most notably architecture,
(ii) progressive antimodernists (e.g., Charles Jencks)
but also novels such as those of Rushdie, Marquez
(iii) reactionary pro-post-modernists (e.g., Tom Wolfe)
(iv) progressive pro-post-modernistsand Fowles.
(e.g., And the ironic treatment of history
Jean-
Francois Lyotard) which such art often proclaims still qualifies as parody
(v) reactionary pro-modernists (e.g.,rather than pastiche
Daniel Bell*) because it uses history creatively
to Jurgen
(vi) progressive pro-modernists (e.g., criticize, amongst other things, modernism's loss
Habermas) of contact with popular consciousness. Other writers
(vii) reactionary anti-post-modernists (e.g., Hilton who share Jameson's scepticism include those who
Kramer)
contribute to the journals Telos, such as Russell
(viii) progressive anti-post-modernists (e.g., Manfredo
Berman (1984; 1986) and Christine Bilrger (1986),
Tafuri)
(see, Jameson, 1984b).
and New German Critique, such as Andreas Huyssen
(1984).
*These names inserted by the present author.

In other words Jameson clearly recognizes post- The Critics

modernism as a contested terrain in which it by no The most vociferous critic of post-modern theory has
means follows that someone who celebrates the been Jilrgen Habermas. His focus is primarily directed
post-modern critique of modernism's centredness, at the effects upon rational thinking of the post-
unidimensionality, distance, selectiveness and auster-
modern critique of Enlightenment thought on the
commensurability of subject and object. He considers
ity (especially in the arts and architecture) is thereby
a neo-conservative. There is a growing literature the contributions of writers such as Foucault and,
seeking to explore and develop the progressive
particularly, Derrida and Lyotard (see Hohendahl,
strains in post-modernism beginning with Foster's
1986) to be subversive, anarchistic and to signal the
(1985) collection to which Jameson contributed and
return to a barbaric form of discourse and even poli-
interventions such as that of Arac (1986), Schulte-
tics in which the Nietzschean 'will to power' becomes
the only adjudicator of truth, something which
Sasse (1987), Ryan (1988) and most recently Jacques
and Hall (1989). Moreover, Jameson himself inHabermas
an equates with Nazi ideology.
interview (Jameson, 1982) has argued, from a MarxistLyotard has been equally critical of Habermas, for
position, against the pursuit of the single great
reasons already mentioned: his adherence to a univer-
idea (presumably of a classless communist society)
salistic social theory with consensus being forced by
through the unified Party programme, and in favour the citation of the rules of reason and logic, when such
systems, as mental constructs, may not-indeed from
of a politics which is personally and socially sensitive
to difference and diversity. Lyotard's viewpoint, cannot-represent the world.
Nevertheless, Jameson remains a sceptical Marxist,Habermas is thus seen as conservative and out-dated
waiting to be convinced that post-modernism actually
in his adherence to eighteenth century metaphysics.
has progressive intent. This is for two reasons out-
But Habermas persists in his mission to continue the
lined in his chapter in Foster's book (Jameson, 1985).
unfinished project of modernity. His view, which he
First he perceives post-modern culture to be based actually
on shares to some extent with some post-
pastiche. This means it lacks authenticity, its only modern theorists, is that modernity has gone astray.
originality lies in nostalgically re-mixing modernist That is, he accepts the distinction first made by Kant
innovations. He compares this unfavourably with and reiterated by Weber that the modes of rationality
modernist parody that contained authenticity in in history are threefold-aesthetics, science and
the
respect it paid to the mores it creatively satirized. morality-and
His that scientific reasoning in the form
other concern is the loss of a sense of time, of history
of systems rationality, necessary for dealing with

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 338 PHILIP COOKE

complexity, now
The Pragmatics colonizes th
identity,what Habermas
This leads us conveniently on to the last position torefer
composed of be culture,
discussed here, that of the pragmatists. commu
Faced with
The systemsthe critiques
are no
by Foucault, longer
Derrida and Lyotard of a
person, Western rationalism
rather the Rortyperson's
(1980, 1989) and others id
defined in (see the collection
terms ofby Rajchman
the& West, 1985)functi
have
rationality. proposed a way out of the impasse. The solution
Habermas' thesis is that the protection of the life- is rather close to but less idealistically rooted in
world is of the greatest significance otherwise we the belief in the magic properties of language of
become the apotheosis of Mills' 'cheerful robots'. It is Habermas. Taking account of Lyotard's argument
only by retaining the foundations of Western reason that modernist discourse, politics and practice is
that the lifeworld can be reclaimed from the systems. oppressive in its universalism and, in particular,
The means to achieving that lies in language which is exclusion of dissident, particular, local or minority
the very method used by people to express to each voices, Rorty accepts the critique of philosophy
other their meanings and interpretations both of their thereby implied. Moreover, following Foucault's
relationship to the material world, and their relation- (1980) critique of the privileging of the centred
ships to individuals and collectivities. Habermas subject through whom much of western culture
argues that the post-modern rejection of the possi- was conveyed, whether as master-narrator, master-
bilities of universally comprehensible discourse author, or master-musician, Rorty conceded the view
between persons is mere rhetoric, that to believe that that in this lay the origin of designations of normal
is in direct contradiction with their practices in and non-normal persons, ideas and practices. It was a
expressing such incredulity. Habermas, having, in his device for defining not only what was to count as
social theory, shown that he is alert to some of the knowledge, but who was to count as an integrated
problems indicated even by apocalyptics such as member of society. That knowledge signified power
Baudrillard, refuses totally to accept the argument could easily be shown by reference to the ways
that language is just a chain of words which refer to society had disciplined those defined as abnormal,
each other without having any direct, certain capacity often condemning them to prisons, mental asylums
to represent the world 'out there'. Habermas accepts or, more latterly, psychiatric hospitals. Rorty aligns
that reason may not be absolute, but that through himself with the idea that the centred subject as a
communication and discussion, following the rational figure of authority needs to be de-centred into the
rules, which Lyotard says are arbitrary, democratic multiple, local voices of those in the margins as well
consensus regarding 'the truth' can be reached. as those traditionally thought of as in the main-
Hohendahl (1986) argues that the distance stream.

between Habermas and his critics is lessening because
he agrees that there has been a weakening of the
modern paradigm, and that Western metaphysics are
becoming exhausted, not least because of internal and
external critiques of the technological disasters to
which they have given rise with almost as much
moral indifference as the technological benefits they
have bestowed. But Habermas argues that language
is capable of giving us the means to form a new and
better theory of reason. This, says Hohendahl, is
Habermas' weakness. He conflates a dual function of
language into a single one. He says it is both des-
criptive and normative, believing that values lie
embedded in language, waiting for us to discover
them. This is oddly like the post-structuralist disbelief
in the capacity of mind to transcend the subject-
object dichotomy as a result of which, they conclude,
only texts matter in the determination of what counts
as knowledge.
Lyotard claims his concern is less with under-
mining Western metaphysics as Habermas sees it and
more with including different voices in the debate. In
this way, even if consensus on issues cannot be
reached, minority or local concerns will not, in theory
at least, be marginalized into insignificance. This frag-
mentation of discourses, vocabularies and viewpoints
is thus a democratization of knowledge, a prepared-
ness to admit the voice of others, and in everyday
life a recognition of the need to open up possibilities
for local interests to experience a far higher degree
of autonomy and self-expression than hitherto. Out
of this, believes Rorty optimistically, will come a
new maturity in dealing with the contingency that
defines existence and, as a consequence, new social
solidarities.
So pragmatism, or the revival of pragmatism by
neo-pragmatist philosophers and others, maps out a
theory of action rooted in a post-modern theory of

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 Modern urban theory in question 339
society as less centred (though perhaps
What mightnot wholly
this imply for a post-modern theory of
de-centred) than modern society, the
less
city?hierarchical,
more differentiated, less clearly purposive (end of the
Cold War: Green issues versus growth etc.),
For the moment, less
the city remains structured by
exclusive (more accessible definitions
the historicalof culture)
forces that have created it, the most
and thus less distanced. Though much recent ofof which
this hasseems
been twentieth century
familiar from some developments, modern many at
planning and the
urban development. But, not
leading-edge of contemporary society, surprisingly,
it is the new elements
clear that deriving from the
the resolution of these tendencies into a coherent critique of modernism are first visible in its archi-
form of society is a long way off, and in any case tecture. Whereas modernist design theory stressed
will, in many aspects, be severely contested. Rorty'scentrality, focused on high rise corporate monu-
ments, residential tower blocks and suburbia, the
solidaristic discursive community still, in practice, has
to come to terms with power, exercised, in Foucault'scritique rejects abstract formalism and celebrates
conception, through the unequal distribution ofwhat might be called 'pop vernacular'. In the USA,
knowledge. The information society may be upon us, where it has developed furthest, it is called 'road-
side eclecticism' (Venturi et al., 1977). This derives
but as Lyotard (1984) has already noted, post-modern
society is characterized by the transformation of
from the environment created by commercial ad-
language itself into a commodity, via the value-added
vertising in which the signs were to be large, and
digital networks that service the corporate and state
the buildings small. Its clearest form is to be found
megastructures that will surely dominate as they
in the ubiquitous out-of-town shopping malls and
have come to dominate modem society. The recentsprawling strip developments. Architecture of this
work of Castells too is firmly rooted in a recognitionkind has been colonized by a commercial 'shop till
you drop' ethos.
of the power of the controllers of the space of flows in
the informational city by contrast with his earlier A different theme has been a turning away from
modernist' texts (Castells, 1989). austere, International-Style sameness in building
styles, towards a new vocabulary of the exotic and
the foreign. Ornamentation, neo-classicism, pagodas,
WHAT IS POST-MODERN URBAN Egyptian and Art Deco revivalism are amongst the
elements which influence the facades of new build-
THEORY?
ings. These are reminiscent of Baudrillard's stress on

If post-modern social theory conceives of a simulation

future andin the pulling of styles away from their
which society is: origins, often to mix them together to create an
enlarged sense of reality, a new kind of International
Style, reminiscent in some ways of World Music. The
(i) prone to sensory domination by electronic media
quest for the new, the strange, the more exotic and
imagery.
yet mixed together styles has produced a kind of
(ii) prey to colonization of its lifeworld by markets
World Architecture.
(economic, political, social).
(iii) inclined to glorify consumption as the expression The third design element is not merely the 'glibly
of self. decorative' as Frampton (1985) calls it but rather what
(iv) culturally plural in the horizontal rather than might be called vernacular revival. This consists of
vertical (mass: elite) sense. refurbishing old buildings, especially warehouses and
(v) socially polarized by expanded income differen- usable Victorian industrial buildings then integrating
tials.
new buildings in complementary styles into a
(vi) locally distinctive in its conceptions and interpret- planned whole. The most obvious expression of this
ation of reality.
form of retrogression is found in the ubiquitous
(vii) democratic in social, cultural and economic as well
waterfront developments in those American and
as political spheres.
(viii) pragmatic in its social interaction rather than European cities possessing the appreciating asset of a
utopian. derelict docklands area (on aspects of this, see Ley and
(ix) more self-supportive economically through net- Olds, 1988). But it is also found with increasing regu-
works. larity in city centre offices and 'office villages'. The
(x) less dominated by master-narratives of militarism modernist tower block is being challenged outside
and war.
the most expensive core of the city by smaller scale,

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 340 PHILIP COOKE

more How have these tendencies

user-friendly suburban been received in the off
which recent literature
reproduce local on post-modern urban theory?
vernacula
Beyond the Though the fit is by no means
physical perfect, at least three
reconstruc
large former of the positions outlined in the previous
industrial areas section areof
ment of urbanrepresented.
affairs There is no obvious
has representative
shifte of
too. Whereas thethe modern
Apocalyptic category, city
except perhaps Baudrillard
managers himself who has written access
controlling about, though scarcely to p
providing theorized, US cities (Baudrillard,education
state-funded 1988). The Sceptic is
to lend at most nearly
least the representedappearance
in the work of Soja (1989)
sumption who takes
ethic to an ironic
thelook, especially in Los Angeles, at
activities
the the emergent forms
post-modem city of the new isurbanity,increa
recognizing
urban the fragmented, localized, very uneven
entrepreneurship forms of
(Harvey
City-marketing development
is foundpart in that multinucleated,
of dynami-
this n
sold as places cally diversifying
to visit consumer's
for paradise. The Marxist-
tourism
is also a trend modernist
to install the rather
in Soja battles with post-modernism facili
functions-conference
as in Jameson. Yet though hecentres,
finds himself now more h
ties-a packagecomfortable
of with the idea of an epochal
devices to social en
the and urban transition
discretionary dollar his approach orremainsdeuts
clearly
than that city. modernist.
Hence Thus, Soja conceives
city this shift as a restruc-
marketi
promotion; it turing within modernity rather
involves than a complete
managem
tion of publicbreak with it. This ambivalenceand
services is expressed even
in
complete Soja's rather confusing pictogram of the
transformation of State- the
cess into a managed Fordist city (Soja, 1989)
marketized which despite
service (A
1988). The the nomenclature contains most ofcity
Eindhoven the elements of ma
involves the post-modern, entrepreneurial
expenditure of city: an 275
interna- m
tionalizing
multifunctional and much expanded CBD,
cultural andan inner-city
reta
Inserted intourban renewal and gentrification
these sector, suburban
architectu
changes is the industrial
emergence and commercial or financialof
satellites,what
and
as the new industrial districts
post-Fordist both in ethnic ghetto of
regime areas in
(Scott, 1988; and the city centre
Soja, 1989;as well as in theHarvey
emerging
for critiques, outer
see city. Except
Amin for the waterfront element, this Rob
and
1990). This list serves as a reasonablya
involves full account
more of the pres- ne
scale, interactive
ent hegemony ofand flexible
a triumphant, globalized, flexible,
organization market-driven capitalist
than its urbanity.
modern p
To work well This
it too isoften
the picture presented by urban theory's
requires
Fordist spatialcritic of post-modernism (Harvey,
forms in 1989). Harvey sees
cities s
'quarters', the post-modern critiqueor
districts of modernity as relativistic
localitie
are now beingandactively
defeatist, quoting Habermas' (1987) rejection
revived
urban strategyof the incommensurability
(see of subject and object
the Obser in
Birmingham, support
December of his view. Where modernism
3, was, he
1989)
growing argues, concerned with the pursuit of
fragmentation ofprogressprod
and
value and high future improvements todesigner
value, the social condition, post- or
value modernism is concerned
consumption goods only with the pursuit
are of in
from the what can beWorld
Third sold in the market. He recognizes
to the
be s
while luxury post-modern tendency
items may to pull away be
from the both
idea of
inner urban niches where
master-planning and vernac
to deal with the city through the
high-cost design of fragments. This, as already
consumption indicated often
amenities
ing wealthy involves the use of vernacular
buyers from traditions, local narra-
gentr
nearby and tives and
the customized architecture.
more Instead of social
exclusive
abroad. The purposes shaping space,
revival of spacehigh
shapes purpose by clas
be one of the the premium placed
more on aesthetics. This results
lasting in the
featur
economy. city taking on the appearance of collage. Initially

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 Modern urban theory in question 341
upon the nation-state)
associating all of this with neo-conservative and the increasingly localized
politics
and thereby condemning it out ofnaturehand, of economic
Harveydevelopment
now policy are pulling
recognizes that post-modernism does the modern city in this possibly post-modern direc-
not necessarily
lead directly back to the barbarism tion.
of Butthe Third
there Reich
are further developments, for example,
(though there are numerous allusionsin decentralizing
to precisely control
thatof welfare and health pro-
in his book), but that it may visionhave progressive
that, in Britain, have been opened up by the
possibilities. But, he concludes, these
Thatcherare ghettoized
governments, but offer prefigurative possi-
bilities of more
in local discourses-as if the possibility ofdemocratic
com- localized control than has
munication were effaced by the very hithertoinvocation
been the case. Tenants
of control of rented
housing,
post-modernism. Thus, for Harvey local education and other services has
post-modernism
is dangerous, politically quietistic or worse,
progressive and has lain dormant beneath
potential which
modernity must be protected fromthe
theoldepochal
hegemonybreak.
of urban managerialism. So this
A more pragmatic view is takenperspective
in thesees workthe late-twentieth
of century city as
Cooke (1990). The basic argument is that
increasingly what isdiverse, fragmentary but
cosmopolitan,
communicative.
called post-modernism is seen not It recognizes that the imprint of
as a replacement
for but rather a critique and potential
modernity renewal
will continueofto provide the basic struc-
ture of the city
modernism. The reason for this is precisely but that of
because within the interstices of that
the limited project which post-modernists have set
framework a growing pluralism of culture, economic
for themselves. Their work is primarily activity,
a consumption
critique, of practices and processes of
austerity and elitism, of centralismcontrol and is deducible for the future.
patronization,
of a failure to deal with difference and local con-
cerns-a failure to find a framework for dealing
with systems of difference. To wish the further CONCLUSIONS
democratization and opening up of culture, the city
and expressions of identity rather than illegalizingThe argument of this paper has been that mod
urban theory is in question. Cities can no long
difference or sweeping it under the carpet is to extend
the project of modernity. It is to develop the project
usefully be seen as systems for the provision of
of modernity intensively rather than extensively, lective consumption or be understood by virtue
vertically rather than horizontally. It envisages ecological
a metaphors. Neither can they be sim
decentralized rather than a centred, imperializing reduced to the working out of a neo-classical ratio
economic calculus. They were, in the era of Fordi
vision of progress. The problem is that, as yet, those
who are called post-modernists have still to articulate
Keynesianism and centralized state management mo
recognisably publicly-managed, localized mixe
the full meaning of that potential development of
the modern idea of progress. In some ways it haseconomies, but they always consisted of much m
proceeded further, in practical terms, in some of
than that. Now, elements in modern society whi
the developments in Eastern Europe both insidehave changed to de-emphasize the domination
and outside the Soviet Union. There, a totalizing
state forms of management are recognisably influe
and bankrupt perspective on progress has crumbled
ing the key processes and forms expressed in the bu
because of its stifling internal contradictions. environment and the socio-economic relations whic
The urban theory implicit in the pragmatic it enshrouds. The main question is whether th
perspective is one of maximum feasible local control,
changes echo an epochal break in the concept
reducing the interventionary controls of the centralprogress which, from the Enlightenment, has be
state to those of regulating the worst excesses of embodied in what we call modernity.
large-scale capital, redistributing in block form or The answer is that, to the extent that post-mode
even providing powers for local collection and dis- social theory as presented here has a project
posal of tax revenue to be spent, subject to minimumimplies a logic of action, it does not overturn t
standards, as democratic localities and/or regions concept of progress, it criticizes it but also indica
the ways in which it has to be overhauled. M
deem fit. Competitive and co-operative discourses
will have to learn to co-exist rather than remain distinctly, it questions the imperialising tendencies
locked in imaginary incommunicado. To some extent,the interpretation of progress represented both
developments in the post-Fordist economy, the modern urban theory and in modern cities. It qu
European Community (with its weakening effect tions the validity of centralized solutions bei

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 342 PHILIP COOKE

imposed upon diverse

COLLINS, J. localit
(1989) Uncommon cultures: popular culture &
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societies with London) differi
and COOKE,
requirements. P. (1983) Theories of planning
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the
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COOKE, P. (1989a) 'Critical cosmopolitanism: urban and
further democratization and renewal. It is, of course, regional studies into the 1990's, Geoforum 20: 241-52
desirable that both new perspectives and the COOKE, P. (1989b) The contested terrain of locality
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DENZIN, N. (1986) 'Postmodern social theory', Socio.
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