My Los Angeles: From Urban Restructuring to Regional Urbanization

by Edward W. Soja

At once informative and entertaining, inspiring and challenging, My Los Angeles provides a deep understanding of urban development and change over the past forty years in Los Angeles and other city regions of the world. Once the least dense American metropolis, Los Angeles is now the country’s densest urbanized area and one of the most culturally heterogeneous cities in the world. Soja takes us through this urban metamorphosis, analyzing urban restructuring, deindustrialization and reindustrialization, the globalization of capital and labor, and the formation of an information-intensive New Economy. By examining his own evolving interpretations of Los Angeles and the debates on the so-called Los Angeles School of urban studies, Soja argues that a radical shift is taking place in the nature of the urbanization process, from the familiar metropolitan model to regional urbanization. By looking at such concepts as new regionalism, the spatial turn, the end of the metropolis era, the urbanization of suburbia, the global spread of industrial urbanism, and the transformative urban-industrialization of China, Soja offers a unique and remarkable perspective on critical urban and regional studies.

Genres: Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Nils Jepson · Rating 3 out of 5]

lots of good stuff in here but as others have pointed out none of it is really new and has been said better elsewhere!

i think my main critique of Soja is that his analysis of the problem (globalization leading to urban restructuring leading to agglomeration economies in some places and mostly service economies in others) is super succinct and original while his proposed solutions (mostly the Bus Riders Union, LAANE's CBA efforts, Occupy Los Angeles) have hardly left a dent in neoliberalism's takeover. he also tries to prove that these movements are explicitly spatial which is, to say, i guess, place-based??? and obvious. these movements march in the streets and take over parks and organize against or for developments in their neighborhood which is all good but also something that has been happening for the past two or three thousand years maybe? idk. saying spatiality is an essential part of movement work is kind of a given and he seems to struggle, despite his intentions, to really navigate and take apart why these elements are spatial and how exactly that is different, or additional, to social justice. he even admits this by saying that he's using "geographic causality" to draw the line between movement work and spatiality. this is semi-frustrating because i have no doubt that these movements are spatial, and use spatial tactics, but Soja always seems to hover over this without ever really diving in. look at the picket line. picket lines form strategically on sidewalks or streets to use previously established bonds of solidarity between unions to halt labor production; they have to be there, forming a circle, for a Teamster or Unite Here member to not cross. this is an explicitly spatial tactic that lies at the intersection of urbanism and labor organizing, oftentimes costing corporations and regional economies millions of dollars. or even look at tenants unions and eviction blockades or the spatial dynamics of riots etc etc. so much stuff here that goes unnoticed by Soja who instead opts for a pretty weak love letter to LA's labor/nonprofit industrial complex.

idk Soja does an incredible job with economic trends and their geographic implications but always seems to stop short at really taking his concept of "spatial justice" to where it wants, and needs, to go.

[tyler collin · Rating 5 out of 5]

finishing this in napa was delectable. i love los angeles (i will not return)

[Scotch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think of this as the Cliffnotes or Wikipedia summary for Soja's LA bibliography. It's a nice primer to his writing and thoughts over the course of his career, but it feels almost masturbatory for him to keep talking about himself and the great things he's done/thought without really fleshing out what exactly those things were. While I understand this book is more theory than practice, more abstract than grounded in real lives, events and bodies, I wish Soja provided more substantive historical evidence or examples. Still, this is one of the few resources for LA-specific urban spatial theory, and worth a perusal.