Dialectical Urbanism

by Andy Merrifield

Life in the city can be both liberating and oppressive. The contemporary city is an arena in which new and unexpected personal identities and collective agencies are forged and at the same time the major focus of market forces intent on making all life a commodity. This book explores both sides of the urban experience, developing a perspective from which the contradictory nature of the politics of the city comes more clearly into view.
Dialectical Urbanism discusses a range of urban issues, conflicts and struggles through detailed case studies set in Liverpool, Baltimore, New York, and Los Angeles. Issues which affect the quality of everyday life in the citygentrification and development, affordable rents, the accountability of local government, the domination of the urban landscape by new corporate giants, policingare located in the context of larger political and economic forces. At the same time, the narrative constantly returns to those moments in which city dwellers discover and develop their capacity to challenge larger forces and decide their own conditions of life, becoming active citizens rather than the passive consumers.
Merrifield draws on a wide range of sourcesfrom interviews with activists and tenants fighting eviction to government and corporate reportsand uncovers surprising connections, for example, between the rise of junk bonds in the 1980s and urban improvement schemes in a working-class neighborhood in Baltimore. This lively and many-sided narrative is constantly informed by broader analyses and reflections on the city and engages with these analyses in turn. It fuses scholarship and political engagement into a powerful defense of the possibilities of life in the metropolis today.

Genres: Cities, Urbanism, Urban Studies

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

About the author

Andy Merrifield, British author and professor.

Reviews

[Jon]

This book is an interesting study of the contradictory forces the make up both urbanism and urbanization, and how they differ in both place and time. The examples studies include Baltimore, Liverpool, Los Angeles and New York.

The dialectics pointed to in the title is Adorno's Negative Dialectics, which abandons the concept of 'totality' (or holism) and focuses on the logic of contradiction. And in my opinion, Merrifield has done an excellent job of exploring the contrasting contradictions he presents. But there's something missing from Merrifield's narrative, namely the purposeful lack of exploring solutions:

Instead, this book emphasizes the virtues of what I call a practical dystopian politics. Its central contention is that there is a dialectic, a contradiction, between urbanization and the city—between urbanization and urbanism. And yet, this dialectic cannot nor should not be resolved: it's a contradiction that needs to be harnessed somehow, not collapsed; worked through, sometimes lived with, not wiped out. Authenticity will arrive, if it arrives, by going forward through this dialectic not by having recourse to some romantic non-contradictory but nonexistent ideal.

I think Merrifield's problem is a problem with Negative Dialectics in general—the lack of connection of the contradictory parts to a whole. Totality is the field of practical action; without a connection to a whole, you lack any practical means of overcoming a contradiction—no "nonexistent ideals" involved. All you are left with is some vague hope that if you keep sharpening your contradiction, someday you might make it through, by "going forward," as Merrifield put it.

I'm reminded of that famous quote, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." I think that covers this dynamic succinctly.

[Behrang]

اندی مریفیلد با نگاهی ژرف و چندبُعدی در این کتاب به پدیدهٔ شهرگرایی و تجربهٔ زندگی شهری می‌پردازد. او با الهام از فیتزجرالد و با تکیه بر مفهوم «روح کلان‌شهری» — که گئورگ زیمل آن را «نگرش بی‌تفاوتی» می‌نامد — این پدیده را واکاوی می‌کند. نگرشی که از دیدگاه زیمل، زادهٔ اقتصاد پولی کلان‌شهر است که فردیت را هم ویران می‌کند و هم بازمی‌سازد؛ هم آزادی می‌بخشد و هم بیگانگی می‌آفریند. به بیان او، شهر بستری است برای رشد فردی، اما در همان حال، صحنه‌ای از تناقض‌ها و تضادهای اجتماعی نیز می باشد. مریفیلد شهرگرایی را صرفاً مهاجرت ساده از روستا به شهر نمی‌داند، بلکه فرایندی سیاسی و تاریخی می‌داند که با اقتصاد پولی، جهانی‌سازی و رقابت میان شهرها برای جذب سرمایه گره خورده است. او با تکیه بر تحلیل دیالکتیکی، تضاد بین شهرگرایی (فرایند اقتصادی-اجتماعی) و تجربه شهرنشینی (زندگی روزمره و سیاسی در شهر) را بررسی می‌کند و استدلال می‌کند که این تضاد نباید حذف شود، بلکه باید به‌عنوان نیرویی برای فهم و تغییر شهر به کار گرفته شود. مریفیلد از شهرهای آمریکا و بریتانیا مانند بالتیمور، لیورپول، لس‌آنجلس و نیویورک به‌عنوان نمونه‌هایی برای نشان‌دادن برخورد فرایندهای اقتصادی کلان با زندگی روزمره استفاده می‌کند. او بر سه محور تأکید دارد: حقیقت شهر باید از پایین به بالا، از خیابان و زندگی روزمره فهمیده شود؛ شهرعرصه‌ای سیاسی برای مبارزات اجتماعی است؛ و تجربه شهری، ترکیبی از شادی و ناامیدی، امید و یأس است که در فضاهای عمومی شهر متبلور می‌شود. به باور او، شهرها هم مسئله‌اند و هم راه‌حل؛ درک دیالکتیکی از آنها می‌تواند به دگرگونی‌های مثبت بینجامد. کتاب مریفیلد دعوتی است به بازاندیشی در نظریهٔ شهری، نه صرفاً از موضعی انتقادی، بلکه با تکیه بر تجربه‌های عینی مردم. او به سوی «پراکسیس شهری» پیش می‌رود که مردم عادی را محور قرار می‌دهد و جهانی را دگرگون می‌کند که خودشان را دگرگون ساخته است.

[Jeseven]

A fantastic outline of the processes shaping cities and city life. Concisely and with obvious passion, Merrifield uses case studies in the UK and USA to show how the conflicts and contradictions inherent in the city can give rise to both oppression and liberation. Occasionally let down by typos and writing style.

[James Tracy]

A must for any neighborhood organizer needing a little grounding in useful theory.