Crisis, Planning, and the Quality of Life: Managing the New Historical Relationships between Space and Society

Abstract

We live in the midst of a major structural crisis. This crisis is multidimensional, cultural, and political, as well as economic. Spatial forms and urban issues are simultaneously being reshaped by this crisis and becoming powerful instruments for the policies aimed at managing the crisis from different viewpoints according to the pattern of contradictory social interests. The first part of the paper tries to outline the main effects of the crisis on the urban realm, focusing particularly on the spatial consequences of the new technologies, that could be devastating if they were used to harden the dominant tendencies of corporate capitalism and authoritarian statism. The second part of the paper attempts to foresee some potential alternatives to managing the crisis, on the basis of the projects of defending collective consumption, affirming cultural identity, and enhancing political self-management, that are being fostered by grass-roots groups and progressive local governments all over the world. Relying on some recent experiences of local government in Europe and the USA, the paper ends by outlining some alternative urban policies that could also be socially feasible, technically efficient, and politically progressive. Between defensive struggles and shortsighted reformism, this paper tries to explore the field of the new paths of urban social change in our time and in our societies.