I know today's lecture confused you a little about the content of this course. Don't worry, this is all part of the plan...Today, after discussing Middelburg's medieval characteristics we concentrated on certain economic theories and processes from feudalism and merchant capitalism towards industrial capitalism. I referred to the ideas of some heavy weights like Adam Smith and Karl Marx. And you've made a small group exercise to go through the Chapter 2 of the textbook and we mentioned some other theories (like World Systems Theory) or theoreticians like Wallerstein. I tried to show you how Smith's model on capital, production and profit and Kondratief's waves made sense to explain different economic periods in the history of cities. There is a reason for this economic focus of course. Remember the 'vegetable' methaphor I mentioned in the firts course! We need to understand the layers of relations that lead to urban processes.
Like Kostof (1991) I also believe that understanding urban form can be possible by understanding the processes behind it. Like many other urban explorers I believe that understanding main economic dynamics that lead to the accumulation of capital in certain places and cities, and created certain societal processes and cultural contexts, we are able to comprehend the spatial transformations taking place in cities. You cannot separate the space from its socio-economic contents. If you comprehend the main socio-economic dynamics of first, second, and third urban revolution, post-fordism and neoliberalism, I think, by the end of this term you will be able to comprehend the change around you. You will see how different elements (neighbourhoods, parts, buildings, etc) of cities decline and then rise again with new functions and social contexts. This is the story of the capital accumulating in cities. And my approach in this course is to make you think of this as much as possible.
Thursday we will focus on the 20th century indistrial capitalism and a man who have changed the world with a single innovation: Henry Ford
See you on Thursday!
Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok
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