Re-Assembling the Urban
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11670300 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sassen (0000-0002-3468-6923, Columbia International University, corresponding author), Saskia Sassen |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 113-126 |
| Publication date | 2008-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Geography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0272-3638 • E-ISSN: 1938-2847 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.2747/0272-3638.29.2.113 |
| OpenAlex | W2036996481 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 14 |
In this essay, I engage the L.A.-Chicago debate by repositioning both area-specific constraints and visual orders as intermediary variables. This leads the discussion to two considerations that in turn reposition the meaning of the familiar differences attributed to Los Angeles and Chicago. First, a focus on the particular implications of translocal processes for an area allows us to establish that agglomeration and dispersal might both be part of a given firm's or sector's chain of operations and that they might be distributed across very different types of geographic areas. The main implication for a comparison of the L.A. and Chicago models is that it makes problematic the notion that geographic dispersal à la L.A. is the new spatial form corresponding to today's new economy, and agglomeration à la Chicago belongs to an earlier modernity. The second focus is on the limits of homogenization and convergence in urban landscapes as explanations in comparative studies. I recode these homogenized landscapes—the hyperspace of global business—as an infrastructure: they are necessary but indeterminate in that they can be used for different purposes. This shifts the emphasis to what inhabits that built environment. A key underlying economic dynamic I find in my research is that the global economy thrives on the specialized differences of countries, regions, and cities. But it does need homogenized standards (e.g., of production, of financial reporting, of accounting, and the like), and I add, it also needs standardized built environments. Keywords: chain of operationsspatial distributionsvisual ordersstructural constraints
Biological dispersal · Dimension (graph theory · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Economies of agglomeration · Economy · Focus (optics · Geography · Homogenization (climate · Modernity · Political science · Population · Regional science · Sociology · Global Urban Networks and Dynamics · Law · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Urban Planning and Governance · Ecology
Conclusion
Parsing the Chicago School legacy
Migration memory, cultural heritage
Everyday Tech
Can the straw man speak? An engagement with postcolonial critiques of ‘global cities research’
The rise of the mega-region
Big City Problems
Locating the global governance of HIV and Aids
The evolution of urban employment spatial structure in China
Are global cities homogenizing? An assessment of urban form and heat island implications
Beyond Urban Subcultures
What Do Cities Have to Do with Democracy
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |