IMAGINING THE CITY

HYPERURBANIZATION WITHOUT CITIES?

Abstract

The first part of the paper reviews sime ideas about the evolution of cities since the industrial revolution. it shows how difficult it is to understand and to name the process of intense urban concentration that took place in the nineteenth century, for the growth of metropolis or megalopolis was paralleled by an increasing rejection of the city itself. This analysis is followed by an appraisal of the current debates about the tension between hyperurbanization (intense urban growth) and urban life and by a discussion of the thesis of hyperurbanization without cities. In the third part, we discuss the existence today of two antagonistic imaginations: on the one and, one that revalues the city and exerts pressure for reinvestment in it (through gentrification); on the other, an imagination that idealizes suburban life. We conclude that it is urgent to reconsider the meaning of the city and what it means to be an urbanite today.