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Cities and states in geohistoryAuthor(s): Edward W. SojaSource: Theory and Society, Vol. 39, No. 3/4, Special Issue in Memory of Charles Tilly (1929–

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Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

DOI 10.1007/s

11

86-0

1

-9 113-5

Citiesand states n geohistory

Edward W.

Soja

Published nline: March 010

©

The

Author(s)

010. This article s

published

ith

pen

access

at

Springerlink.com

Abstract

n

his last

major

work,

harles

Tillypresents

schematic

istory

f the

development

f

cities, tates,

nd

trust etworks ver the

past

five millennia.

reconfigure

is look across

history

rom more

assertivelypatialperspective,

pushing

ack he

tarting

oint

f

he

eohistory

fcities nother

,000

years

o

what

s

presented

s the

first f three urban evolutions. rom his

eohistoricaliewpoint,

cities nd tates

o not

mergeogether

e novo

n

Sumeria ut he tates seen s

being

generated

rom arlier rbanization

rocesses

rwhat an be

described

s the

timulus

ofurban

gglomeration.

he

generative

ower

fcities rurban

patial

ausality,arely

addressed

n the ocial science

iterature,

s

being

re-discovered

oday

s a

primary

source f ocietal

evelopment,echnological

nnovation,

ndcultural

reativity.

n

my

schematic

eohistory,

he timulusfurban

gglomeration

s traced ver

10,000

years

from

ts

arly

ole

n

he

evelopment

ffull-scale

griculture

nd he emarkablertistic

creativitymanating

rom

atalhöyük,

he

argest

f the earliest rban

ettlements;

through

heformationf

politicallyharged ity-states

nd

city-basedmpires;

o the

city-generated

ndustrial evolution nd the

origins

f urban ndustrial

apitalism;

ending

n

a look

at the

ontemporary

econfiguration

f

cities

nd states nd the hift

frommetropolitanoregionalrbanization.

To

begin

his ast

major

work,

ities nd States n World

istory,

harles

illy

akes

the reader

back

nearly

,000

years

to the

thrivingity-state

f

Uruk,

near the

confluencef

the

Tigris

nd

Euphrates

ivers. t that

ime,

Uruk

was

already

well

established s one

of the first

ully

ormed

ity-states

nd

probably

he world's

largest

rban

gglomeration

s

well,

with

50,000

people living

within ts walls.

Uruk's

uler

uring art

f

this

ra was

the

great ingGilgamesh

nd

Tilly

uses the

clay

tablet nscribed

ilgamesh pic

to

open up

his own

look

across

history.

Sketchingnd schematizinguriously,s he describedt,Tilly presents highly

E. W.

Soja

{M)

Department

f Urban

lanning,

chool

of Public

Affairs,

niversity

f

California-Los

ngeles,

Los

Angeles,

A,

USA

e-mail:

[email protected]

Ô

Springer






362

Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

personalized

verview f the

development

f

cities,

tates,

nd

trust etworksver

the

past

five

millennia,

ince

whathe and most

xperts

onsider o have been the

original

moment f

city

nd state ormation.

Spatializing illy

What

propose

o do

here,

lso

sketching

nd

chematizing

nergetically,

s

add

a

more

assertivend

explanatorypatial

erspective

o the

story illy

ells,

o look at the

intertwined

evelopment

f cities nd states cross

eohistory.

his

nfrequently

sed

term,

eohistory,epresents

uchmore han

dding

n extra

ose of

geography

o the

writing

f

history

r

simply ecognizing

hat

space

matters. s

I

see

it,

geohistory

s

indicativef

a

radically

ifferent

ay

of

looking

t

history

nd

geographyogether,

treating

hem s

mutually

ormativend

co-equal

n their

nterpretiveower. Soja

1

89)

Such

a

balanced iew runs

gainst

he

prevailing rain

f

a

powerful

ocial

historicism

hat,

ince t east hemid-nineteenth

entury,

as

intellectuallyrioritized

time ver

pace

nd

nterpretivelyrivileged

hehistorical

nd

ociologicalmagination

over

geographical

r

spatial erspectives. y

aim

n

spatializingilly's

ook across

history

s to buildon a

critique

f this

ocial historicismo

enrich

is

fundamental

arguments

nd,

more

mbitiously,

o

open

up potentially

ew and

nnovativevenues

for

nvestigating

ities, tates,

nd their

oordinativeetworksf

trust.

The need for uch

spatialization

f

even thebesthistorical

ritings

risesfrom

what an be describeds theGreatOntological istortionhat ookplace nWestern

scholarship

n

the asthalf fthe

nineteenth

entury.

lmost

ntirely

nnoticed

n

the

mainstreamiterature as an

intellectual ixation n

temporal

nd historical

perspectives

hatwould

nject

socio-historicalias into he

then

merging

ocial

sciences as well as into Marx's historical

materialism.

oregrounding

istorical

interpretations

f

social

relations,

ocial

will,

and

societal

development,

hile

decidedly nsightful,

ssentially

ubordinated

pace

to

time,

eography

o

history,

creating

n

ontological

redisposition

hat

would

arry

ver o affect

pistemological

debate,

heory

ormation,

nd

empirical nalysis

n

all

thehuman

ciences.Cities

and

states,

or

example,

ame to be studied

iterally

nd

figuratively

through

history hiletheir eographyr spatiality as reduced o a neutral ackground

environment,

container

f social life and

history, stage

for

a

social drama

unfoldingrimarily

cross ime nd

only ncidentally

cross

place

and

space.1

One of

the few to

recognize

his

ontological

istortion as Michel

Foucault

(1986),

who

quizzically

sked

why

s

it

thatwe

have come to

think

f time s

dynamic,rocess,

movement,

evelopment,

ialectic hile

pace

tends o be

seen s

fixed,

ead,

extra-social

ackground,

r

environment.id it start ith

Bergson,

e

ponders,

urious s to how such

peculiar

mbalance ouldhave

developed

etween

time nd

space,

seemingly o-equal

dimensions f both

the

physical

nd

social

worlds.

Expecting

his social

historicismo be

easily recognized

nd

repaired,

Foucaultwouldmove on to demonstratenpractice morebalanced ndmutually

causal

spatio-temporal

r

geohistorical

erspective

n

his

major

writings.nly

n

the

past

10

years,

owever,

as

this

e-balancing

f

historicalnd

geographical

hinking

1

For more n

this

ntological

istoricism,

ee

Edward

oja

1989, 1996,

2000.

Ô

Springer






Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376 363

begun

o occur

hrough

hat ome have

been

calling spatial

urn

n the

human

sciences,

s

nearly verydiscipline

nd

subject

rea has been

experiencing

ome

degree

f

provocative

patialization

Warf

nd Arias

2009).

Geohistorys it is used herecarrieswith t an ontological e-balancingf the

social,

he

historical,

nd the

patial,

with o one

of them

iven riority

r

privilege

over

theothers. iven he

persistence

f social

historicism,owever,

compensa-

tory mphasis

n critical

patial hinking

ill

need,

t east

emporarily,

o be

given

primary

ttention

o matter hatthe

subjectmay

be. What follows hen s the

product

f

a

strategicoregrounding

f a

spatial erspective,xploring

ow

t

might

add

new

nsights

nto he

tudy

f cities nd states.

At the core of this

ook across

geohistory

s

an

emphasis

n urban

spatial

causality,

ow

cities

s

spatially rganized

ocial formations

ctively hape

social

relations

nd

help

to stimulateocietal

development.ityspace

n

this ense

s

not

just

a

place

in which ocial life unfolds nd

major

events ccur but is also an

affectivend

consequential

ontext. romwhat

an be described

s the timulus

f

urban

gglomeration

manates

generative

orce

hathas

played powerful

ut

almost

ntirely

nnoticed ole

n

societal

evelopment

s a source

f

accumulation,

innovation,oercion,

ierarchy,

nd cultural

reativity.

aneJacobs

n

The

Economy

of

Cities

1969)

was

among

hefirstcholars o

recognize

he

generative

ffects

f

urban

gglomeration

nd her work s used hereto

begin

our

revised

ook at the

geohistory

f cities nd states.2

Pushing

back the

origin

f cities

Tilly's

look

across

history

s rich

with

nsights,

specially

with

regard

o the

conceptualization

f trust

etworkss

integrative

echanisms

olding ogether

he

intertwined

volution f cities

nd states. n his creative

xcursion,

owever,

e

is

occasionally

ed

astray y

the

fundamentally

istoricist

ritings

f

others,

nd

despite

his

unusually

fertile

eographical magination

by

his own intrinsic

privileging

f

time

over

space, history

ver

geography,specially

n

the

realm f

social

causality.

he subordinationf urban

patial

ausality

n

Tilly's nterpretation

ofthedevelopmentf cities nd states eginswith hedebate n urban rigins.

Rather han

beginning

ith

he

thrivingity-state

f

Uruk

and the

Gilgamesh

epic,

the

tory

f urban

eohistory

eeds to be taken ack another

,000

years

r

more

o

Catalhöyük

nd ts ven

more ncient

redecessors.3

ollowing

aneJacobs

(1969)

ratherhan ewis

Mumford

1961),

it can be

argued

hat he

world's arliest

urban ettlements

ook

place

n

the

highland

elt

runninghrough

outhern natolia

to

present

ay

Iran and south ntothe Levantrather

han n

the

so-calledFertile

2

The

Economyof

Cities has

inspired growing

field

of

geographical

conomics

dealing

with

urbanization

conomies,

he

positive

nd

negative

ffectshat risefrom rban

gglomeration.

acobs

argued

hatwithout

ities,

we would ll be

poor,

we wouldhave remained untersnd

gatherers

s we

were

hroughoutearly

ll ofhuman xistence. ome economics extbooks

see

McDonald

1997)

nowcall

these ffectsJane acobs

xternalitiesnd

argue

hat uchurbanizationconomies

re now the

primary

force ehind conomic

evelopment

nd

technological

nnovation

n theworld.

3

This lternativeiew

of the

rigin

nd

geohistorical

volution f cities

s

developed

n

detail

n thefirst

three

hapters

f

Soja

(2000).

4y

Springer






364

Theor

oc

(2010)

39:361-376

Crescent

f alluvial

Mesopotamia.

illy

efers

o

Chatal

Hoyuk,

nd also the ven

older

Jericho,

utbows

to the anonical iterature

n

dismissing

hese ettlements

s

not

yet full-fledged

ities,

wing

o

a

lack

of

central

uthority,igns

f

nequality

andhierarchy,nd an elaborated ivision f abor, otto mentionn alphabet,he

key

to what he ime-mindedall

written

istory

nd

city-based

civilization.

The

debate boutwhether

atalhöyük

ndJericho ere

ruly

ities s

entangled

n

a kind f Catch-22

hat

rings

nto

uestion early

ll

existing

istoriesfthe

rigins

of cities nd

states,

ncluding illy's.

So fixateds the iteraturen the Sumerian

city-states

uch as Uruk nd Ur

that he

definitionf

a

city

becomes

confusingly

conflated

ith hedefinitionfthe tate. hat

s,

f

settlementoes not

xpress

he

key

features f a centralizednd hierarchical

tate,

hen

t

cannot e

a

true

ity.

Adding

to the

confusion,

arge-scale griculturalevelopment

s thrown

n

as

essential

o theformationfboth ities nd

states,

ith ities s wellas states een s

evolving

rom

xpansive griculturalillages hrough

n

increasing

ocial division

of labor.

That

cities s

permanent

nd

generative

rban

gglomerations

an form

withouttates s

generally

uled

ut,

s is theeven more udacious

possibility

hat

urbanization

receded

and stimulatedfull cale

agricultural

evelopment.

The

deeply

heldbelief

hat he

production

f a social

surplus,

rimarily

n

food,

was

essential

o

the

formationf citieswas turned

pside

down

by

JaneJacobs

n

The

Economy f

Cities.

Building

n excavations

t

Catalhöyük

n

the ate 1960s

(knowledge

navailable o Mumford hen

writing

he

City

n

History),

he claimed

that ities ame

first,

efore he

Agricultural

evolution,

mplying

hat itieswere

essential o theproductionf a socialsurplus atherhan heotherwayaround. he

argued,

o theridicule nd dismissal f most

rehistorians

nd

paleoanthropologists,

that

hefirstubstantialuman ettlementsere tateless ities ormed

y egalitarian

bands of hunters

nd

gatherers

ell before he

development

f

full-fledged

agrarian

ocieties.

They

were,

in

essence,

Neolithic

ities,

an

impossible

nd

contradictoryhenomenon

o most cholars f

antiquity.

Cities lmost

urely

id not

precede

hedomesticationf

plants

nd animals nd

therewere

people

who knewhow to farm

n

the first ities.But what s

clearly

suggested

rom

ontemporary

rcheological

vidence

nd

the

logic

of distance-

minimizing

uman

patial

ehaviors that rbanizationnd

agriculturalevelopment

evolved ogetherna mutuallyausal andsymbioticelationship.hecreationf an

agriculturalurplus layed key

role

n

stimulating

he

development

f

cities,

ut

just

as

important

and

often verlooked

ntirely),

rbanization

layed

a

generative

role n the

Agricultural

evolution.

nderstanding

hismutual

ausality,

hich,

s

we will

see,

can also be

applied

o the

development

f the

state,

uilds

upon

the

recognition

hat

the first rue cities were formed round

12,000

years

ago

in

Southwest sia andthat his

pochal

ommitmento

iving ensely

nd

permanently

together

n

one

place

rather

han

maintainingroving

omadic xistencemarked

kind f

big bang

n

the

development

f human ocieties.

Once humans ecide o settle

n

one

place,

s one ofthe xcavators fJericho

ut

it Kenyon1960),all else follows: hegeohistoryfsocietaldevelopmentegins.

The

settling

own nto

ermanent

rban lusters as

perhaps

hemost

evolutionary

event n the

history

f human

ociety, ollowing

fter t

least

2,000,000

years

of

existence s smallnomadic andsof fewer han

hundred embers. lmost

urely,

thesefirst ities ould never

row

o muchmore han

10,000 nhabitants,

utthis

4y

Springer






Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

365

was an

explosive

eap

n

societal cale and

complexity.

nvironmentalactors

layed

an

important

ole

in these

changes,

s a

period

of

global warming

melted

ack

continental

cecaps

and

encouraged

he intensification

f traditional

unting,

gathering,ndfishingechnologiesnthewell wateredone from heMediterranean

to southernhina.

Permanentrban

ettlement,owever,

s better

nderstoodot s

environmentally

nduced ut s

a

rational

nd

specificallypatial

hoice.

While

knowledge

f

farming

xisted

there s evidence f

plant

domestication

going

back

18,000

years

the

vast

majority

f inhabitantsf the first ities

were

huntersnd

gatherers.

here s no clearevidence f

early griculturalillages

hat

somehow

rew

nto

cities.

ndeed,

he dea

that

easonable

eople

would cluster

together

n

permanent

wellings

o farm oes not make

sense,

especially

when

defense

gainst

utsiders

as not factor.

f

anything,

hereversewas more

ikely,

that rban

gglomeration

ed to the

pawning

ff f

thefirst

griculturalillages

nd

small settlementsf livestock

eepers, nitially

o serve the needsof the urban

population

lthough

ater

eeking reaterutonomy

s

a

rural

easantry

ndnomadic

pastoralists.

So

what ed hundredsnd

in

some

cases thousands f

people

to

create he first

permanent

rban ettlements?

ot

farming

r

rearing

ivestock

which

were

possible

to

practice

2,000

years go),

nor

hunting

nd

gathering,

uttrade nd

exchange,

probably

hrough

ome

meansof

reciprocity.

here s evidence hat

ong-distance

trade xisted

n

Southwest

sia and

the asternMediterranean

5,000

years go

and

may

have created ncient

rade outes hatwould ater

volve nto hefamous ilk

RoadTillywritesbout, tretchingcrossEurasia oconnect ith nother ellspring

of urbanization

n

the oess

plains

nd river

alleys

f northernhina.

Trade hen

was the

primary

rbanizing

orce,

specially

n

theNeolithic

r New

Stone

Age,

when the

main

commodity

as workable tones

such as

flint

nd

obsidian,

he volcanic

glass

thatwas most

closely

ssociatedwith he

growth

f

Catalhöyük.

hoosing

n actual ite

probably

as influenced

y

natural

actorsuch

as the

availability

f water

upplies, ncluding

akes

and marsheswith bundant

wildlife,

ut

gatheringogether

housands f

inhabitants as

mainly logical

and

efficient

esponse

o the

rade f

heavy oods, specially

n

comparison

o

delivering

them o scattered

omadic

ncampments.

his also meant

hat herewere

probably

manymallerradingenterslong hemain outes. rom he tarthen, rbanization

probably

ook the

form f a network f settlements

f various izes

rather han

isolated

nd nsulated

ities.4

Catalhöyük, erhaps

he

major metropolis

f the

Neolithic,

asted for

nearly

2,000

years,

hifting

bouton two mounds

nd

probably

ising

nd

falling

n

size

before

eing

bandoned.ts

generativeower

was

impressive,

eading

o

expanding

agricultural

evelopment,

nnovativerchitecturendurban

esign,

form f

highly

egalitarian

nd

family

ased

religion,

nd

the

greatest

urst f artistic

reativity

n

human

eohistory

p

to that ime. he most

rilliantf earlier ave

paintings

lmost

alwaysrepresented

unting

cenesor elaborate

eometricatterns.

few

wood or

4

Whether

orms f

dentity

nd trust oincided

with

hese

rban etworks e

may

never

now,

lthough

the

galitarian

haracter

f thefirst ities

uggests strong

amily

ocus

nd household

utonomy

ather

than

large

cale

community

dentity.

Ô

Springer






366 Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

stone

culptures

f what re

thought

o be

fertilityoddesses

have been

found,

ut

what

happened

n

Catalhöyük

as

extraordinary.

Hundreds f

goddess-likeculptures

ere

produced possibly

timulated

y

the

gradual hift rom untingoagriculture),etal ncluding opperwas worked nto

elaborate

esigns,

he first nown extiles nd

rugs

were

woven,

bsidianwas cut

and

polished

nto

hefirst and-crafted

irrors,

nd beautifulmuralswere

painted,

including

ne that lmost

surely

s the first

nown

example

of

a

cityscape,

depiction

f dozens of houses

spreading

ut

in

front f a distant

win-peaked

volcano

seeminglyrupting

ith he nvaluable bsidian he

city

depended

pon.

Here thenwas abundant vidence

f

the transformationf nature nto socialized

cityspace,epresenting

he cooked atherhan he raw

n

Levi-

trauss

s

terms.

n

the

previous

,000,000

years

of homo

sapiens

existence,

here

was

nothing

o

compare

with

heurban

enerated

rtisticnd

cultural evolutionhat ook

place

in

and fromhis emarkablenatolian

ity.

Emerging olities:

he

city

nd the state

combined

Derivedfrom his

radically

evised iew of societal

development

s the dea that

cities

and

the urbanization

rocess

have

provided

perhaps

he most

important

generative

orce ehind

verymajorbreakthrough

n

human

geohistory,

rom he

agricultural

o the ndustrialevolutionso

major

bursts f artistic

reativity

nd

technologicalnnovation. romabout8,000 to 5,000years ago, the stimulus f

urban

agglomeration

lso

played

a

key

role

in

the formationf

the state and

centralized

uthority,

he

emergence

f hierarchiesf

differentialocial

power,

he

rooting

fthis

hierarchy

f

power

n

gender,

inship

nd cultural

ies,

nd the iseof

class divisions ased

largely

n

the

ownership

f

property.

o

closely

tied were

urban

development

nd stateformationhatwhat

emerged

uring

his

period

s

calledthe

ity-state

r,

from he

Greek,

he

polis,

which omedictionariesefine s

meaning

ither

ity

r

state.

Recent xcavations

n

Anatolia s well as northern

yria

nd

raq suggest

hat he

earliest

tateless r

acephalous

ities

volved ver housands f

years

nto he

city-

based statesof Mesopotamia nd probably lso the Nile and IndusValleys.

Catalhöyük

ad no formidable alls around t

and therewas no evidence f

any

political

or

religious

entrality

ithin

he settlement. ouseholds

were

roughly

similar,

ith

ew hared

walls so that

ne

family

ouldremain

n

the amehome ite

for

many enerations,

ach one buried

top

the

others.

Hodder 006)

After round

8,000

BP, however,

efore he

flowering

f the

Mesopotamianity-states,

vidence

of

walled settlementsas been found

howing igns

of

increasingly

entralized

authority

nd

growing

ierarchy,

ith ome

buildings

much

arger

han

thers nd

withurban

paces possibly

devoted

o

ceremony

nd/or

xchange.

nterestingly

enough,

o evidencewas found t these ites

f written

anguage.

What his uggests,s noted arlier,s that rbanizationndstate ormationrew

togetherymbiotically,

ery

much ike the

mutually timulating

evelopment

f

cities nd

agriculture

hatwas also

continuing

o

occur

n

thenew

environmentsf

the

great

iver

alleys

f Eurasia nd northern

frica. hat tate ormationnd

arge

scale

rrigatedgriculture

nfluencedrban

evelopment

s not new

dea,

but here

4y

Springer






Theor

oc

(2010)

39:361-376

367

is

very

ittlewrittenhat

mphasizes

n at least n

equal

basis

that

ities

enerated

statesand

all their

ppurtenances,

rom entralized

oyal

nd

religious

uthority

(with

the

skyscraping

iggurat

ts

synecdoche),

lass

stratification,

xpanding

patriarchalower,militaryorce,ndempire-buildingmpulses. he statewas not

only

eflected

n thebuilt nvironment

nd social

geography

f the

ity,

t

emerged

from

he urban

ontext r

habitat.

t

truly

was

a

city-generated-state

r,

ust

as

descriptive,

state-generated-city.

o makeone

generativerocess

more

mportant

than he

other,

r to see either

s

developing eparately,

s to distort hat

happened.

To be

clear,

am not

claiming

hat

rbanization

xplains

ll

aspects

f societal

development

r

state

formation,

lthough

am

purposefullymphasizing

he

importance

furban

patial

ausalityargely

ecause

thas

been

virtually

nvisible

n

the

existing

iterature

nd,

in

particular,

n the

writings

f historians

nd social

scientistsn

states ndcities.

hope

hat t east

glimmer

fthese deas

was behind

Tilly's

frequent

hallenges

o urban istorianso findmore

xciting

nd

nteresting

things

o

say

about ities

han

imply

hronicling

vents,

ut

cannot e sure.Just s

it

s

widely

ssumed

hat he

gricultural

evolution

receded

nd ed to

the

rise

of

the

first

ities,

o too

do the

majority

f scholars

ee state

ormation

and

written

language)

s

pre-requisites

or he

growth

f true ities.

As

I

havebeen

arguing,

he

reverse s

muchmore

ikely,

withurbanization

receding

nd

leading

o

(or

co-

evolving

with)

the transformative

rocesses

ssociatedwiththe

rise of

agrarian

societies

nd the

formationf

the entralized

tate.

The stimulus

f urban

gglomeration

egan

to have

an effect

2,000

years go,

reachedn early eak nCatalhöyük,nd wouldexplode gain nSumeriawith he

formation

f

city-states,

hich

would

subsequentlypread

or be

independently

invented

n

many

ifferent

egions

round heworld.

illy icksup

the

tory

n

Uruk

and

the

Gilgamesh

pic.

While

he is almost

urely

orrect

n

stating

hat no states

existed

nywhere

n

the world

before

,000

BCE or

6,000-plus

ears go,

he is

almost

urely

wrong

n

accepting

he

rgument

hat ities

irst

ppeared

n

the

ame

periods

nd

places

as

states,

s

depicted

n

a canonical

nd historicistiterature

hat

muddles

ogether

hedefinitions

f

city,

tate,

nd evenmore

urocentrically

iased,

civilization.

For

hemost

art,

illy

voids

his efinitional

onfounding

n

his

commentary

n

the ambiguous nd variablerelations etween ities and states s distinctive

entities,

ut

he

develops

typology

nd

a mainhistorical

rend

see

Figure

1 in

Tilly's

article

n this

ssue)

that onfusesmore

han larifies heserelations.

he

trend

ine

expresses

hefamiliar

dea that he

worldhas movedfrom

timewhen

citiesdominated

o a timecloser

to

today

when centralizedtates

became more

powerful

han ities.There

may

ndeed

be a trend oward

ncreasing

tate

versus

urban

power,

ut

the coordinates

f

Tilly's

diagram

onfound

ow thistrend

s

framednd

nterpreted.

In the

upper

eft orner f

the

diagram

s the autonomous

ity,

remarkably

empty

ut

seemingly

riginating

ategory

hat

Tilly awkwardly

xemplifies

n

contemporaryongKongandtheVatican,utnotSingapore, hich smore ike he

(non-autonomous?)

city-state

ppearing

t themore

integrated

pper ight

and

corner.

The

city-state

epresents

n

extreme

f urban

dominance,

while the

centralized

tate

China

is described

s a formidable

xample)

s

planted

t the

other

ower

ight

nd

culminating

xtreme,

hen tates

weredominant.

eft ver

n

4y

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368 Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

the ower eft orner

states

dominant ut

segregated

ather

han

ntegrated)

re

nomadic

mpires.

What s buriedunder hisAutonomous

ities,

City-States,

entralized

tates,

NomadicEmpires lassifications the constant enerative orce of cities,the

possibility

hatall

human societies

have

been urbanized ocietiesfor the

past

12,000

years.

First f

all,

no cities re ever

autonomous,

rom

ature,

rom tate

power

when t

exists,

r from etworks f trust.

urthermore,

ity-states

re also

centralizedtates.

heymay

not

be

nation-states,

ut his s another

tory.

ndwhile

nomadic

mpiresmay

be less urbanized nd centralizedhan ther

mpires,

ew

f

any

re

entirely

isconnectedrom

mportant

ities nd their

enerative

ffects.

es,

nation-statesave become more

powerful

astions f coercion nd social control

than

ity-states,

ut

they

have

always

ruled

hrough

ities nd the

ccumulationf

nationalwealth

has

always hingedprimarily

but never

exclusively

on the

stimulus f urban

gglomeration.

Tilly's diagram

nd

discussion

f

the rise of national tate

power,

arlier

n

Europe

than

elsewhere,

eflects nd

reinforceshe conventionalocial

historicist

viewthat as ed to the

ubmergence

f

urban

patial ausality

ndthe

privileging

f

socio-historical

rocesses

s

opposed

to a more

balanced

ocio-spatial

nd

spatio-

temporal

ialectic.After

Westphalia,

he

story oes,

citiesbecome ess

important

whilethe

state

grows

n

social

power, eading

oo

easily

to the

dea thatwith he

formationf the

nation-statecholars an henceforth

orget

bout urban

patial

causality,

he

generativeower

f

cities,

ndurbanizations the

driving

orce ehind

economicdevelopment.ities were mummifiedn Western ocial and political

theory,specially

s

causal factors

with

few

xceptions,

uch s theold

Chicago

School).

Things appen

n

cities utnot

becauseof cities. ven the

urban

n

urban

industrial

apitalism, art

of another

major city-generated

evolution,

isappears

from iew and hencefrom

ystematic

nalysis

n

socialist

heory.

he existence f

the national

tate s a

fundamentallypatial

or territorialorm lso

tends o be

forgotten

s states ecome bstractedrom

ities nd the

urbanization

rocess.

There s much more to

be

explored

n

the co-evolution f

cities and states

between

,000

and 300

BP,

theonset f the ndustrial

evolutionnd theriseof new

urbanization

rocesses,

ut focus

briefly

ere

ust

on

the

concept

f

politics.

As

therewas no evidence f anorganized olity r centralizeduthority,tcan be said

that herewas no

true

olitics

n

theearliest

ities,

lthough

ome

degree

f

social

regulation

was needed and

probably

xisted to maintain

permanent

rban

settlement,

ven

f

only

derived rom

gender

r

nter-householdivision f abor.

Almost

y

definition,owever,

e

can

claim that

olitics

merges

n

conjunction

with

heformation

f the

ity-state.

In

his

provocative enealogy

f

the

concept

f

citizenship,

ngin

sin

(2002)

rootshis

analysis

f

beingpolitical

n

theurbanization

rocess,

n

the

generative

forces hat rise

from he

ocio-spatialgglomeration

r

clusteringogether

f urban

communities.5

ollowing

Aristotle,

sin

argues

hat

politics

re

essentially

rban

5

I

have used the erm

ynekism

o

refer o the timulus f urban

gglomeration,

orrowing

t

from he

Greek

ynoikismos

s used

by

Aristotlend

Thucydides

o

describe heformationf

the

ity-state.

Soja

2000)

Synoikismos

efers o social

groups oming ogether

o

live

nterdependently

n

one home

pace,

oikos

meaning

home,

the root

of economics nd

ecology

as well as

ekistics,

he

study

f

human

settlements.t also means o

wed,

o live

nterdependentlyogether.

4y

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Theor

oc

(2010)

39:361-376

369

generated,

ntrinsico

the

ity-state

x

olis,

and

reflective

f

deepeningnequality

f

power

ndwealth.Without senseofurban

patial ausality,

his

rgument

ecomes

incomprehensible

nd almost

mpossible

o understandnd

accept.

Yet it s a vital

part f whatwashappeningn the astern orderlandsf theMediterraneantarting

8,000

years ago,

as

peaceful

nd

egalitarian

tateless ities

became

politically

charged ity-states.

This

mutually

ormativeelation

mong

ities, tates,

nd

politics

s blurred

nd

fractured

n

most

fthe iterature

haped y

social

historicism,

hich ends o avoid

any

hint f urban

patial ausality.

he

connections,

owever,

re

clearly xpressed

in

anguage

nd oururban-related

ocabulary.

he

city-state

r

polis gives

us

policy,

polite,

olice, olity,

nd,

f

course,

olitics;

while heLatin ivitas s linked o

civil,

civic, itizen,

ivilization,

nd

city.

he Greekword

o

distinguish

heurban weller

fromhebarbarianutsider r rural dioteshenceMarx's amentbout he idiocy

of rural

ife)

s

polites,

term edolent f the

ink

between

eing

urban nd

being

political.

Although

twould

require great

eal more esearchhan as beendone

or that

can do to demonstrate

onclusively,

wouldnotbe

surprised

f

his

nterdependency

among

ities, tates,

nd

politics

was

fairly

well understood

y

philosophers

nd

historians efore

he mid-nineteenth

entury

ise of social historicism.

t is also

likely

hat hese

nterdependencies

ave

subsequently

een

buried,distorted,

r

overlooked,

ndeed

made to

appear

nconceivable o

modern cholars.

xplicitly

recognized,

owever,

hey ive

new

meaning

o what

happened

n that econd rban

revolution.merging as a pronouncedifferentiationf socialandspatial ower,

the

reation f

hierarchy

ased on

kinship

ies,

gender, ropertywnership

r

class,

and

place

of

residence,

ot

ust

urbanvs. non-urban

ut also location

within he

more

entralized

nd ess

egalitarian

uilt

nvironment,

ll sustained

y

new forms

of

coercion nd social

control.

New

populations

ntered he

city

nd the

urban abric.

religious

nd

political

elite,

ncreasing

ts

powers

of coercion nd

control,

ettled

n the most favored

places;

a merchant

lass entered he

ity

nd tookcontrol f their

urf;

he

military

were

given

place

to ive and

work,

s wereother

roups

uch s

city-managers

r

bureaucrats

nd slaves. Cities

grew

in

size to more

than

fifty

housand nd

competitionor esources,rade,ndplundered toempire-building,s onecity-state

attempted

o controlother

city-states

o receive

tribute

n

labor

and

goods.

Geographically

neven

development

nd

globalization egan

to

intensify,

t least

in

theOld

World,

hile

ity-states

lso

multiplied

n New World

egions.

ity-based

states

nd trust etworks

rew together,

timulating

he

spatial

concentration

f

power

over

the accumulationf wealth

nd the coordinationf

Tilly's

threeCs:

capital,

oercion,

nd commitment.

hese concentrationsf

wealth nd

power

were

not social

abstractions

ut were

concretely

xpressed

n

spatially rganized

ity-

states/state-cities,

ymbolically

nd

physically

unctuated

y palaces,

markets,

castles,

nd churches.

Trade ontinuedo be a vital

part

f urban evelopment,s it had been from he

start,

ut he

argest

ransformativeactor

n the

xpansion

fthe

ity-state

as more

connected

o

the

geographical

fficiency

f centralized erritorial

dministration.

Coercion,

oordination,

nd commitment

o not

operate

nly

n

the bstract

ut

n

organized

nodal

spaces

taking

advantage

of

unusually

ntense

urbanization

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370

Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

economies

f

administration

nd the

wielding

f

power.Managing

much

arger

scale urban ocieties ncreased

he

pressure

o nnovate ot

ust

n

coordinating

abor

for

expanding griculturalroduction

ut for

maintainingmperial

ontrol ver

increasinglyar-flungributaryerritories.6hegrowthf ndividualities s wellas

the

population

ize of

city-based

mpires ncreasinglyinged pon

administrative

and

managerialapacity

nd nnovativeness.

The industrial

apitalist ity:

thirdurban revolution?

The

city-state

nd

city-state

ased

empires

volved

n

many

ifferentirectionsrom

their arliest orms. or

many

Western)

cholars,

he medieval

ity epresented

particularlynspired

ersion f urbanized

ociety,

hileothers aw new freedoms

emerging

nthemercantileities f

Europe, ignified

ntheHanseatic

eague

motto

Stadt

uft

macht

rei.

With

the

possible

exception

f the Greek

philosophical

discourse n

democracy,

his ssociation

f

freedom

ith

he

city

was

a

relatively

new

dea,

reflecting

he

mergence

f merchantased ratherhan tate ased cities.

The rise and

globalization

f mercantile

ities,

many

without

ignificant

tate

functions,

ad another

eographical

ffect,

eading

o a

rapidly rowing

oastal

urbanization

rocess,

s

port

ities and

long

distance rade

outes onnected

he

littoralf all

theworlds nhabitedontinentsnd contributedo therelative ecline

of some

city-states

ocated

eeper

nland.

The urbanizationrocessand the stimulus f urbanagglomerationhanged

dramatically

ith

the Industrial evolution.As recent esearch

n

geographical

economics as been

telling

s,

the human

ctivity

hatbenefitsmostfrom rban

agglomeration

nd

urbanizationconomies s

factory-basedanufacturing

r

large

scale industrialization.he Industrial evolution

ccordinglyriggered

n

exponen-

tial

urge

n

urbanizationnlike

ny

that

receded

t. The

proportion

f

theworld's

population

hat

ives

n

cities emained

ery

ow,

probably

ell under

%,

for he

first

,000

years

of societal

development.

t

rises

only

slightly

ver the next

5,000

years hrough

he

age

of the

city-state,

ut

explodes

n

the ate

eighteenth

century,

hen some states uch as Great Britain nd the

Netherlands ecame

predominantlyrban or hefirst ime s a thirdmode of urbanizationmergedn

association ith he

growth

f the ndustrial

apitalistity.

By

1

00,

something

emarkablead

happened

o theurbanization

rocess.

n

the

new kind f

city,

ndustrialization,

apitalist

conomic

evelopment,

he

expanding

power

f

thecentralized

ation-state,

nd what cholars

egan

to call moderniza-

tion ecame

nextricably

inked

o

urbanization.he

macro-geography

f this hird

urban evolution as

quite

differentrom hefirst

wo,

with

heir

rigins rimarily

n

SouthwestAsia.

Although

here was

a

tendency

o

Europeanize

the

global

development

f the

city-state,avoring

reek nd Roman

experiencessomething

Tilly ssiduously

voids),

ndustrial

apitalist

rbanization

n

its nitial

tages

was

6

Among

he

argest

rban

gglomerations

efore herise f thenation-stateere

Teotihuacan

n

present

day

Mexico,

Xi'an

(Sian)

in

China,

Angkor

n

Cambodia, nd,

with

perhaps

s

many

s a million

inhabitants,

ynastic

lexandriand

mperial

ome.There s still

ery

ittle nown

bout

why

ome ities

grew

asternd weremore

generative

han thers. he

iterature

ddressing

his

uestion

s

sparse.

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Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

371

decidedly

ocused n northwest

urope,

t the uter

dges

of the ld Roman

mpire

in

theBritishsles and Euro-lowlands.

The

great mperial

nd commercial

enters f London and Amsterdam ould

feel the effectsf industrializationn a grandercale thanmostother ities, ut

perhaps

he

purest

xpression

f the

radically

ew urbanization

rocesses

ook

place

in

Manchester, hich,

rom small market

own,

grew

by

1850

to over a

million nhabitants

s the second

argest nglish

ity,

fter

ondon.Manchester's

(like

London's

nd

Amsterdam's)

ndustrializationas

in

arge

art product

f the

globalization

f mercantile

apitalism

nd theformationf

trading

etworks

long

the nhabitedoasts

of all theworld's ontinents.

Manchester

llustrates

aradigmatically

he ntertwinedo-evolutionf

urbaniza-

tion nd ndustrialization

n

a chicken nd

egg

dynamic esembling

hat

happened

earlierwithregardto agricultural evelopment nd state formation. tated

differently,

he ndustrialevolution

nd the

xpansion

f urban ndustrial

apitalism

were

generated

nd

carried

orward

n

and

from

ities.

The conventional isdom

barely ecognizes

r

totally ejects

his

possibility.

fter

ll,

the

historians

ay,

weren't hefirst

actories uilt

long

rural treams

here

apidshelped

o

generate

needed

power?

But

ust

as

it can be said

that,

while ome

settlers

n

thefirst ities

knew

how to

farm,

he

full-fledged gricultural

evolution

rew

out of

the

urbanization

rocess

nd the

stimulus f urban

gglomeration,

o too can

it

be

argued

hat he

expansive

ndustrial evolution

ould nothave

developed

s it did

without

he

generative

orce f

urban

patial ausality.

A brief ookat the nternaleographyeinforceshisview. Urbangrowth as

fueled

rimarily

y

the

entry

f three izeable

populations

hatwerenot

present

n

preindustrial

ities o

any ignificant

egree.

irstwas

the ndustrial

ourgeoisie,

he

factory

wners,

who

with heir

rowing

conomic

ower

ould take

up

the most

favoredocations

oth

n the

enter

often

isplacing

hemercantile

etit ourgeois

residents)

nd outside he core

city,

n

ruralmanors

nd villas once the exclusive

preserve

f the

ristocracy.

uch

arger

n numbers as theurban

roletariat,

orn

away

from he

possibility

f

making living

ther

han

y selling

heirabor

n the

city.Adding

to this

highly

entralized

rbanization

rocess

was a

free-floating

population

Marx's umpenproletariat)

hat

rovided

oth labor

reservoir

nd,

n

theirmiserable onditions,n effectiveool to keep the working lass from

challenging

he new economic

system

oo

vigorously.

or the first

ime in

geohistory,

rban

lums,

overty,

nd

inequality

erved

ositive

ccumulation

nd

integration

unctions.

In thefirst

hase

n the

development

f

the ndustrial

apitalist

ity,

he

workers,

the

obless,

and the

majority

f machine-driven

actories ere

overwhelmingly

concentrated

round he

ity

enter,

here

he timulus f urban

gglomeration

as

at ts

peak.

Centripetal

orces

were

normous,

s industrial

roducers

orged

n the

urbanization

conomies

wellingup

in

the

city

centers.

trong

endencies

oward

concentricityelped

to

shape

the

sociospatial

order of the

city,creating

he

geographical

egularities

oticed irst

y Engels

nManchesternd later onceptu-

alized

by

the

patially

riented

hicago

School

of

Urban

Ecology.

Soja

2000) By

the

ndof thenineteenth

entury,

uchdense

entralitypawned olitical

nrest

nd

sparked

selective

nd

centrifugal

ecentralization

hatwould continue

o the

present

n theform f

metropolitan

rbanization

nd suburbanization.

â

Springer






372

Theor

oc

(2010)

39:361-376

The evolution

f the tate nd state

heory

ver he

past

two centuriess

usually

treated

eparately

rom he

geohistory

f urban

ndustrialization,

r marked

with

triumphal

ote

proclaiming

he

decline

f urban ocial and

spatialpower.

From

contemporarypatial erspective,owever,tmaybe more ccurate osaythat he

state onsolidatedround

multi-scalarnd hierarchicalational rban

ystem

hat

wove

together

dministrative

unctions,

he

provisioning

f

services,

ommercial

interactionnd

trade,

ndthe

urging

rowth

furban ndustrial

roduction.

n

some

states,

ll

these

hierarchies

onverged

t the

op

n

suchdominantities s London

and

Paris. n

many

thers,

he

majorpolitical

nd economic itiesdiffered.

n all

cases, however,

t

would be

misleading

o

say

that

ities nd urban

power

were

simply

ubordinatednd subsumed

y

the

tate.

Citizenship

as no

longer

efined

by

the

city

region

f

residence ut

t

functionednd was sustained

y

an urban

focusedegal system

nd the

overarchingower

f the conic

capital ity.

Continuing

o sketchnd chematize

uriously,

he ndustrial

apitalistity

nd tate

canbe seen

s

developingogetherhroughremarkablyegular

eries

f

engthy

oom

periods,

uch s thatwhich ollowedfter 848 nd he econdWorld

War,

nd

qually

longperiods

f what an be called

risis-generatedestructuring,

hen

new

forms

f

capitalistevelopment

ndurbanizationook

hape.

Until

oughly

round

70,

national

states onsolidatedheir

olitical

nd

economic

ower

nd

sovereignty

o

powerfully

that heworld eemed o consist

nly

f tate

ctors,

ow

expanded

n

number

hrough

de-colonization.heflat

map

f he nternationaltate

ystem

ook old f he cademic

and

popularmaginations

o uch

degree

hat

early

ll

otherources f

political ower

and uthorityeemed odisappearnd lternativesere lmostnconceivable.

The

contemporaryeconfiguration

f cities nd states7

Over he

past

30

years,

s almost

veryonegrees,

he

overeignty

nd

power

f the

nation-stateas come under

greater

hallenge

han at

any

other ime since the

establishmentf the nation-state

ystem.

his

has

certainly

ot ed to the end of

the

nation-state,

s

some writers

rematurelyresumed,

ut

it

has involved

profoundestructuring

r

reconfiguration

hat as

become

he

ubject

f

a

growing

new literature.s thesepast30 yearshave also seen a markedpatial urnnthe

social sciences nd

humanities,

t s not

urprising

o find hat n

importantegment

of thisnew iteraturen state

estructuring

as

emphasized highly

alient

ritical

spatial

erspective

Brenner

004;

Fraser

008).

During

he same

period,

he urbanization

rocess

nd urban

heory

ave been

experiencing

n

equally rofoundestructuring.any

re

proclaiming

n

emergent

ew

urban

ge,drawingncouragement

rom

he

UN announcementhat he

majority

f he

world's

opulation,

ore han .3 billion

eople,

ow ive

n

ities.

thers,

ith he ame

end f

exaggeration

pplied

o

the

nation-state,

rgue

hat

ities

re

becoming

bsolete

7I have

only

ead hefirst

hapter

f

Tilly's

Cities nd States n World

istory,

o do notknowhow he

would deal with

the

past

two centuries.

n

his

continuing

onnection f

accumulation,

oercion,

coordination,ommitment,

nd

trust,

here s at least the

suggestion

hat our views of

capitalist

urbanizationnd tate ormationrenot

ntirelyncompatible.

n

this

oncluding

ection, owever,

try

o

clarify

hemain ource f

our

differencesnd

to

illustrateurther

he

new

ideas

that

re

generated y

emphaticallypatializing illy's

ook

through istory.

4y

Springer






Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

373

with he

distance-compressing

ew nformationnd communications

echnologies.

o

what anwe

say

bout

his

rofoundeconfiguration

fcities nd tates? ow different

fromheir

redecessors

ave ities nd tates ecome?

Therehas beenbroad greementhat hree nteractiveorces ave beenprimarily

responsible

or he

estructuring

f cities nd states

n

the

ontemporary

ra.

The new

technologies

ave

played

facilitativeole

n

fostering

n accelerated

lobalization

f

capital,

abor,

nd culture nd the formation

f what s

summarily

alled

a New

Economy,

ariably

escribed

s

postfordist,

nformation

ntensive,lexible,

nd

global.

While

vidence fthe ffects

f these hree orces an be

found

early verywhere

o

some

degree,

hey

ombine

n

unique ways

in

every ity

nd state o

pose

new

challenges

o

nterpretation,omparative

nalysis,

nd

theory-building.

Faced

withthis

complexity

f outcomes nd

in

keeping

with

my assertively

spatial mphasis, focushereon twocloselyrelated spects f thecontemporary

restructuring

f cities

nd states:

escaling

nd

regionalization.

escaling

efers o

the

re-organization

f

the

spatial

cales and hierarchical

tructures

hrough

hich

cities

nd states

perate.

cale has

conventionally

een seen as

rigidly

efined

nd

almost

aturallyiven.

nfluenced

y

the

patial

heories f Henri

Lefebvre,

many

geographers

onceptualize

cale as

socially produced

nd

capable

of

being

re-

organized

n

many

ifferent

ierarchical

rrangements.

articularlymportant

re

the

relations etween

henational nd

supranational

cales on

theone hand nd

urban,

metropolitan,

nd

regional

cales

on the other.The

notionsof

rescaling

nd

regionalization

n

this sense

provide specificallypatial

frameworkor

under-

standinghe o-evolutionf cities nd states.

Threedistinct

cales of

government

re

usually

ssociated

with henation-state.

At

the

top

is the national

overnment,

ith

clearly

defined

nd almost

lways

superior owers

of

coercion, ccumulation,

oordination,

nd the

maintenancef

national

rust,

singTilly's

erms. ocal

government

or

the

ocal

state)

has itsown

distinct

esponsibilities,

ith cities and

municipalities

ften

given

additional

functions

nd

autonomy.

n

between,

epending

n

manygeohistorical

ariables,

are

regions,

rovinces,

tates,

nd other

mesogeographical

uthorities.

t each of

these

evels,

here re

designated

apital

ities nd administrative

eadquarters

here

power

s

geographically

oncentratedo

varying egrees.

For more han century,hese erritorialierarchiesemainedelativelytablen

most

tates,

djusting

nly lightly

f

tall to

changingolitical,

conomic,

nd ultural

conditions.

ver the

past

30

years,

however,

hese

governmental

tructures

ave

become

more

luid,

eading

ome

o

speak

of simultaneous

rocesses

f deterritorial-

ization

nd

reterritorialization,

hereby

ome

longstanding

erritorialuthorities

experience

ignificant

hanges

whileat the same

timenew and different

erritorial

forms

egin

o

emerge

Brenner

004).

While economic

estructuring

t the

global

scale

has been

extensive,

owever,

he

governmental

tructuresf the erritorial

tate

havetended

o

change

muchmore

lowly, iving

ise o a multi-scalar

eries fwhat

many erceive

o be

crises

fgovernance*

8

The

growing

se

of the term

governance

ather han

government

s itself

reflectionf state

restructuring

nd

rescaling.

o the

degree

hat

igid overnmental

tructuresontinue

o resist

ignificant

changes,

he relations etween

he

political

nd economic

rganization

f

the state end to become

increasinglyysfunctional.

ather

han

rying

o

change xisting overnmental

ystems,

ttentionften

shifts

o

creating

lternative

orms f

regulatoryovernance

hat

re more lexible nd

adaptive.

â

Springer






374

Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

While manifested

ost

clearly

n

the hierarchal

tructuresf the

nation-state,

crises f

governance

an be identified

t

many

different

eographical

cales,

from

the

global

to

the ocal.

Intensifying

nvironmental

hallenges rising

rom limate

change ndglobalwarmings well asworseningolitical roblemsinked oglobal

geopolitics

nd economic crises

have focusedattention n

the

weaknesses

of

existing

nternationaluthoritiesuch

as the UnitedNations nd the WorldBank.

Similar but much

smaller scale

problems

have been on

the rise with local

government,

s

existing

tructures

eem no

longer

o be able to handle

ncreasing

problems

f

poverty,

nfrastructure

epair,

nd

public

health

nd

safety.

The

rescaling

nd

regionalization

f state

ower

s

a

response

o these

lobal

nd

local tensions. s the

global

economy

ecomes

more

ntegrated

nd reconstituted

around

a

new

hierarchy

f

global

or world cities and

city regions,

national

boundaries

ecomemore

orous

nd the erritorial

xclusivity

f the

nation-state,

ts

ability

o actwithout

hallenge

n what

appens

withints

boundaries,

s diluted.We

have

not

yet

reached

borderless orld or the end of the

nation-state,

ut

profoundhanges

avebeen

aking lace globally, ationally,egionally,

nd

ocally.

Among

he most

mportant

ffects f

globalization

nd economic

estructuring

has been a

resurgence

f

regionalism

bove

and

below

the normal cale of

operations

fthenation-state.

uilding

n themodel

fthe

European

nion,

hefirst

confederationf ndustrializedtates

n

geohistory,

as

been

proliferation

f

multi-

state

rading

locs such s

NAFTA,MERCOSUR,

ASEAN,

and

many

thers,

illing

in what 0

years go

was a

virtuallympty upranational

cale,

between henational

and theglobal. Similarly,herehas been a worldwideesurgencef subnational

regionalisms,

rom

Quebec

and

Catalonia

o

Eritrea

nd

Aceh.

The

metropolitan

regional

cale also seem

to be

changing apidly

withthe

growth

f

expansive,

polynucleated

ity egions ncreasinglysserting

hemselvess

driving

orces

n

the

global geopolitical conomy

Scott

1998,

2001).

This has

given

new

meaning

o

such terms s the

city-state

r,

n a

more

recent

nvention,

he

region-state

o

describe

uch

quasi-autonomous

ntitiess

Quebec

or Catalonia.

It is

important

o

note,however,

hat

upranational

nd subnational

egionaliza-

tion

have

not

necessarily

weakened the

power

of nation-states. s

notably

exemplified

n

theresuscitatedationalisms

or

perhaps

tatismss a better

ord)

of some members f theEuropeanUnion, he statemaynot be losingpowerbut

enhancing

t

through escaling

ts

activities,

hat

s,

continuing

o be

in

control f

supranational evelopments

while also

using

decentralizationnd devolution

policies

o maintainather

han

ransfer

uthority

ver ts nternalrban nd

regional

governments.

hat s clear s thatwe cannot

eneralize

boutwhetherhe tate s

gaining

r

osing ower

nd

sovereignty

n

the urrent

ra,

butwe must ealize

hat

the

nation-state

ystem

s no

longer

what

t

used to be and

requires

ew modesof

understanding

nd

analysis.

Similar

rocesses

f

rescaling

nd

regionalization

avebeen

ffecting

hemodern

metropolis.

n

Postmetropolis

2000),

I

described his

crisis-generated

rban

restructurings a productfglobalization,heneweconomyf flexibleapitalism,

and the

revolution

n

informationnd communications

echnology. edging

somewhat,

described hatwas

happening

s the

postmetropolitan

ransition.

ore

recently,

have

emphasized

he

emergence

f a new

development

rocess

have

called

regional

rbanization

Soja

2009,

2010).

a

Springer






Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

375

Regional

rbanization

egan

t

east

0

years

go, ayering

nto

what

has beenfor

more than

a

century process

of

metropolitan

rbanization.

Metropolitan

urbanization as become so familiar nd

intensely

tudied

hat,

ike the nation-

state, t is frequentlyonsidered o be the only conceivable formof urban

development.

he

stereotypical

odern

metropolis

ends o be

monocentric,

nnular

in

the enseof

having

ome dentifiable

oncentricities,

ost

notably

pronounced

dualism etween n urban ore ndvarious

ings

f

suburbanization.here

s almost

always

a

steep

density radient, ropping

ff

from

highly entripetal

entral

business

nd

government

istrict,

nd

flattening

ut

n a

much ess dense

uburbia,

consisting

f

manymunicipalities

he

majority

f whose

working

esidentsommute

to

employment

enters

n

theurban ore.Urbanism

nd suburbanism

epresentery

different

ays

of

life,

he former ore

culturally

nd

racially eterogeneous,

nd

filledwithgalleries,museums, ighcrime ates,widespread ruguse, and thick

layers

f social nteractionhile he uburbs re

more

homogeneous,

onotonous,

healthy you

know herest.

All thishas

begun

to

change

with

regional

rbanization. he

metropolis

as

become

increasingly

unbound

n an urban variation f deterritorialization-

reterritorialization.

he once clearborder etween rban nd suburban

s

blurring

significantly

s the

densitygradient egins

to

flatten

hrough paradoxical

urbanization

f suburbia nd

a

selective

ollowing

ut of the nner

ity,

n

some

cases

to be refilled ith lows

f

mmigrants

rom round heworld.

t

seems

s

if

the

city

s

being

turned

nside-out nd outside-in

t

the same

time. As inner

boundarieslur, o too does the outer oundaryf theregional itybecome ess

distinct,

s the urbanreachesoutward

o a

global

scale. The

postmetropolis

becomesmore

olycentric,

nmeshed

n a

larger

etworkf

cities,

nd a new urban

form,

he

global

city egion, merges

n

between he ubnational

nd

metropolitan

scales.9

The

unbounding

f the

modern

metropolis,

s

in

part

the

product

f the

globalization

of

the

urban,

creating

the most

culturally

nd

economically

heterogeneous

ities

heworldhas ever

een,

has been

at the ame time

eading

o

the urbanization

f the entire

lobe.

t is thisextension o its limits f

processes

begun

hundreds

f

not thousands

f

years ago

that

s

driving

he

rescaling

nd

regionalizationfcities, tates,nd their etworksftrust,oercion,egulation,nd

identity

ormation.

t both concludes ur look

through eohistory

nd

opens up

challenging

ew avenues

f

nvestigation.

Open

Access

This article s distributednder

the termsof the CreativeCommons

Attribution

Noncommercial

icense which

permits

ny

noncommercial

se, distribution,

nd

reproduction

n

any

medium,

rovided

he

original

uthor(s)

nd source re credited.

9

To mention

ust

two extreme ases of these

hanges,

he

expanded

ity egion

f

Shanghai,

overing

most f

the

Yangtze

iver

elta,

as

recently

eenestimatedo contain 2

million nhabitantsnd several

other

megacityegions

r

megalopolitanegions

both

ew

erms)

owexceed50 million. ust

s

startling,

theurbanized

rea of Los

Angeles

a

relatively

ew census

ategory oughly

oincident ithwhatwas

called he

built-up

rea)

passed

Greater ew York

s thedensestn the

ountry,

s millions

f

mmigrants

concentrate

n theurban ore

whileLA's classic uburbia ecomes

ncreasingly

rbanized.

4y

Springer






376

Theor oc

(2010)

39:361-376

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.

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