Showing papers by "Manuel Castells published in 1977"

The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach

Abstract: A review of the original French edition of this book in the "American Journal of Sociology" hailed it as "the most finished product yet to emerge from the new (Marxist) school of French urban sociology... The aim of the book is nothing less than to reconceptualize the field of urban sociology. It is carried out in two stages: a critique of the literature of urban sociology (and urbanization) and an attempt to lay the Marxist bases for a reconstructed urban sociology."The problems facing the world's cities, whether problems of development or of decay, cannot be solved until they have been diagnosed. The race riots in Detroit, the shantytowns of Paris, the financial crisis of New York must not be seen in isolation. The mushrooming cities of the third world, demolition and urban sprawl at home are located in a network of economics, social welfare and power politics, and the decisions we are called upon to make elude us in a fog of ideology.This brilliant exposition of the function of the city in social, economic and symbolic terms illuminates the creation and structuring of space by action--administrative, productive and more immediately human. The interaction of environment and life-style, the complex of market forces and state policy against a background of traditional social practice is scrutinized with the aim of establishing concepts and research methods that will enable us to come to grips with the cities themselves and the way in which we view them.Castells draws on urban renewal in Paris, the English New Towns, the American megalopolis for concrete data in his empirical and theoretical investigation. In this English edition, a new Part V has been added on urban development in America. The chapters on the "pobladores" in Chile and the struggle of the FRAP in Quebec have been greatly extended and an Afterword traces the development of research in the past five years.

Marginalité urbaine et mouvements sociaux au Mexique

Abstract: In Monterrey, third city of Mexico, there exists one of the most important urban social movements in the world: the ‘posesionarios’ of the ‘colonias proletarias’. Quantitatively: they number 100 000 in a city of 1 600 000. Qualitatively: they are ideologically radical, politically conscious and realistic, mostly based on political self-reliance. A short stay within the movement has permitted the author to grasp some non-confidential information that should be disseminated as one of the most interesting experiences of recent urban struggles in Latin America.

Apuntes para un análisis de clase de la política urbana del estado mexicano

Abstract: 1) El conocimiento directo de la realidad urbana mexicana que pude obtener durante mi estancia de varias semanas, en agosto y septiembre de 1976, como Profesor visitante del Departamento de Sociologia de la Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (Unidad Azcapotzalco). Durante ese periodo pude aproximarme a la comnprension de algunos de los procesos sefialados en el texto mediante una serie de contactos directos en diversas esferas. En primer lugar, y sobre todo, a traves del contacto directo con los colonos y vecinos que me invitaron a discutir con ellos de su vida y experiencia de lucha en numerosas colonias y vecindades de las ciudades de Mexico y de Monterrey. Sin su aporte, sin su enfoque, mi conocimiento del problema hubiera sido abstracto y, por tanto, necesariamente err6neo. En segundo lugar, discusiones e informaciones obtenidas de expertos e investigadores de distintas instituciones, en particular de la Universidad Metropolitana (Xochimilco y Azcapotzalco), del Colegio de Mexico, de la Universidad de Puebla, de la UNAM, del Infonavit, de la Secretanra de la Presidencia y, mnuy particularmente, del Centro Operacional de Vivienda y Poblamiento (Copevi).

Les conditions sociales d'émergence des mouvements sociaux urbains

Abstract: Urban conflicts are increasingly visible in the political processes of advanced capitalist societies. There are more and more grassroots movements arising out of urban contradictions. But the theoretical and practical question to be answered is: under which conditions do these movements become agents of social change? This article tries to make some progress in this direction by: 1 Presenting a theoretical framework for the study of urban social movements. 2 Observing 180 urban struggles in the Paris metropolitan area (between 1968 and 1973), classifying them into a set of variables and finding some meaningful relationships. 3 Relating the main trends of these urban movements to the evolution of the political situation in France and, particularly, to the transformation of left-wing strategy. The main argument is that the urban movements become crucial because they are a major element in the political and ideological hegemony—beyond the boundaries of the industrial working class—which the Left must overcome to go forward in the democratic path to socialism.