I'm sorry that for some reason I overlooked Peter's original post and the
entire succeeding discusion until just now. A rare talent for blindness,
surely! Anyway, though much of what I might have said has already been said
better, I thought I'd still try to toss some small timber on the fire . . .
There's an American urban theorist, Joan (or Jean?) Jacobs, who has written
about the necessity for cities as economic drivers. Basically, if I recall
right, she suggests that ultimately only such nation-states as Singapore,
which are, virtually, *nothing but* city, will eventually emerge as the
most wealthy in economic terms. Even Japan, in her terms, has 'too much
countryside', too extensive a rural hinterland to be viable. I think this
probably links to Mark's point about the urgency of many hi-tech companies
to form their own campuses, minicities linked to others, with a constant
flow of materials, products, personnel and ideas between them. The argument
is that you need to reach above a critical mass of people and diversified
expertise in a small area in order for the creative synergy of the classic
city to occur.
While I'd like to think that Peter's post-metropolitan vision might
approach reality, I must admit finding many of Jacobs' arguments
compelling, and the trends she predicted thirty years back or more seem to
match realities which have emerged since then.
Henry's quote from Mandelstam reminds me that the post-metropolitan vision
has a long history, including Jeffries' "After London" as one of my
favourites of the genre (oddly echoed in things like "Day of the Triffids"
and much else apocalyptic or dystopian si-fi, I think, though I ain't no
expert here.) Which of the Roman poets was it had a shepherd piping among
the ruins of Veii? But many of those examples are probably just negative
twists on the notion of a lost golden age; the idea that the downfall of
cities is a positive, to be looked forward to and celebrated, seems more
interesting . . .
Well it *is* late at night, and it wasn't necessarily Scotch either . . .
Cheers,
Trevor
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