ABSTRACT
Changes in the political economy of urbanization since the mid-1970s have brought significant adjustments to the content and direction of urban design and planning. Meanwhile, new movements in art and architecture have inscribed new aesthetic elements into both residential and commercial townscapes; and the increasing tendency for new class fractions and affective ‘neotribal’ groupings to establish their distinctiveness through individualized patterns of consumption has ratcheted up the role of design in every sphere of life. In short, contemporary cities, mostly a product of the political economy of the manufacturing era, have been thoroughly remade in the image of consumer society. Design professionals have had to adapt to a neoliberal political economy in which progressive notions of the public interest and civil society have been all but set aside. Producers, for their part, have developed new product lines in response to changing technologies, building systems, regulatory environments, financial systems and consumer demand. Consumers have developed new preferences and priorities in response to dramatically changing physical environments, social structures and patterns of disposable income. In the
process, cities have been reconceived and re-formed. Figure 5.1 shows the timeline of key movements and interventions mentioned in this chapter.
