ABSTRACT
Manuel Castells (born 1942) is Professor of Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the most eminent of contemporary writers on urban change. In The Informational City (1989), his concern is with subjects we have discussed in earlier chapters of this book, namely post-Fordist tendencies (Chapter 7) and the emergence of postmodern culture (Chapter 8). Consideration of Castells’ analysis of changes in information and the urban environment is an especially useful way in which to bring aspects of these together. I want to focus on several dimensions of what he calls the informational city to examine two issues in particular: first, changes in class structures of cities which stem from restructuring processes undertaken to meet the challenges of a globalising economy, and, second, associated cultural developments which some have suggested announce the arrival of the postmodern city. This focus does mean that I shall ignore a good deal of The Informational City’s wider arguments that concern the relations between technological innovation, socio-economic realignment and changes in locations and places. Moreover, I shall feel free to extend beyond his own comments on stratification in informational cities and their cultures to include consideration of other contributors and even some rather speculative comment of my own.
