ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author attempts to understand the urban process under capitalism. Within the framework of capitalism, the author hangs his interpretation of the urban process on the twin themes of accumulation and class struggle. The themes are integral to each other and have to be regarded as different sides of the same coin. The class character of capitalist society means the domination of labour by capital. The essential marxian insight is that profit arises out of the domination of labour by capital and that the capitalists as a class must, if they are to reproduce themselves, continuously expand basis for profit. Crises are the real manifestation of underlying contradictions within the capitalist process of accumulation. The argument which Marx puts forward throughout much of Capital is that there is always the potential within capitalism to achieve "balanced growth" but that this potentiality can never be realized because of the structure of social relations prevailing in a capitalist society.
