ABSTRACT
In the vast majority of the human geographical research that has the city as its context or backdrop, the question of what constitutes 'cityness' remains elusive. This chapter examines the current hold Marxist and neo-Marxist thought has on urban studies. It charts the shift from descriptive to more critical urban theories, and the move from questions of what the city is, to what the city does. It describes the relationship of modernity and the city, exploring the contention that urbanisation has created distinctive and deleterious forms of social life. Urbanisation is a process that involves the migration of people to cities, and the formation of settlements larger than their more-traditional rural counterparts. Rapid urbanisation can create significant social, economic and environmental problems. The idea that the urban experience is essentially 'managed' through a suppression of individuality and the cultivation of conformity is then an important foundational story of modern urbanism.
