ABSTRACT
With the intense debate over the terms ‘modernisation’ and the ‘modern age’ taking place for some time, several authors have stressed the importance of the period beginning in the 1930s, after the international financial crisis of 1929. The ambiguity of the term – ‘the slippery concept of modernity’ – creates certain difficulties for the application of this concept to our focus of interest from an urban development strategy perspective.1 Moreover, it is obvious that over the 60-year period in which these Expositions are framed (from 1929 to 1989) and in a large diversity of national and cultural contexts (between Europe, America and Japan), modernising processes showed themselves in very distinct ways in each city and project associated to the corresponding Exposition. However, this should not hinder the recognition of certain common features for the period, particularly with regard to the ‘historical’ Expositions, dealt with in the previous chapter.
