ABSTRACT
Fast-paced action tales can still be set in cities once associated with the 'architecture of hurry' but you no longer have to move from them to the countryside to invoke a sense of slower paced and more leisurely times. Still, it seems fitting to devote this 'Afterword' to some thoughts on how the ground has been shifting when it comes to the frantic pace of contemporary urban life and thinking about where cities may be heading. There were, to be sure, famous cities located outside the West, but they tended to be seen as representing the urban past rather than the urban present. Cities like London, Paris and New York have not lost their power to shape ideas about urban space. In short, it was an epoch when both the established leading cities and the main places to keep an eye on, for those interested in the latest developments in city living, were all located in the West.
