ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates, with reference to recent influential work by Lojkine and Castells, the problems that generalizing from a single national example can cause for the analysis of urban policies and development in capitalist societies. It suggests that comparisons between capitalist and socialist societies are of importance even if the main objective of most of the current work is a theory of capitalist urbanization. The chapter considers whether there are nevertheless some limitations to the usefulness of the comparative approach and how, if this is so, such problems might be resolved. The most urban research is either directly sponsored by the State or by organizations which share its policy-oriented focus. Both Jean Lojkine and Manuel Castells have attempted to establish some general propositions about the nature of urban development in advanced capitalist societies. Each writer admits to the existence of some urban policies and patterns of development which are similar in East and West.
