Cities and Uneven Economic Development

Though best seen as an extended inquiry into the relationship between capitalism and modernity, urban sociology has characteristically concentrated on cities as sites of modernity, neglecting the way in which capitalist economic systems structure cities. In this chapter we draw on the work of urban geographers to show how cities need to be placed in the broader context of the world capitalist system. Such contextualisation, we argue, is important in specifying the relationship between different cities, and between cities and rural areas, so allowing the urban sociologist to avoid the mistake of seeing cities as self-contained objects with clear boundaries — as exemplars of a universal modernity. The significance of examining the economic bases of urban form is that it allows urban specificity to be comprehended, in terms of the particular role which different cities play within the worldwide economic system.