Review article
Where Does City Go and What Does Urban Sociology Occupy Itself With?
Stipe Šuvar
; Odsjek za sociologiju, Filozofski fakultet Zagreb, Đure Salaja 3
Abstract
In order to answer the question concerning the destiny of a city, the author has first and foremost paid attention to the development of a city and urban society through history. On basis of analysis he has concluded that there is not one conception about a city (except the one by H. Lefebvre) to offer some reliable answers. Furthermore, the author emphasizes that all the popular contemporary conceptions about an ideal city have a conservative feature in themselves because they are based on sorrow for the rural past. Nowadays we witness the urban exodus, but not as a return to rural way of living under the protection of a city, because each idea about the village and villagers being kept unchanged, is just illusory.
The author emphasizes that the development of cities results from the periodical fluxes of urbanization without intervention that has been given human meaning, without minimum human solutions in the visions of urbanists. That uncontrolled gigantic urbanization can be avoided by turning over the methods of production. All other »solutions« are the forming of suburban colonies and rings surrounding a contemporary city. In fact, there is no way out from the inevitability of megalopolis for the moment. Even socialist societies have been inclined to imitate the development of a capitalist city, forgetting to present the question of a city according to the principal human intentions of socialism.
Conclusion about the necessity regarding the Marxist conception in the field of urban sociology and reflections about space, have been brought out by the author in order to answer the yet unanswerable question — in what way should a city be built and space organized as to exhibit total change in methods of production, tendency of a product to take over control over the means of production and consumption? In order to answer that question, Šuvar apostrophizes necessity for the Marxist conception of stock economy and fulfillment of true human needs of all people in space planning to be made emphatic. That is where the meaning of socialist progress philosophy resides.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
156273
URI
Publication date:
31.12.1975.
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