Transnational Urbanism: Locating Globalization

hi - i loved this book when i read it. i think the author has hit upon something really, particularly important about how cities are being critically pigeon holed into certain kinds of categories and socio economic systems and how important it is that we do not define cities in a limited way. he attacks, really, but really intelligently and critically, the so called "global cities" discourse which has cropped up and been popular among theorists and academics. maybe because it has been the most published discussion on cities and has a few heavy weight thinkers like david harvey and saskia sassen behind it. smith articulates arguments for why that discourse is bankrupt, anthropomorphizing the city as object and so forth. the best part is that he critiques a discourse that continuously defines cities in terms of their economic value for capital accumulation, accusing the global cities people of relegating cities to this competition and privileges the idea that other forms of communication go into making cities the places that they are, not just that of dominant economic interests. very important things to say in these dark times.

This book brings agency back into the discourse on globalization in urban theory. This is a particularly welcome addition to a field that has been dominated for two decades by unconvincing narratives of city life as an inevitable byproduct of capitalism's structural logic.