The City of Quartz on the Planet of Slums: Mike Davis's Radical Urban Studies

Abstract

The article reviews main works of Mike Davis, an outstanding urban theorist of nowadays. Davis’ interest is focused on the issue of neoliberal globalization influence on the development of modern city. He started an the analysis of rapidly changing social space of Los Angeles and then turned to research into capitalism history, interaction between natural and social environments and urbanization processes in the Third World. In his main works, Davis connects historical capitalism transformations and changings in organization of city spaces by distinguishing a range of regularities that affect both the century and the periphery of the capitalistic system. The author of the article shows that modern research into city issues needs new terms and concepts for more adequate description and comprehension of processes in the 21st century cities. It is concluded that main works of Mike Davis can be a source for such theorizing.