The urban identity in the global world. A theoretical reflection

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since the late 1980s-early 1990s, when globalization reached its peak, much ink was poured to describe and examine this process and its effect on cities. While for some commentators, cities have been undergoing the inevitable homogenization of many aspects of the urban life, for others cities have been safeguarding their urban identity, that is, those unique features that make them different. By critically reviewing the debate between supporters and detractors of globalization, this article seeks to rehabilitate the distinctiveness of the urban dimension, which, as some theoretical approaches suggest, seems to be dissolved in the global world. By taking a sceptical stand against globalizers and glocalizers’ positions, this article rejects those arguments heralding the irrelevance, or even the death, of the local and underscores the cultural and political specificities of cities.