Abstract
Purpose: I initiate the discussion with a statement about cognitive-cultural capitalism and its concentration in large global cities. This is followed by an argument to the effect that the specificity of the city resides in the manner in which the diverse social phenomena that it contains are brought into a composite pattern of spatial integration. With these preliminaries in mind, I examine the economic structure of the city in cognitive-cultural capitalism, with special reference to the emergence of a new division of labor and the changing configuration of intra-urban production space. This account leads directly to consideration of the restratification of urban society and its effects on neighborhood development and social life. The final section of the paper picks up on the notion of the Common in cognitive-cultural capitalism and offers some speculative remarks regarding the implications of this phenomenon for the economic and social order of cities.Methodology/Approach: Historical and geographical narrative combined with appeals to the theory of political economy.Findings: Cognitive-cultural capitalism is emerging as a dominant force of social and economic change in the twenty-first century. This trend is also evident in new patterns of urbanization that are emerging on all five continents. These patterns reflect dramatic shifts in the structure of urban production systems and the significant restratification of urban society that has been occurring as a consequence.Research Limitation/implication: The paper is pitched at a high level of conceptual abstraction. Detailed empirical investigation/testing of the main theoretical points outlined in the paper is urgently called for.Originality/Value of paper: The paper offers an overall theoretical synthesis of the interrelationships between cognitive-cultural capitalism and processes of urbanization.
Highlights
I initiate the discussion with a statement about cognitive-cultural capitalism and its concentration in large global cities
I seek to address some basic questions about urbanization in the twenty-first century, with particular reference to the new forms of work and life that are emerging in large cities all over the world but most of all in the advanced capitalist economies of North America, Western Europe and Eastern Asia
The technological foundations, sectoral make-up, norms of market competition, labor relations, and locational alignments of capitalism go through many shifts in form and substance. Definite combinations of these variables sometimes stabilize for longer or shorter historical periods in identifiable socio-technical phases of development or regimes of accumulation. These phases are not always clearly differentiated from one another, but three particular cases are noteworthy for their distinctiveness as well as for the specific patterns of urbanization associated with them (Scott, 2011)
Summary
The technological foundations, sectoral make-up, norms of market competition, labor relations, and locational alignments of capitalism go through many shifts in form and substance Definite combinations of these variables sometimes stabilize for longer or shorter historical periods in identifiable socio-technical phases of development or regimes of accumulation. The introduction of computerized technologies into the workplace had the effect of magnifying the capacities of intellectual labor by augmenting the cognitive and cultural talents of the individual worker by means of the exceptional powers of calculation, information management, and communication unleashed by digitization For this reason, I have suggested elsewhere that the term “cognitive-cultural capitalism” represents an especially appropriate way of referring to the new economic and social arrangements that are taking shape on all sides today. It refers by implication to a core group of sectors focused on outputs such as high-technology devices, software, advanced financial and business services, and symbolic-cum-experiential products such as film, music, electronic games, and fashion, all of which depend in important ways on labor inputs marked by high levels of intellect and empathy, and all of which have strong proclivities to locate in major urban areas
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