CREATIVE DESTRUCTION OF

THE CITY

Alvaro Moral Garca

(barbarosilvano@hotmail.com)
and
Ibn Daz Parra (idiaz@igg.unam.mx)

Creative destruction

The concept of creative destruction (Sombart and Schumpeter): The

bourgeoisies spirit is economical innovation; it requires destruction of
old markets for the creation of new ones. Acceleration of historical
time.
David Harvey: creative destruction of the city. Marx: destruction
of space by time. Creative destruction is a process of destruction of
space and acceleration of historical time: destruction of social and
political spaces to create a city politically neutralized and adapted to
capital accumulation.
Displacement and rootlessness. It is a shock doctrine against urban
population.
The previous implies forgetting about space or to think space through
time categories: mobilization, circulation, transformation, change,
acceleration. Spatial turn: thinking the world as a city.

Paris XIX

New problems of the XIX century industrial city:

City-revolution: agglomeration, concentration and over-crowding turn

urban areas into spaces of riot and revolution. Redevelopment is used
for the destruction of the working class areas and the spread of the city.

City-market: Chaotic and unorganized growth results in economical

inefficiency. City needs to adapt to new productive forces: urban
renewal and development of transportation.

City-illness: overcrowding and industry results in epidemic disease and

high mortality rates. Slum clearance policies are developed in city center.

Urbanism as an instrument of power:

Domination through production of rootlessness and displacement.

Urbanism looks for destruction of the possibilities of revolutionary
politics.

Adaptation to demands of accumulation of capital. The city as a means

for production, social capital and circuit of non-productive accumulation.

Can we find modern creative destruction

in post-modern urban processes?

Post-modern urbanism?

Attack against functionalist urbanism, zonification

and growth.

Back to the build city: heritage conservation,

multifunctional spaces and city center densification.

Neoliberalization: Urbanism by projects versus

general planning, urban governance versus State
bureaucracy, city restructuring versus urban growth.

Italian conservationism (70s) , Barcelona model

(80s) and Latin America intervention on historical
city centers (90s-)

Creative destruction in
contemporary Mexico City

City restructuring as an instrument of accumulation

Historical city centers upgrade: tourism and middle classes/

commercial and real estate business: historical city center of
Mexico City.

Creation of new central areas through redevelopment: Santa

Fe, New Polanco.

Renewal as an instrument of control and domination

Control and disciplining of the historical city center.

Displacement.

Fragmentation and segregation through urbanism by

projects.