Transtext(E)S Transcultures 跨文本跨文化 Journal of Global Cultural Studies
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Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化 Journal of Global Cultural Studies 3 | 2007 Global Cities Édition électronique URL : http://journals.openedition.org/transtexts/126 DOI : 10.4000/transtexts.126 ISSN : 2105-2549 Éditeur Gregory B. Lee Édition imprimée Date de publication : 1 septembre 2007 ISSN : 1771-2084 Référence électronique Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, 3 | 2007, « Global Cities » [En ligne], mis en ligne le 31 août 2009, consulté le 24 septembre 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/transtexts/126 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/transtexts.126 Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 24 septembre 2020. © Tous droits réservés 1 SOMMAIRE Global Cities: Introduction English version Lawrence Phillips Global Cities: Introduction Version française Lawrence Phillips Pékin, ville spectacle: la construction controversée d’une métropole Olympique Anne-Marie Broudehoux New York dans le polar métaphysique : la ville totale Delphine Carron 空间 、 身体 、女权: 中国都市女性写作 Shelley Chan (陈颖) Schizophrenic Hong Kong: Postcolonial Identity Crisis in the Infernal Affairs Trilogy Howard Y.F. Choy Exploding Johannesburg: Driving in a Worldly City James Graham Short Stories against Barcelona’s Urban Transformation Edgar Illas Delineating the Urban: The Global City and the Logics of Dissolution Jarrad Keyes Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror: Colonial Italy Reflects on Tianjin Maurizio Marinelli Global Cities as Centers of Cultural Influence: A Focus on Istanbul, Turkey Michael McAdams Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, 3 | 2007 2 Global Cities: Introduction English version Lawrence Phillips 1 Is the 'global' city an age-old historical phenomenon associated with economic, cultural, and imperial power (Rome, Athens, Beijing, Istanbul), or a consequence of the industrial revolution? Is it a product of the media age or a continuation of the power and influence of the imperial metropolis? In the nineteenth and for much of the twentieth century it would have been claimed as a Western imperialist phenomenon (London, Paris, New York) or cities and countries that consciously emulated western imperialism (Tokyo). This conception – if ever actually true – certainly cannot be supported today. The European and north American cities now vie with the booming cities of Asian Tigers (Mumbai, Shanghai, Seoul), and the great developing cities (Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Bahía Blanca, Lagos), as well as regional expressions like the 'Pacific Rim' cities. 2 What is the essence of the 'global' city and how has it been represented? Is it a modern phenomenon or an ancient practice? How do we define global – is globalism a consequence of mass urbanisation or does globalisation create the conditions for the emergence of the global city. How do the global cities of the twentieth century resemble or differ in form and function those of the past and, based on present trends, the future? In the 21st century more people than even will be living in urban environments: «Over the next thirty years, the world's urban population could double from 2.6 billion in 1995 to 5.2 billion in 2025. Most of this growth will take place in developing countries, where some 4 billion people (over half of the total) could be living in cities by 2025, compared with 1.5 billion (37%) in the early 1990s».1 How will this impact on how we imagine the city and issues of migration, diaspora, and existing geopolitical inequalities – not all global cities are equal in these terms. What have been and will be the consequences of such global economic and technological inequalities? 3 Such questions are of course as open ended as the phenomenon to which they respond. If there is a problem of definition, the potential ways in which the «global» city might be represented and discussed are as equally plural. The issue recalls James Donald’s observation that «by calling this diversity «the city», we ascribe to it a coherence or integrity». If even the basic notion of the city requires a strategy to contain its diversity Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, 3 | 2007 3 and create a «textual» illusion of integrity, what of the global city surely an even vaster construct? Donald proceeds to draw a comparison between Benedict Anderson’s notion of the nation as an imagined community and the way we conceive of a construct an abstract notion of the city as imagined environment.2 This approach runs the risk of implying that the city is a psychological construct and cultural process as purely discursive space rather than lived experience, as Henri Lefebvre warns: «this mental space then becomes the locus a «theoretical practice» which is separated from social practice and which sets itself up as the axis, pivot or central reference point of knowledge».3 However, Donald is surely right to argue that the city is as much a psychological construct as material/social space. The global city is also part of an even greater imagined environment that implies a unity brought about by world-wide communications networks and a certain homogenization of the physical fabric of the city, particularly in the developed world but increasingly around the globe. 4 The conference at Liverpool Hope University in the UK in 2006 which generated this special issue of Transtext(e)s Transcultures on global cities, provided a forum whereby scholars from a variety of backgrounds shared techniques and insights on selected cities from the developed and developing world, North and South, the brash and new to ancient and care worn, from North America, Africa, the Near and the Far East. It is hoped that the selection herein captures something of the spirit of shared insight and debate into the phenomenon of the global city. NOTES 1. Michel Andrieu, «The City in the Global Village», OECD Observer, no 217-218 Summer 1999. 2. James Donald, «Metropolis: The City as Text», in R. Bocock and K. Thompson (eds), Social and Cultural Forms of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992, p. 427. 3. Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, Oxford UK and Cambridge USA: Blackwell, 1997, p. 6. AUTHOR LAWRENCE PHILLIPS Lawrence Phillips is Reader in English and Divisional Leader for Media, English and Culture at the University of Northampton. He is the editor of the peer-reviewed academic e-journal Literary London: Interdisciplinary studies in the representation of London (www.literarylondon.org), academic director of the annual international conference of the same name, and secretary of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies. His most recent publication is an edited collection Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, 3 | 2007 4 entitled A Mighty Mass of Brick and Smoke: Victorian and Edwardian Representations of London (Rodopi: 2007). He is also the author of London Narratives: Post-war Fiction and the City (Continuum: 2006), and the editor of a further collection entitled The Swarming Streets: Twentieth-Century Literary Representations of London (Rodopi, 2004). Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, 3 | 2007 5 Global Cities: Introduction Version française Lawrence Phillips 1 La ville globale est-elle un phénomène séculaire associé au pouvoir économique, culturel et impérial (Rome, Athènes, Beijing, Istanbul), ou une conséquence de la révolution industrielle ? Est-elle un produit de l’ère médiatique ou le prolongement du pouvoir et de l’influence de la métropole impériale ? Au dix-neuvième siècle et pendant la plus grande partie du vingtième, elle était revendiquée en tant que phénomène impérialiste occidental (Londres, Paris, New York) ou de villes et de pays qui émulaient consciemment ce même impérialisme (Tokyo). Cette conception – si elle fut jamais exacte – ne peut plus être défendue désormais. Les villes d’Europe et d’Amérique du Nord rivalisent de nos jours avec celles florissantes des Tigres asiatiques (Mumbai, Shanghai, Séoul), ainsi qu’avec les grandes cités en voie de développement (Mexico, Sao Paulo, Bahía Blanca, Lagos) et celles d’expression régionale telles les villes de la ‘Ceinture du Pacifique’. 2 Quelle est l’essence de la ville ‘globale ‘ et comment a-t-elle été représentée ? Est-ce un phénomène moderne ou une pratique ancienne ? Comment définissons-nous global – le globalisme est-il une conséquence de l’urbanisation de masse ou crée-t-il les conditions de l’émergence de la ville globale ? En quoi les villes globales du vingtième siècle ressemblent-elles ou diffèrent-elles dans leur forme et dans leur fonction de celles du passé et, en se basant sur les tendances actuelles, du futur ? Au vingt-et-unième siècle, les hommes habiteront plus que jamais auparavant dans des environnements urbains : « Pendant les trente années à venir, la population urbaine mondiale pourrait doubler passant de 2.6 à 5.2 milliards en 2025. Le plus gros de cette croissance s’opérera dans les pays en voie de développement, où près de 4 milliards de personnes (plus de la moitié du total) pourraient vivre dans des villes en 2025, comparés à 1.5 milliard (37%) au début des années 1990. »1 Quelle influence cela aura-t-il sur notre manière d’imaginer la ville et sur les questions d’immigration, de diaspora et d’inégalités géopolitiques existantes – car toutes les villes globales ne sont pas égales en ces termes. Quelles ont été et quelles seront les conséquences de telles inégalités économiques et technologiques ? Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, 3 | 2007 6 3 Ces questions sont bien entendu aussi vastes que le phénomène dont elles découlent. S’il y a un problème de définition, les manières potentielles dont la ville « globale » peut être représentée