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The Urban Arena. Capital, State and Community in Contemporary Britain

1986; Wiley; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/621803

1475-5661

Ronan Paddison, John Rennie Short,

Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism

In this brief book John Short explores the interactions among three groups of 'actors'?those representing capital, the state and communities?in contemporary Britain. 'Urban' in the title is somewhat misleading, for he argues that there are no specific urban processes; 'urban' is equated with 'local' where actions are taken in the context of what the representatives of capital and the state are doing. Whether they accept this terminology or not, many readers will undoubtedly agree with John Short that 'All social actions take place in space and our lived experience is not of grand sociological categories but of small-scale places' (p. 2) and appreciate his goal of exploring how people are living out their lives locally in the context of changes in the capitalist system, as mediated by both capitalists themselves and the state. The exploration route comprises four chapters. Chapter 2 (the shortest) deals with the contemporary economic context, a slump following an economic boom. The remaining three deal with the responses of the three sets of actors, who are presented as a nested hierarchy. Thus 'The response of capital' (3) is followed by 'The state: arena within an arena' (4) and 'Community concerns' (5). The presentation, especially in the early chapters, is readable and, in general, readily understood, though it proceeds at a rather breathless pace. At times the metaphors are too intrusive, and over-generalization creeps in (e.g. 'criticism of sociology is de rigueur for Conservatives who want to get on in public life' (p. 103)). Two things stand out. The first is the lack of reference to specific places and place-related processes, especially in the chapters dealing with capital and the state. We are told that there is 'a conflict over patterns of capital investment and disinvestment in particular places. The interests of labour tend to be rooted in particular places. Capital in contrast is footloose' (p. 4). But there is very little in the book about the mobility of capital within Britain, not a lot about rooted interests of labour (even before the 1984 NUM strikes), relatively little evaluation of the response of central governments (such as Sharpe's comments on Labour as a centralized party failing to meet the needs of its peripheral constituents) and only brief mention of local government responses. The second is the absence of reference to people. Decisions, it seems, are made by capital (or some fraction of it), by the state or by the community. Is this people living out their daily lives in places? John Short writes explicitly as a geographer, so one anticipates the final chapter. Unfortunately, it is the most disappointing. It is bitty and weakly linked to the previous chapters. It draws on a narrow literature aimed at theorizing individual and community response (e.g. no reference to Cox on turf politics or Orbell on exit, voice and loyalty). And it fails to identify the specificity of people in places within the wider arenas. This is an ambitious book, stimulating yet disappointing. There are no conclusions. In the penultimate sentence, we are told that 'There is life . . . outside the factory gates and the council chambers'; unfortunately, John Short's lively approach?one with which in principle I am in full agreement?does not come to grips with that life. R. J. Johnston