Marxist geography invites us to understand the importance of space in the reproduction of capital. David Harvey, for example, shows how the urban form is a critical place for the investment of surplus capital, especially through speculation in property, development projects, and the building of urban infrastructure. One of the big questions in the analysis of 21st century challenges, concerns to what extent capital will solve the problems we face through its perpetual need for profit-making and to what extent the perfect storm will be capitalism’s gravedigger. Considering that the price tag for retooling existing new cities and building new cities from “scratch” is 40 trillion dollars, it appears that the 21st century urban form provides capital with abundant market opportunities, potentially rich enough to reproduce capitalism deep into the 21st century. Corporations like Siemens and Cisco Systems are on the leading edge of market capture with plans to create the “ubiquitous”/“smart” city through the “Internet of things.”
An interesting article in the Financial Times (May 19, 2014), “Cities Fail to Make the Grade in the Classroom,” suggests that higher education is behind the curve in providing students with the skills needed for reproducing capital in the 21st century. It states, “With more than 2bn people expected to move to cities by 2050 and the resulting business opportunities that this presents, urbanisation would seem to be a topic that business schools cannot ignore.” Yet, there is a “growing view that business schools have been teaching the wrong topics.” Paul Romer, at NYU Stern, for example, highlights the unique management challenges presented by the scope and scale of 21st century urbanization, but also warns of the dearth in top managers in the field. According to the Financial Times, there is “a real thirst for training in effective management of urbanisation projects.” The article quotes Professor Reuben Abraham, “How do you miss something this big? Either it is very clear or I am an idiot.”
The scope and scale of Habitat III, along with the profit-making potential embedded within its projects, is a vehicle for structuring capitalist reproduction in the urban form. Similar to the way the Millennium Development Goals provided a galvanizing way for the global community to focus on the issue of poverty, Habitat III promises to focus the attention of UN agencies, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and higher education on the 21st century urban form. Higher Education will increasingly become a player in shaping Habitat III, especially as grant opportunities open up, and public policy discourse increasingly shifts to the city. While business schools may not yet be on the leading of the arc, they soon will be, especially given the 40 trillion dollar profit-making potential waiting for the new generation of managers. They will become predominate actors in knowledge production about the city, and through that knowledge, business schools retain their position of power within capitalist society.
Link to the Financial Times article:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/445c291a-b8ec-11e3-a189-00144feabdc0.html#axzz32GeXISiS
Citation for the 40 trillion dollar statistic:
Viren Doshi, Gary Schulman, and Daniel Gabaldon. 2007. “Lights! Water! Motion!” Strategy+Business. Issue 46. (Spring): 1-16.
