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of our choices, but also offer opportunities for us to find new solutions. As in the natural environment,
their success depends on the equilibrium among different agents and their capacity to adapt to
changes that inevitably come.
Cities are very complex entities, and it is practically unviable to try to explain them by a single
viewpoint. In this paper, it is made a review of the works of several authors through more than 50
years of studies in a wide array of factors that may help to explain our current situation. In special, it
is argued as the degradation of public spaces and social interrelations among individuals and groups
are in the center of these problems.
2. ECONOMICAL ASPECTS
The economical point of view is perhaps the most traditional one to explain modern History, and it is
undoubtedly one of the most important ones. Indeed, it is intimately related to the very beginning of
cities, since they arouse exactly in places where it was possible to form a surplus production, the
one that is beyond a population living needs. In this sense, urbanization was ever a class
phenomenon, since the control over this surplus was typically in the hands of a few (HARVEY, 2013).
However, in spite of that commercial strength, in Old Age, cities were generally ruled by political
and/or religious forces, so that trade activities were relegated to less noble spaces. According to
Léfèbvre (1968), the city was (and still should be) a
work
, characterized by its “use value”, not a
product
, that is characterized by its “exchange value”. So much was, that was in the city that the
main use value was exerted: the
party
, where products were consumed without bringing any
exchange value back. Even during Middle Age, when cities start to be dominated by merchants and
bankers, the city still had for them as main value the use, so that huge sums were spent to embellish
them and raise their status (LÉFÈBVRE, 1968). The city center, although already a business place,
was still also the religious, intellectual and political city center. As says the philosopher, the city
depends on that and tend to be destroyed if the exchange value and the generalization of
merchandise surpass the use value. However, this is exactly what starts to happen with capitalism
consolidation. The oppressive systems from the past are replaced by new exploitative ones, and the
new center more and more becomes purely commercial, without the symbols and meanings from
the past. Léfèbvre points out as the previous societies, even if oppressive, were at least highly
creative and even shaped the romantic ideal city that still remains in popular imaginary – something
that modern exploitative cities fail to reproduce.
David Harvey (2013) elaborates further on the capitalism effects over modern cities and advances
until contemporary times. According to the author, since capitalism ascension, an intimate
connection between this system’s development and urbanism has arisen. In its never-ending search
for profits, capitalists always need a way of absorbing their surplus production and reinvesting the
profits. Alongside resources as military expenses, urbanization has come to play an active role in
this strategy (HARVEY, 2013), especially after the Second War. However, every time one of these
resources is exhausted, crises happen in a cyclic way.
Until recently, international capitalism suffered a series of regional breakdowns (the Asian crisis of
1997–98, the Russian of 1998, the Argentinean of 2001), but had always avoided a global break,
even in front of a chronic incapacity of investing the excess capital. In the XXI century, in the United
States, the real estate industry became the main economy stabilizer, even more after the High-Tec
bubble burst in the end of the 90’s. Real estate industry absorbed huge amounts of money through
the building of many residences and houses, in city centers and the suburbs. At the same time, the
rise in real estate prices – supported by a thriftless wave of mortgages refinancing at a record low
interest – boosted the American inner market of services and consumer goods. The American urban
expansion served to stabilize partially the global economy, and stimulated similar examples in