The Polycentric Metropolis: Learning from Mega-city Regions in Europe ? Edited by Peter G. Hall and Kathy Pain (original) (raw)

2007, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

This second edition includes a new introduction as well as updated material located in postscripts at the end of some chapters and in the conclusions. Since its publication in 2002, Pierre Bourdieu himself, who inspired the debate at the original conference, and Paul Hirst have both passed away. The introduction to the second edition is a tribute to what Hillier and Rooksby describe as 'committed scholarship' from both intellectuals, and to a great extent this statement is present throughout the book. The book is divided into five parts. The introduction also includes a contribution by Bourdieu on habitus, in which he addresses questions related to the ways in which habitus is able to adapt to this 'fast-changing world' and whether it is possible to use habitus 'efficiently in spatial analysis' (p. 43). Bourdieu asserts that the notion of habitus is based on a dispositional philosophy of action which is opposed to that of rational agents. While this dispositional aspect of habitus is contrary to understanding human action as mere rational calculation, it does not imply that habitus is not able to change: dispositions are long-lasting, but they are not eternal. Bourdieu is emphatic in stressing that 'the vicious cycle of structure producing habitus which reproduced structure ad infinitum is a product of commentators' (p. 45). The body of the book is organized in three chapters that broadly respond to questions such as whether habitus exists at a macro-level; if habitus can help explain processes of place making in fields relating to the built environment; and how 'durable' habitus is (p. 4). The first section, entitled 'Politics of Space and Place', brings together contributions from Ernesto Laclau (democracy, hegemony and power), Paul Hirst (territorial politics), Grahame F. Thompson (international governance), Chantal Mouffe (democratic habitus), Barry Hindess (metropolitan liberalism and government), and Joe Painter (governmentality and regional development strategies). Of all these six well-known theorists, only Mouffe roughly relates her views on consensus to democratic habitus, and only Painter directly reflects on the idea of a regional habitus in the postscript. The second section, 'Processes of Place Making', is a discerning look at possible ways in which habitus relates to place making in the built environment, and probably best provides a flavour of the idea of sense of place. The chapters cover 'the rules of the game' in planning decision-making (Jean Hillier), identity formation in a changing governance landscape (Patsy Healey), fear and sense of place (Leonie Sandercock), haunted spaces and sense of place (Steve Pile), crime and design in policy making (Ted Kitchen and Richard H. Schneider), architecture and symbolic violence (Kim Dovey), and belonging and identification with space (Neil Leach). The third section, 'Decolonising Spatial Habitus', tackles the question of whether habitus is able to change. It covers issues of migration in transnational cities (John Friedmann), the transformation of habitus in native cultures (Roxana Waterson), the role of Australian aboriginal women in recognition claims (Fay Gale), and naming, belonging and decolonization of places (Val Plumwood). This summary should have given a flavour of the range of papers presented in Habitus and also of the limitations of ordering them around the three chapters of the body of the book. In some ways the title of the book is misleading because a good number of the Views expressed in this section are independent and do not represent the opinion of the editors.