CITY, VOL. 14, NO. 3, JUNE 2010
Triangulating utopia:
Benjamin, Lefebvre, Tafuri
Frank Cunningham
Taylor and Francis
Assuming merit both in critiques of utopianism, such as those leveled by Jane Jacobs, and
defences of utopian visions by David Harvey among others, this paper addresses what
seems the dilemma that one must choose between visionary but unrealistic utopianism and
stultifying submission to a status quo in the interests of realism and draws a solution from
aspects of the views of Walter Benjamin, Henri Lefebvre and Manfredo Tafuri. Key
dimensions of their approaches employed are, respectively, the  dialectical structure of
awakening ,  transduction and the ideological dimension of utopianism. The paper
concludes by indicating implications for urban theory and practice suggested by its putative
escape from a realism/visionary dilemma.
Key words: utopia, Benjamin, Harvey, Marx, Lefebvre, Tafuri
f there is a generic fault line in As to the antipathy of Jacobs and others
approaches to urban theory, planning, toward utopian-inspired urban theory and
Iphilosophy and design it is that practice, there is much to agree with. Such
between utopian and anti-utopian think- approaches can be sterile and stultifying,
ing. Thus Jane Jacobs introduced her semi- and typically they try to force urban
nal work, The Death and Life of Great citizens into preconceived moulds, often
American Cities (1992), by setting herself responding to technocratic, bureaucratic
against what she saw as the dominant and and economic exigencies. The positive side
for her pernicious legacy of Le Corbusier of utopian thinking, that which prompted
and Ebenezer Howard, whose work she Henri Lefebvre to ask  Who [of progressive
placed in the utopian tradition. That she thinkers] is not a utopian today? (1996,
correctly located these urban planners p. 151), is its rejection of fatalistic or, as in
there can be no doubt. Le Corbusier s the case of too many urban planners, politi-
Marseille showcase, l Unit� d Habitation, cians and architects, opportunistic accep-
almost exactly follows the forms and func- tance of a status quo. Proactively, utopian
tions prescribed by Charles Fourier for his thinking is implicated in the formulation
Phalanstery. Howard s Garden City plan of radical goals. As David Harvey puts it:
and the more recent New Urbanist think-  [W]ithout a vision of utopia there is no
ing that echoes it are foreshadowed in way to define that port to which we might
the views of yet earlier utopians, such as want to sail (2000, p. 189). Critical urban
Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella. theorists such as Harvey and Peter Marcuse
ISSN 1360-4813 print/ISSN 1470-3629 online/10/030268-10 � 2010 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2010.482268
CUNNINGHAM: TRIANGULATING UTOPIA 269
closely it will always be found that the task
react to this situation by the dual exercise
itself arises only when the material conditions
of exposing ways that existing urban reali-
for its solution already exist or are at least in
ties support oppressive and exclusionary
the process of formation. (p. 183)
social structures and practices while at the
same time projecting alternative visions.
Marx s specific deployment of this perspec-
One challenge for the critical theorist is to
tive where a proletariat with revolutionary
articulate visions while avoiding the negative
values and potent resources to realize them is
potentials of utopianism. A typical strategy
dialectically generated within capitalism
for doing this is expressed by Marcuse.
General features of a desirable future are nega- will be returned to, but first the general
contours of such a solution will be interro-
tively identified by reference to oppressive
gated. It should be added that the perspective
characteristics of the present justice instead
is not unique to Marxism. The perspective is
of injustice, community spirit instead of profit
also central to Deweyan Pragmatism, and
seeking, and so on while more concrete
prescriptions are  left to the democratic expe- Neil Brenner lists as one of the four defining
characteristics of critical urban theory the
rience of those in fact implementing the
project to  excavate possibilities for  radi-
vision (Marcuse, 2009, p. 194).1 This is an
cally emancipatory forms of urbanism that
attractive strategy, but it faces the problem
are latent, yet systematically suppressed,
that a campaign to unseat existing oppressive
within contemporary cities (2009, p. 204).
urban arrangements must include at least
But, unless one assumes an implausible
some concrete alternative recommendations
teleology in which radical tasks and the
on pain of being rejected as simple negativity,
materials for their realization are historically
and this raises another problem. Unless the
guaranteed, any such thesis is in danger of
recommendations are radical they will fail to
falling victim to the charge of acquiescence to
project a genuine alternative to what critical
a status quo, where identification of what
urban theorists see as cities flawed at their
tasks can arise is conditioned by existing
very core, most prominently due to their
values, habits and institutions, and the
implication in capitalistic structures.2
importance of given tasks is not itself chal-
The critical theorist thus cannot avoid a
lenged.3 An instructive attempt to avoid this
measure of utopianism. But this raises the
danger is that of Harvey. In his Spaces of
core challenge to all utopianisms that the
Hope he draws out of Marxism a  dialectical
more radical their visions are, the more
vulnerable they become to dismissal as unre- utopian perspective the aim of which is to
alistic. Classic utopians were not much both- combine projected visions (the  spatial
dimension of the perspective) and recom-
ered by this problem, since their aim was just
mendations for the  temporal dimension of
to describe radically different futures leaving
radical political processes, where the latter
it to others to figure out whether or how to
recognizes the limitations and takes advan-
try attaining them. But this stance is not
tage of opportunities of a given circumstance.
acceptable to the critical theorist who wants
The ground of possibility for this is that as a
to contribute to actual urban change. Such a
theorist confronts the utopian visionary/real- species humans are by nature  curious and
ism dilemma that in virtue of its very radical- transformative beings endowed with vivid
imaginations (Harvey, 2000, p. 208).4
ness utopianism offers no realistic means for
Harvey makes out a persuasive case that
realizing the futures it projects.
humans have always been imaginative crea-
A putative solution to this problem was
tures ( architects by nature), and his recom-
famously expressed by Marx (1968):
mendations for radical activity make good
dialectical sense, for example, to promote
 Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as
it can solve, since looking at the matter more collaborative action without falling into
270 CITY VOL. 14, NO. 3
traditional communitarianism or self- content of a utopian vision, such as those
consciously to take account of how the indi- articulated by Harvey, will not be developed,
vidual is both created by and creates his or though at the end of the paper some implica-
her circumstances (2000, chap. 12).5 He also tions of this exercise for specifically urban
offers some attractive menus for what radical theory and practice will be noted.
visions should aim at, including: promoting Of the three thinkers in question, Tafuri is
liberal democratic freedoms (seen as one of the most critical of utopianism. He shares
capitalism s false promises); environmentalist most of the criticisms of Jacobs, but with an
commitment (which, like imaginativeness, emphasis on urban architecture rather than
is a part of the human  species being ); and planning. Benjamin was less hostile to utopi-
championing rights to such as equal life anism, adopting a dialectical orientation
chances and good governance, which, with toward it and anti-utopianism. Lefebvre
other rights, he sees as the universal moments mainly criticized the deployment in class-
in personal political activity.6 divided societies of urban planning and poli-
Harvey s effort represents a nuanced cies that claim utopian credentials while not
expansion of the Marxist orientation. It condemning utopianism as such. All three
defends the view that people can and should place themselves in a Marxist tradition, but
engage in visionary radical activity and that, within it all are heterodox thinkers, and,
having embarked on courses of action, these unlike Marx himself, they all focus on cities.
should be conducted in dialectically sophisti-
cated ways. These are broad-stroke theses.
Still wanting is a focus on the narrower ques- The vertices of a triangle
tion of how one can find realistic potentials
in the present for a radical future. Whether The main thrust of Tafuri s critique of utopi-
failed promises of capitalism are realizable anism is that it participates in a symbiotic
goals rather than empty rhetoric, or, indeed, way with avant-garde art and architecture in
whether they ought to be valued at all,7 are expressing contemporary capitalistic ideol-
contested questions. Similarly, while atten- ogy regarding cities. He sees the utopian
tion to human species characteristics reveals attempt to impose order on the chaos of
a potential for environmentally friendly modern urban life as reflecting one side of
behaviour, alone it does not suggest how or the unavoidable combination of ordered
in what circumstances this potential can be cycles of capitalist production and the chaos
realized, and it might be noted as well that of market irrationality (Tafuri, 1980, p. 52).
such attention also reveals less appealing A key concept in Lefebvre s approach to
potentials. utopianism is  transduction , or the intellec-
This paper s primary hypothesis is that tual construction of possible objects. Like
some version of the claim exemplified in the Tafuri, he sees utopian visions as ideologically
passage from Marx and expanded on by infused, but they can also serve in an  experi-
Harvey can be sustained by appeal to key mental way to prompt challenges to existing
aspects of the approaches to utopianism by structures, functions and forms, thus also
three proto-typical critical urban theorists challenging the ideological rigidity of exclu-
Walter Benjamin, Manfredo Tafuri and sively structuralist, functionalist or formalist
Henri Lefebvre. The focus of the paper is thinking (Lefebvre, 1996, pp. 151 155).
methodological. That is, it will draw from Benjamin saw the arcades of Paris as
these classic radical thinkers conceptual tools forward looking architecturally ( glass
requisite for escaping a visionary/realism before its time, premature iron ) as well as
dilemma lacking in Marx and other theorists being sites for working-class community
who agree with the contours of his solution building (analogues of  the drawing rooms of
to this problem. Substantive views about the the bourgeoisie ) and in these respects
CUNNINGHAM: TRIANGULATING UTOPIA 271
utopian (1999, pp. 870 and 879).8 But at the his communities, was le papillonage the
same time the arcades were tradition-bound, passion which  holds the highest rank and  is
at the micro level by preserving retail trades the need for periodic change, contrasting
and professions (including the world s situations, changes of scene, piquant inci-
oldest) and in their ensemble by contrast to dents, [and] novelties apt to create illusions
Baron Haussmann s radical reconstruction of (Fourier, 1972, pp. 219 220). But even if
the city. Borrowing from an interpretation Fourier s views were especially suited to
by Max Pensky (2005), the concept I draw on the rigid structures of Taylorist social plan-
in Benjamin s approach is the  dialectical ning and of what was to become the New
structure of awakening prompted by the Objectivist strand of urban architecture,
arcades where dream and cognizance of there are alternative visions, such as those of
existing circumstances intersect (Benjamin, the Situationist, Constant Niewenhuys New
1999, p. 884). Babylon premised on play and essentially
changeable and unfinished.9
Though famous for his focus on urban
Time
space and its often oppressive constructions,
in one way Lefebvre saw time as the most
When More coined the term, he thought of
crucial category:
utopias as out of space, being u-topic or exist-
ing nowhere. But it is more challenging for
 Space is nothing but the inscription of time
one who wants utopian visions to motivate
in the world, spaces are the realizations,
political activity if they are also atemporal. If,
inscriptions in the simultaneity of the
by contrast, they are thought of as existing in external world of a series of times, the
rhythms of the city, the rhythms of the urban
some (non-mythical) future time, then the
population, and in my opinion as a
possibility of tracing paths from the present
sociologist, I suggest to you the idea that the
to them is at least left open. It is therefore
city will only be rethought and reconstructed
apt with respect to this paper s project to
on its current ruins when we have properly
focus on the temporal emphases of Tafuri,
understood that the city is the deployment of
Benjamin and Lefebvre. For Tafuri, utopian
time, and that it is this time & of those who
views have more in common with rival social
are its inhabitants, it is for them that we have
and political orientations than the utopians
to finally organize in a human manner. 10
themselves wish to acknowledge. Like main-
stream social scientists and economic plan-
The point is emphasized by Eduardo
ners, they are motivated by fear of an
Mendieta that the production of space for
uncertain future:
Lefebvre  should never be dissociated from
an analysis of the production of time (2008,
 For all these men [Weber, Keynes,
p. 151). Any urban space will be the locus
Schumpeter, Mannheim] the dominant theme
of an indefinite number of sometimes
is that of a future into which the entire
complementary, sometimes conflicting, in
present is projected, of a  rational domain of
some ways cohering, in some ways chaotic
the future, of the elimination of the risk it
features, the simultaneous presence of which
brings with it. (Tafuri, 1980, p. 52)
makes the space a potential locus for trans-
The key question to ask of Tafuri is formation into one of several alternative
whether such fear is endemic to utopianism. future spaces.11 To view such a space as a
It is true that Fourier s Phalanstery is highly  deployment of time is to recognize that
structured and in this way confines and while conditioned by their past histories,
makes predictable human interactions within the features of a common urban space are
it; however, at the same time among the also conditioned by anticipations of alterna-
passions by reference to which he organized tive futures.
272 CITY VOL. 14, NO. 3
Benjamin s dialectics of awakening pertain Ideology. Tafuri makes out a good case that
to the related interfaces of past and present utopianism can be ideological. Any politi-
and of dream and waking life. The arcades cal economic and historical study of
are  galleries leading to the city s past utopian visions, starting with the Republic,
(Benjamin, 1999, p. 885) which kindle dream- will certainly yield examples. He views
like reveries, as in the case of the fl�neur an Dadaist and other forms of surrealist art as
 idle dreamer who plays the role of every- uncritical reflections of the chaos of life as
man in the Arcades Project. One aspect of experienced on a daily basis as people are
these reveries is that, in the fashion of buffeted by the anarchy of capitalist market
dreams, they conflate the multitude of events forces and the New Objectivist architecture
that have taken place through time in the (Bauhaus, De Stijl) as reflections in urban
same places. Striking examples are the wax design and built forms of Keynesian efforts
museums which were found in some of the to preserve capitalism by means of economic
arcades, where historical figures from many planning. Both movements are ideological in
epochs stood side by side in the same place. their effect of internalizing within a popula-
The result is that the spaces of the arcade are tion submission to capitalism acceptance
 ambiguous with respect to their contents of chaos, on the one hand, and willing
(Benjamin, 1999, pp. 887 888). A second subordination to machine-like plans, on the
aspect is that the arcades call to mind the other (Tafuri, 1980, pp. 92 93). Utopianism
collective lives of past peoples who, more- mainly participates in the latter of these
over, are anonymous to living dreamers. The ideological efforts, in authors like William
fl�neur is led  into a past that can be all the Morris and (Tafuri s main target) in the
more profound because it is not his own, not Objectivist urbanism of such as Le
private (Benjamin, 1999, p. 880). Awaken- Corbusier.
ing, then, brings the erstwhile dreamer to an Persuasive as many of his observations are,
awareness of a present that is public and, Tafuri has not, however, demonstrated, as
though conditioned by the past, underdeter- Fred Jameson argues in a sustained critique
mined by it, being itself an ambiguous space. (2000), that all utopian thought is ineradica-
The resulting shock is the recognition of the bly ideological in a negative sense. On the
responsibility for future-shaping collective contrary, one cannot accept his criticism of
action, that is, of politics: utopianism without also challenging ideolog-
ical support of the status quo itself, thus
opening space for anti-status quo visions.
 The Copernican revolution in historical
More profoundly, Tafuri s depiction of New
perception is as follows: Formerly it was
Objectivist architecture and urban design as
thought that a fixed point had been found in
 what has been, and one saw the present built-form expressions of ideology marks a
engaged in tentatively concentrating the
departure from typical approaches where
forces of knowledge on this ground. Now
ideology is thought of as ideational imposi-
this relation is to be overturned.& Politics
tion on people s values and worldviews.
attains primacy over history. (Benjamin,
Rather, he sees it as embodied ideology:
1999, p. 883)
 Ideology [from the Bauhaus constructions
on] was no longer superimposed on activity
& but was inherent in the activity itself
Ideology, urbanity, agency
(Tafuri, 1980, p. 98). This means that unless an
oppressive ideology totalistically overwhelms
How, then, might the stances of these
all aspects of people s lives (as Tafuri seems to
authors help to address the visionary/realism
assume) counter-ideological impulses can
dilemma? An answer, or at least elements of
also be inherent in human experiences,
one, can be arranged under three headings.
including those implicated in built forms, as
CUNNINGHAM: TRIANGULATING UTOPIA 273
the left-wing of the Bauhaus movement an agrarian past and are modeled on pastoral
intended. life. The perspectives of the theorists
As noted earlier, Tafuri identifies fear of an reviewed in this paper, by contrast, are reso-
uncertain future as one feature of utopianism lutely urban. Among the characteristics of
that marks it as ideological. The reason that cities is that due to their complexity, dyna-
this anxiety involves ideological thinking is mism and the ambiguity of urban spaces,
that the latter is fixated on stability. The they provide the bases for a number of possi-
implication is that threats to an established ble futures, and which futures will be strived
order are dangerously subversive of normal for are not determined by tradition or habit
life. Utopianism is ideological when its future but must be actively pursued. Lefebvre s
visions are projections of an ideal of order view about space being infused with time
already embedded in contemporary society. presupposes a general ontology, akin to
If, then, one rejects a totalistic perspective on Alfred North Whitehead s thesis (1957) that
ideology, room is made for the contrary the present should be understood as an
stance that Lefebvre s multiple possible extended complex implicating or  prehend-
futures or the ambiguity of spaces central to ing both past paths and future directions.
Benjamin s thinking can be preserved in Focus on cities throws this feature of present
radical future visions. It is in this spirit that circumstances into relief and in this way
Lefebvre describes Fourier as a  subversive , provides an alternative to a teleological or
if not as a revolutionary in the Marxist sense fatalistically deterministic reading of the
(1975, p. 18). passage from Marx.
The conceptual tools useful for addressing Placing cities at the centre of one s analyses
a visionary/realism dilemma suggested here invites attention to the actual loci of life,
are essentially Gramscian. In his critique of work and politics rather than exclusively to
Tafuri, Jameson sees the latter as supposing a historical periods and class relations in
narrowly materialist theory wherein urban- general, as Lefebvre thought Marx did in
architectural projects of the kind Tafuri largely ignoring the realm of the urban.12
subjects to critique are nothing but ideologi- This attention reveals a difference between
cally infused expressions of oppressive hege- urban and rural settings. Urban dynamics are
monic forces. To this Jameson opposes not primarily functions of seasonal cycles or
Gramsci s notion that counter-hegemonic of tradition. Cities, on Lefebvre s view, are
visions are themselves motivating forces as works in progress ( oeuvres ) and  places of
opposed to superstructural reflections of the possible (1996, pp. 149 and 156). Unless
such (Jameson, 2000, p. 454). This perspec- utopianism is thought ineradicably agrarian
tive is inspired by Gramsci s view (1971) that (Bacon s New Atlantis stands as a counterex-
those embroiled in hegemonic struggles ample to such a claim), it can participate in
strive both to take advantage of opportuni- this work, at least by playing a subversive
ties existing within an existing order and also role or by proffering, in Lefebvre s phrase,
to forge a new collective will as the  Jacobin  experimental utopias (1999, p. 151). Also,
moment in counter-hegemonic undertakings. just as the Arcades are both forward and
As to where the elements of such a collective backward looking, so cities in general cannot
will come from, Gramsci s view was that disown their unique pasts as these provide
these exist at least in germ within people s life the points of orientation and bases from
activities. Like Tafuri, Gramsci saw ideology which social, political, economic and cultural
as embodied in such activities. life departs, but nor do these pasts entirely
dictate cities futures.
The advantage of looking to cities for
Urbanity. As has often been noted, utopian posing visions that are simultaneously radical
schemes not infrequently betray nostalgia for and realistic is, therefore, that it focuses
274 CITY VOL. 14, NO. 3
attention on the details of a complex domain elementary level, collective consciousness
(rather than on abstract historical or requires that people who might be capable
economic laws). Moreover, part of the of taking unified action see themselves as
complexity of cities is that they do not present members of an anonymous collective. Mass
themselves as static or homogenous, but as action is not appropriate to village-like
dynamic and, in a dialectical sense, contradic- communities, but requires people from a
tory resources for dramatic change as for variety of different backgrounds and not
perpetuation of an oppressive status quo. otherwise relating to one another to gel into
political collectives. Benjamin suggests a way
that city life itself nurtures this collective
Agency. Lefebvre seems to be echoing a consciousness. City streets, he maintains,
traditional Marxist claim in his view that  are the dwelling place of the collective
 only groups, social classes and class factions (Benjamin, 1999, p. 879). Essential to collec-
capable of revolutionary initiative can take tives in urban environments is that the people
over and bring to fruition solutions to urban who make them up are for the most part
problems (1999, p. 154). This apparently anonymous to one another and thus, unlike
reductionistic claim is muted by insistence collectives in rural environments, do not
that working-class activity is only necessary form communities, but rather  publics in the
and not also sufficient to this end, but, more sense of John Dewey (1927), that is, relatively
importantly, his orientation toward the ques- large constellations of people who interact
tion of agency is different than Marx s. through time within shared environments
(Whether it is incompatible with Marxism is and confront common macro problems.
an interesting question not pursued here.) The main feature of the working class that
The point is germane, indeed crucial, to the makes it efficacious according to Marx is its
present discussion if one accepts in the spirit latent power whether to strike, to vote in
of Benjamin that political activity displaces mass or to take up arms. While the element of
an opposition between past-boundedness or power is, of course, not at all an irrelevant
rootless utopianism: by whom and how are component of effectiveness, there are other
the relevant politics to be undertaken? components which, again, the authors here
In one of his discussions of Marx, Lefebvre addressed, and in particular Lefebvre, suggest.
relates the agency question to utopianism The working class of his time and certainly
through his notion of  the possible- today goes far beyond industrial workers to
impossible that reverses the emphasis of the include such as service workers, government
perspective summarized in the quotation employees, construction workers, techni-
from Marx above. He interprets Marx, along cians, clerks and secretaries who overwhelm-
with Fourier, as endorsing utopian visions ingly live in or around urban centres. The
the social and technological prerequisites for main problems for which Lefebvre sought
which already exist in capitalist society and solutions were urban problems, and insofar as
hence they are possible visions that are the conditions of life and work enjoyed or
rendered impossible by capitalism itself endured by most people are largely urban
(Lefebvre, 1972, p. 155). To make the possi- related these are not at all marginal problems.
ble actual large-scale collective political They are encountered by nearly everyone in
action is required. One requisite for such the city on a daily basis who must address
action is collective consciousness and another them in concrete, varied and often imaginative
is that the political activity be efficacious. ways.
Marx saw trade unions as the training On Lefebvre s view, contrary to elitist
grounds for a revolutionary proletariat, and urban reformers, working people have
no doubt this is still crucial for certain kinds both the interests and the street knowledge
of radical collective action. But at a more requisite for profound and lasting urban
CUNNINGHAM: TRIANGULATING UTOPIA 275
vitalization. While the elites advocate Looking to the potentials for radical
startling architectural and high-end enter- change striven for by urban citizens
tainment facilities to make their cities world-  awakened to the need and possibilities
class competitors, ordinary citizens are better for such by the conditions of life and work
situated to understand the urgency of build- within cities.
ing or rebuilding physical and social infra-
structures. While the wealthy see it as in their
interests to protect themselves from the Urban implications
effects of poverty or urban squalor (as in
gated communities or security-heavy condo- There is no inevitability that radical poten-
miniums), it is in the interests of the majority tials will be realized. Among other things,
of working people in a city to resist gentrifi- what Benjamin calls  the last dinosaur of
cation and to secure affordable social services Europe [as elsewhere]: the consumer is not
and accessible public spaces. yet extinct (1999, p. 874). As the history of
The aspirations of urban dwellers are for Marxist-inspired activism clearly demon-
obviously possible reforms, but when resis- strates, theoretically identifying a potential
tance to them on the part of entrenched agent of social change does not by itself acti-
interests is fiercely obdurate, the demand by vate this potential. An underlying theme in
urban citizens for a  right to a city is seen, as utopian thinking is that properly structured
Kanishka Goonewardena puts it, as demand cities will mold the personalities of urban
for  a right to a radically different world citizens to be consonant with utopian values.
(2009, p. 217, italics omitted). The  factors to This hope was a motive behind Fourier s
employ Marx s terminology, requisite for the design of the Phalanstery to facilitate harmo-
 task of achieving this world already do exist nious coordination of the senses and passions
in the cities, where urban activism is moti- (1972, chap. 1).13 A strong version of such an
vated by the urge to achieve the cities unre- aspiration that urban design, architecture
alized potentials. and politics in and of themselves will inevita-
To summarize, this exercise in triangula- bly yield the desired transformations seems
tion suggests the following concepts for unwarranted. But perhaps the weaker claim
buttressing Marx s attempt to address the can be sustained that some approaches to
visionary/realism dilemma: things urban are more conducive to this end
than others.
A general conceptual orientation centred In this connection a somewhat surprising
on time, where past and present are dialec- conclusion can be drawn from the triangula-
tically related (Benjamin) and the present tion of urban utopianism suggested above. In
prefigures ( prehends ) possible futures extricating utopianism from a visionary/real-
(Lefebvre). ism dilemma (if, of course, this extrication
Exposure of ideology in the manner of has been achieved), recommendations are
Tafuri s critiques supplemented with a endorsed for urban design, planning and
Gramscian focus on revolutionary alterna- politics closer to those of anti-utopians like
tive visions found within the very life Jane Jacobs than to the pro-utopian orienta-
activities within which ideology is embod- tions she opposes. Explicating Lefebvre s
ied and functioning as themselves material Critique of Everyday Life (1991), Mendieta
motivations. writes that emancipation must occur  at the
Focusing attention on the details of the mundane and trivial levels affecting  the way
complex dynamics of resistance to radical we walk, have sex, eat and engage in the feast
change and the articulation of such change of social coexistence as well as at the levels of
( experimental utopias ) in cities regarded production and ideology (2008, p. 150). This
as works in progress ( ouvres ). is consistent with Jacobs thesis that urban
276 CITY VOL. 14, NO. 3
change must come from the bottom up, that visions: to pry city form away from capitalist
is, from the evolution of neighbourhoods and markets and ideology (Tafuri), to make the
neighbourhood activism. city a place where people can negotiate the
Both classic urban utopians and the transitions from past traditions to future
authors surveyed here emphasize the impor- transformations (Benjamin), and to honour
tance of public spaces within cities, but the people s right to a city that keeps their life
character of these spaces differ. On the options open (Lefebvre). Such visions are
utopian model, such spaces are formally more pragmatic than the rationalism favoured
structured places, dedicated to specified in classic utopianism, and their results are
activities (recreation, public discourse and messier, but they are radical visions nonethe-
deliberation, festivals), and are designed to be less and in this respect, themselves, utopian.
in aid of designated economic, political,
familial, etc. functions. Public spaces on the
Notes
alternative model are places of opportunistic
fun, which, moreover, is fun for its own sake.
1
1 A useful overview of the main tenets and figures
As in the vision of Constant Niewenhuys
of critical urban theory is provided by Neil
New Babylon earlier referred to, such spaces
Brenner in his contribution to the same issue
permeate a city.14 (2009, pp. 198 207).
2
2 Thus Marcuse:  [T]he claim is a claim to a totality,
Cities planned in the tradition of Le
to something whole and something wholly different
Corbusier s Radial City or the suburban
from the existing city, the existing society (2009,
enclaves of the New Urbanism, are internally
p. 194).
3
compartmentalized into areas of commerce,
3 Robert Cox levels this criticism at Pragmatism (with
residence and industry, of public recreation reference to international application) in
Approaches to World Order (1996, pp. 87 91).
and private dwelling, of rich neighbourhoods
4
4 His touchstone Marxist text, kindred to the one
and poor ones. Principles of design and
highlighted in this paper, is:  Men make their own
architecture as well as zoning by-laws func-
history, but they do not make it just as they please;
tion to wall these compartments off from one
they do not make it under circumstances chosen by
another. This is quite in keeping with the themselves, but under circumstances directly
encountered, given and transmitted from the past
models of utopian cities (in every depiction
(The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,
of which actual walls prominently feature).
Selected Works, pp. 93 180, at p. 97).
The contrast is a city the diverse parts of 5
5 Harvey lists seven such dialectical mandates for
which are distinguished by what Richard
radical activity, which he calls  theatres of insurgent
Sennett calls  borders as opposed to walls. activity (2000, p. 234).
6
6 Respectively these values are advanced in
Echoing Lefebvre, he urges that:  to permit
Harvey (2000, pp. 193 196, chap. 11 and pp.
space to become encoded with time, the
248 252).
urbanist has to design weak borders rather 7
7 The contrary view is that such things as liberal
than strong walls (Sennett, 1990, p. 190).
democratic values and institutions are nothing but
Unlike walls, borders are permeable, often celebration of and support for an individualism
supportive of capitalism. I m on Harvey s side here
overlapping, and relatively easy to change.
in favour of  retrieving such values in non- or post-
Bordered sites in a city are open to interac-
capitalist environments, but the point is debated, in
tion with adjacent sites, and their forms are
fact hotly so, among radical theorists, as is the
compatible with changing functions through
question even within the retrievalist camp about
time. what versions of such institutions and values are
worth retaining. I discuss this question at length in
Urban design, architecture, politics and
Democratic Theory and Socialism (Cunningham,
planning that take the daily activities of urban
1987, chap. 8).
citizens as their touchstone, that protect and 8
8 The themes from Benjamin referred to in the paper
prompt open-ended public spaces, and that
are found repeated many times in his massive
avoid walls in favour of borders are, like their work; however, nearly all his main points are
conveniently found in a pr�cis of the work he
analogues in classic utopianism, guided by
CUNNINGHAM: TRIANGULATING UTOPIA 277
prepared in 1929,  A Dialectical Fairyland , Beecher and R. Bienvenu, The Utopian Vision of
appended to the Harvard University Press edition. Charles Fourier, pp. 219 220. London: Jonathan
9
9 Constant Niewenhuys,  The New Babylon , in notes Cape.
for a museum display in The Hague, 1974, and Goonewardena, K. (2009)  Urban studies, critical
available at: http://www.notbored.org/new- theory, radical politics , City 13(2/3), pp. 208 218.
babylon.html Gramsci, A. (1971) The Prison Notebooks of Antonio
10
10 From a debate with Jean Balladur and Michel Gramsci, Q. Hoare and G. Nowell Smith (eds). New
Ecohard, in  l Urbanisme aujourd hui: Mythes et York: International Publishers.
r�alit�s , Les Cahiers du Centre d �tudes Socialists Harvey, D. (2000) Spaces of Hope. Edinburgh:
(1967, pp. 72 73). Reproduced in English Edinburgh University Press.
translation in the Kofman and Lebas collection in Jacobs, J. (1992) The Death and Life of Great American
their introductory essay,  Lost in Transposition , Cities, chap. 1. New York: Vintage Book.
pp. 3 60, at pp. 16 17. Jameson, F. (2000)  Architecture and the critique of
11
11 Harvey s criticism of Lefebvre for attending only to ideology , in K.M. Hayes (ed.) Architecture Theory
the temporal dimension of experimental processes since 1968, pp. 440 462. Cambridge, MA: MIT
and avoiding commitment to future visions (the Press.
spatial dimension) as an embrace of  agonistic Lefebvre, H. (1972) La pens�e marxiste et la ville. Paris:
romanticism of perpetually unfulfilled longing and Casterman.
desire , at p. 183, is unwarranted. Lefebvre Lefebvre, H. (1975) Actualit� de Fourier. Paris: �ditions
projected an urban space free of capitalist Anthropos.
impediments to people exercising a right to the Lefebvre, H. (1991, 1992, 2006) Critique de la vie
fruits of city life and to opportunities actively to quotidienne [1947], published in English as The
participate in urban politics, planning and culture. Critique of Everyday Life in three volumes. London:
12
12 As in a 1980 interview reproduced in English Verso.
translation in the Kofman and Lebas collection, at Lefebvre, H. (1996) The Right to a City [1968], published
pp. 205 206. in English in E. Kofman and E. Lebas (eds) Henri
13
13 The passions are for intrigue (cabaliste), the joy of Lefebvre: Writings on Cities. London: Blackwell.
 meshing the five senses (composite) and the love Marcuse, P. (2009)  From critical urban theory to the
of variety (papilllon). right to the city [Special issue: Cities for people not
14
14 Public places for Constant, and in keeping with for profit], City 13(2/3), pp. 185 197.
Fourier s passion of the butterfly, are places of a Marx, K. (1968) Preface to a contribution to The Critique
subversive culture of homo ludens. I discuss this of Political Economy [1859], Karl Marx & Frederick
conception in  Public Spaces and Subversion (see Engels Selected Works, p. 183. New York:
Cunningham, 2009, pp. 85 99). International Publishers.
Mendieta, E. (2008)  The production of urban space in
the age of transnational mega-urbes , City 12(2),
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