| This dissertation examines the political economy of city building that underlines the most recent transformations of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. I argue that Potsdamer Platz was the cornerstone for Berlin's most recent spatial and political transformation towards “becoming global.” The research provides a detailed study of the interplay of localization and globalization in the planning processes of Potsdamer Platz between 1989 and 1998. I contend that specific local conditions are the precondition for globalization processes. Hence, city-buildings processes, shaped by different actors, regulations and conventions (notably urban design competitions), are the site of dialectical relations between the macro- and the micro-level, and that the built environment is the materialization of these relations.; The significance of studying city-building processes at Potsdamer Platz resides in the peculiar historical context and the short time period within which the spatial transformation of Berlin's center has occurred. In this dissertation, I argue that large scale projects financed through corporate money are increasingly used in cities in order to (re)define their identities. In this redefinition of urban identity, as the case of Potsdamer Platz demonstrates, image production focuses not only on the lasting product, i.e. the built environment, but also on the process; hence the building process itself turns into a spectacle. |
