The political economy of urban restructuring: The case of downtown redevelopment in Chicago

The research focuses on urban spatial restructuring. The starting point of the research is the relation between crisis and restructuring which is one of the central issues of Marxist theory. The economic restructuring, which has been caused by the economic crisis in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States has brought a spatial restructuring at different geographic scales. The research concerns itself particularly with downtown restructuring which is caused by local economic and fiscal crisis due to decentralization at a regional level, deindustrialization at a national level, and the new international division of labor at a global scale.; The decentralization of capital and population at the local scale, national economic restructuring from industrial to corporate capitalism, the growth of new cities, and suburbanization, together have led to the decline of the older central cities of U.S. These brought about a tendency to urban economic and fiscal crisis, in turn leading to a search for new political regimes and for different perspectives to encourage economic development.; Downtown restructuring has appeared as an important response to such structural changes. Another crucial factor for downtown redevelopment, especially since 1980, is increasing inter-urban competition as a result of supply-side economic policies. Inter-urban competition has made urban governments an important factor for developing urban economies and for increasing tax bases.; Chicago is no exception to the trend of downtown restructuring; however, the case of Chicago exhibits several inconsistencies with the structural approach. The research focuses on how Chicago has not experienced economic and fiscal crisis, unlike other older central cities, and how downtown restructuring has been so active without crisis. From this basis the research examines the relationship between Chicago politics and downtown redevelopment. Finally, urban social movements, which have been active in Chicago in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as a consequence of growth ideology of machine politics and as a crucial factor for political reform, are examined.; In the light of the case study, I would like to argue that there is no necessary relation between crisis and restructuring. Urban spatial restructuring is brought about by national politics and economics as well as the local political, economic and social environment.