City Theory

El propósito del artículo es examinar el alcance de las metáforas para pensar la esencia de la ciudad contemporánea, a la luz de las propuestas filosóficas de Hans Blumenberg, Jean-Luc Nancy y Georg Simmel. El punto de partida de la reflexión es reconocer que la ciudad contemporánea difícilmente puede ser pensada como un fenómeno más del mundo, un objeto entre otros, pues hace tiempo que se ha convertido en el " mundo de la vida " , en el que la mayoría de los seres humanos desarrollan prácticamente la totalidad de su existencia. Al no estar disponible como una realidad objetivable teóricamente, el mundo de la vida de la gran ciudad difícilmente se deja atrapar en su esencia en la univocidad del concepto. Sin embargo, en el artículo se defiende la idea de que allí donde los conceptos no alcanzan, las metáforas pueden permitirnos establecer conexiones con lo que de otro modo permanecería oscuro.

What is happening to central or inner London ? What is a city? Alex Proud explored these questions recently in an article for the London based Telegraph newspaper. His article was entitled “’Cool’ London is dead, and the rich kids are to blame”. He argued that the cool, creative class has been priced out of London, which means the capital is becoming more bland and boring by the minute. He forgot to mention that ordinary working class people are also being forced out of central London — what used to be called ‘the inner city’. If London is not of and for ordinary people, one might call them plebeians, then who is it for? Who are cities for? Shakespeare provided some fabulous insights into the nature of cities that we can draw on in considering these issues.
In his great play Coriolanus, where the action takes place almost exclusively in the city of Rome, William Shakespeare explores the question, what constitutes the city? A question which resonates as much today as it did in the turmoil of Elizabethan England. Todays theorists of the city such as Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson argue there is merit in the understanding of city materiality not just as inert objects but as assemblages of social and technical relations. Henri Lefebvre with his ideas about urban space being constituted through social action would surely agree but would William Shakespeare share this interpretation? And where does this leave the people of the city?

¿Qué decimos cuando decimos “ciudad”? ¿A qué nos referimos?, o será mas bien, ¿a quién? En La invención de lo cotidiano 1. Artes de hacer, el historiador francés Michel de Certeau abordó la pregunta sobre la ciudad: ¿qué es la ciudad? ¿el conjunto de sus habitantes, un deslinde geográfico, un sujeto universal? Con la ayuda de la película The Dark Knight Rises (2012), este ensayo pretende utilizar Ciudad Gótica, tal y como es presentada por el guionista y director Christopher Nolan paraabordar el tema de la “ciudad” problematizado De Certeau, y traer dicha concepción al presente para ver si, tal y como lo pronosticó, la ciudad es un concepto que está en constante degradación.

Palabras clave: ciudad, Michel de Certeau, Batman, Ciudad Góti- ca, ciudad concepto, acontecimiento, política, revolución, Slavoj Žižek, dictadura del proletariado.

ABSTRACT
What is it that we say when we say “city”? What are we talking about? Or is it “who” are we talking about? In The Practice of Everyday Life, French historian Michel de Certeau took on the question about “the city”: What is the city? Is it the sum of its inhabitants, a geographical demarcation, a universal subject? With the help of the film The Dark Knight Rises (2012), this essay pretends to use Gotham City, as it is presented by screenwriter and director Christopher Nolan to take on the notion of “city” as it was described by De Certeau, and to bring this conception to the present to see if, as was foretold by the author, the city is a concept that is in constant degradation.
Keywords: city, Michel de Certeau, Batman, Gotham City, concept city, event, politics, revolution, Slavoj Žižek, dictatorship of the proletariat.

We approach the issue of city theory from three perspectives, the (i) methodological perspective, (ii) the perspective of the theoretic concept, and (iii) the perspective of an explication that folds the first two perspectives together. The methodological
perspective focuses on the status of theory in an area of research, where the subject – the city – is a complex entity. The second topic of the paper is the derivation of the Sema Città, which describes the city as an entity of intended semiosic productivity instead of conceiving it as  built entity of storages, heterotopic consumption and metabolism. The third part investigates how the concepts information, complexity and evolution can be adapted such that they can be operationalized for research, design and planning.