Urban policy and architecture for people, not for power

The form and meaning of cities change historically with changes in the political and economic structures in which they are embedded. Both economic and political relationships are critical; changes in one sphere do not automatically lead to changes in the other. The absence of the market relationships that so widely determine the shape of capitalist cities is not a guarantee that cities free of those relationships will be democratic. Further, even within existing relationships of power, subcurrents shaped by varying internal ideological and external national and international relationships exert their influence. The history of Berlin over the last century is an extreme example of such changing influences, which can be traced in detail in the specifics of its built structure. Discussions between Bruno Flierl and Peter Marcuse date to the year of the 'turn’ (Wende) in East Germany, 1989/1990, when Marcuse was teaching and conducting research in Weimar and in East Berlin. The dialogue among these friends has continued over the years, most recently at the conference on 'The Right to the City’ held at the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin, in November 2008. The following text documents some of the main elements of this ongoing conversation between two critical urbanists.