'Palindrome' from Ed Soja

Today I heard Ed Soja lectured for the first time. It was truly a splendid experience to have finally heard the writer himself rather than through his books.

He said something that after some thinking, I thought is rather indicative of the state of affairs today.

His quote reads, 'from crisis-generated restructuring to restructuring-generated crises today'. By this, Soja was referring to the changes in the urban form as a result of the tumultuous social and political events of the 1960s and 70s--when multiple crises prompted a change in how we plan and design cities ('cities': Soja thinks the city is passe; I disagree because barring an objective definition, the city is also a psychological category that can never quite disappear at any scale of reference). These urban forms are however again changing rapidly today due to the many unanticipated volatilities in the larger environment resulting in never-seen-before crises in planning and design.

It has taken me a painful one paragraph to recapture and explain that one particular line. While we can all debate on the validity of his proposition, this proposition does encapsulate an economy of thought that warrants a record on this blog and perhaps, further review.