Wanderers above the fog: revisiting 1980s modernity and postmodernity with Berman and Harvey

The 1980s saw the challenges to understanding the contemporary city that arose from the full-scale retreat from top-down and holistic modernist approaches to city planning towards more fragmented, market-oriented postmodern approaches. This reflective review of two key texts – Marshall Berman's All that is solid melts into air and David Harvey’s The condition of postmodernity – provides a lens on key currents of thought about the experience of the city and urbanism witnessed during this period. There are four sections. The first two parts deal briefly with the contents of these books to show how they drew upon Marxist perspectives to analyse the impact of modernity and postmodernity upon the city. The third section shows that while their interpretations shared some features, particularly with regard to the prospects of urban dislocation and accompanying alienation, other elements in their chosen narratives contrasted. The final section looks back on critical reaction, before concluding with comment about the lasting significance of the narratives to which these books notably contributed in terms of interpreting the 1980s.