The title of this paper suggests a series of connections that merit comment at the outset. It will discuss the transformations of a particular urban place in Spain, Madrid, during a specific period in time, as well as the way in which culture produced there responds to these transformations. The use of the word "recasting" in the title suggests some powerful processes directing this transformation of identity, particularly urban identity [1]. There is no term in the critical archive that has been more used in discussing recent political, social, and cultural events in Spain than identity [2]. By qualifying identity with urban, I am suggesting an approach somewhat different than the ones used by the majority of those who have examined Spain through the lenses of regional, national and gender-based identity issues. Hopefully, the body of this paper will illuminate how the concept of urban identities works with specific reference to Spain's capital city, Madrid, at a crucial time in its urban evolution.The remarks that follow are divided into three sections. The first spells out the theoretical frame for approaching the question of identity from an urban perspective. The second comments on how the urban process plays out in Madrid during the time frame indicated by this paper. The third examines some recent films about Madrid.
I. The Urban ExperienceDavid Harvey's The Urban Experience provides the inspiration for the title of this section. More than any other theorist, Harvey is responsible for correcting a shortcoming in materialist thought, where emphasis on the historical, temporal domain leaves out the dimension of space in all of its complexity. Harvey's extensive work should be read, first and foremost, as an attempt to fine tune Marxist metatheory that replaces historical materialism with historicalgeographical materialism, thus emphasizing the importance of spatial issues. Starting from this perspective, Harvey has produced a distinguished corpus of work that examines a number of issues all emphasizing the interconnectedness of matters of space and place as well as capital.Harvey builds on the work of the French urbanist Henri Lefebvre who, in The Production of Space, asserts that capital reproduces itself through the manner in which it appropriates space, especially urban space. The built environment of urban areas, Harvey states, is the second nature of capital. The conjoining of capital and space allows Harvey to articulate the two basic tenets of his work:
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