Revisiting ‘the city as a growth machine’

Written 40 years ago, Harvey Molotch’s paper ‘City as a Growth Machine’, is a milestone in urban studies. By its focus on land owners and land related interests and their collective promotion of urban growth he radically shifted the centre of gravity of studies of urban politics. This article celebrates his achievement. It then shows, first, how his insights might be deepened by a critique whose point of departure is a recognition of the capitalist nature of that politics and the role played by the accumulation strategies of property developers; and second, how our understanding of urban growth politics in the USA might be deepened by comparison with that in the countries of Western Europe.