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458091

BSTXXX10.1177/0270467612458091B

ulletin of Science, Technology & SocietyToly

The Meaning of the Global City: Jacques Ellul’s Continued Relevance to 21st-Century Urbanism

Noah Toly1

Abstract Jacques Ellul’s book, The Meaning of the City, widely recognized as one of the most important twentieth century theological reflections on the city, was also one of his most controversial scholarly contributions. Many urbanists interpreted the book as demeaning the city and diminishing the importance of urban policy, planning, design, architecture, and activism at a time when cities around the world had experience profound crises. This article reexamines The Meaning of the City and its relevance to twenty-first century urbanism. Keywords Ellul, cities, globalization, planning, ethics

Introduction Theologian and social theorist Jacques Ellul’s best known and most renowned work was The Technological Society (1964). It is likely, though, that few readers understand the origins of The Technological Society in Ellul’s observations of the 20th-century city. Consider this passage from the beginning of The Technological Society: Men now live in conditions that are less than human. Consider the concentration of our great cities, the slums, the lack of space, of air, of time, the gloomy streets and the sallow lights that confuse night and day. Think of our dehumanized factories, our unsatisfied senses, our working women, our estrangement from nature. Life in such an environment has no meaning. Consider our public transportation, in which man is less important than a parcel, our hospitals in which he is only a number. Yet we call this progress. . . . And the noise, that monster boring into us at every hour of the night without respite. The machine took its place in a social milieu that was not made for it, and for that reason created the inhuman society in which we live. (Ellul, 1964, pp. 4-5) Ellul’s reflections on the role of technique—including, but not limited to, machines of industry and convenience— were prompted in part by the living conditions of 20th-century cities. While Ellul interprets 20th-century urbanism in various locations in his corpus, his most direct contribution to urbanism was primarily made through his 1970 work, The Meaning of the City. This article explores the contribution,

weaknesses, and continued relevance of that work in the context of 21st-century urbanism, which is marked by novel urban forms such as the global city, the megacity, and the megaslum. Of the major concerns of urbanism—the causes and consequences of the urban condition, the origins and implications of urban issues, and the presence and influence of the city in the world—Ellul was most concerned with the last, giving his work continued, and even increased, significance in a world now more urban than ever, a world in which the city’s presence is truly global. Any exploration of this work, in particular, must reckon with Ellul’s approach to the integration of what he called urbanism and “the sciences,” on one hand, and his Christian faith, on the other. There is not sufficient room here for complete exploration of Ellul’s approach to the integration of faith and reason, so analysis will be limited to the text of The Meaning of the City.

The Meaning of the City: Context and Reception The 20th century was the century of urbanization. When Ellul was born, 175 million people—approximately 10% of the world’s population—lived in urban areas. By the time World War II was over, that percentage had nearly tripled; about 750 million people lived in cities. By 1970, just a 1

Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, USA

Corresponding Author: Noah Toly, Wheaton College, 501 College Avenue, Wheaton, IL 60187, USA Email: noah.toly@wheaton.edu