Book excerpt: Originally published in 1981, Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society, is a comprehensive collection of papers addressing urban crises. Through a synthesis of current discussions around various critical approaches to the urban question, the book defines a general theory of urbanization and urban planning in capitalist society. It examines the conceptual preliminaries necessary for the establishment of capitalist theory and provides a theoretical exposition of the fundamental logic of urbanization and urban planning. It also provides a detailed discussion of commodity production and its effects on urban development.