URBAN CULTURES AT THE END OF THE CENTURY - THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Over the last three decades anthropologists have again turned their at tention to cities. This has transformed the model of anthropology buil t on the study of non-European rural populations. It has also enabled anthropologists to make their own particular contributions using ethno graphy and qualitative research to investigate how cities have been tr ansformed by the emergence of multicultural heterogeneity, hybridizati on and intercultural and social segregation. A critical review of the main urban theories demonstrates that it is important to consider the cultural dimension of the urban experience in conjunction with the soc io-economic aspects. To do so, cities should be categorized not only i n terms of socio-spatial but also socio-communicational development, t aking into account the role played by the mass media and information t echnology in the internal integration of cities and their incorporatio n into transnational networks. Lastly, we discuss how anthropological practice can be restructured to encompass the new forms of racism, exc lusion and social disintegration that form part of the picture in a la rge number of megacities, in both metropolitan and peripheral countrie s.