TechnobureaucracJ and city llfe (PARTONE) NINO STAFFA (*) Cities and the way that people live in them and use them are a reflection of the way in which society functions. It is reasonable to assume also that those with the most power in society will tend to reinforce their position by taking the most physically desirable positions within the urban system. The ruling class or classes achieve this by altering or attempting to alter the shape and organisation of the urban system in order to facilitate the smooth functioning of the economie and socia! activities of that ruling class. « OLD » AND «NEW» EXPLOITATION The present-day power class structure in Britain developed as the result of the existence of a powerful capitalist/bourgeois class followed by the growth of a professional/managerial class and the occurence of intense but objectively limited labour struggles. Unlike either Italy or Germany, where the socia! and economie conditions of the time resulted in the take-over of power by the Fascists and Nazis which accentuated the effects of certain elements still having profound effects on the power structure of both countries ( 1), in Britain no such dramatic take-over of power occurred. The « struggle » between the ruling class and any aspiring ruling classes in Britain has gone through an evolutionary rather than revolutionary process. The aristocracy, th~ capitalist class, the professional/managerial class and the (*) The author was born in ltaly but has lived in Britain since the age of f. He ìs at present employed in a Housing Department. (1) LUCIANO LANZA, Elementi tecnoburocratici dell'economia fascista, in « Interrogations » 5, december 1975. 7
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