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In short, I will suggest that the problem of how societies relate to space would throw light on and lead to a better definition of the question of the future of the city. I will fundamentally suggest that the future of the city concerns how changing human activity relates to the spatialities it produces, and how technologies, and forms of production and interaction are part of that relation.

I will argue that in the space between those polarised positions, fundamental aspects of how human practice relates to space were not fully explained. Although it is known that technology is deeply related to changes in society and in space, these theories do not show the extent of such interdependencies, in order to show how space may be active in the production of human practice and societal integration. Only too often the question is dealt with in a narrow, deterministic relation between new technologies and space. The aim of this paper is not to answer the question of the future of cities, but rather propose to relate it to such bodies of sociospatial theory. But in spite of the fact that the two issues are intimately related – underlying the question of the future of cities are a series of theoretical issues related to how human societies relate to space, and how technologies are part of that relation – there has so far been no attempt to bring theories of society and space together with a view to throwing light on the future of cities. At the same time, the more general issue of the relations between society and space, until recently profoundly ignored outside spatial sciences, has also become a focus of great theoretical attention, particularly in social theory and critical cultural studies – what has been called, remarkably, the spatial turn in the social and cultural sciences. The effort to catch up with social, economic, technological and spatial transformations has divided theorists: questions about the end of the city as we know it and the emergence of new spatialities, to theories about the increasing importance of the city in the contexts of a new, global economy powered by information technology. The future of cities has been subject to intense debate.