Urban politics now : re-imagining democracy in the neoliberal city

With the rise of a neoliberal and neoconservative view of society, fundamental decisions about the form and future of cities are increasingly regarded as the product of inevitable inescapable processes: the laws of supply and demand, the clash of civilizations, or even the deep-seated desire for identity. The question this book poses is whether there is still a space for democratic urban politics in such a climate. The urban theoretical office BAVO invited scholars from a diversity of disciplines to reflect on the current eclipse of urban politics. Publication offers an in-depth analysis of the many symptoms that plague the neoliberal city, such as gratuitous violence, zero tolerance, consumptive hedonism and socio-economic segregation. It also proposes ways to re-establish the city as the driving force behind a democratic politics with an emancipatory agenda. While all contributions are global in scope, focus lies on recent urban developments in Western Europe and the Netherlands in particular.