Getting Political in the Neoliberal City

In a world defined by ever-deepening crises―climate, social, economic, and political―urban spaces emerge as both battlegrounds of injustice and the arenas of possibility. Getting Political in the Neoliberal City interrogates the roles of planners, architects, designers, and urban citizens in challenging the pervasive inequities of neoliberal urbanism. Drawing from critical case studies spanning continents and disciplines, this volume reframes the intersections of spatial and social justice to illuminate how space becomes a site of power, exclusion, and potential resistance.

Through incisive essays and reflective scholarship, this book explores how cities are shaped by market forces and neoliberal governance, yet also serve as sites for insurgent practices at various scale, grassroots movements, and alternative imaginaries that resist dominant modes of urbanization and claim just ways of making cities. Highlighting the emergencess of new epistemologies, subjectivities and critical agencies, Getting Political in the Neoliberal City calls for a transformative rethinking of urban and environmental planning, design, and citizenship.

Featuring contributions from scholars and practitioners in diverse fields, including architecture, geography, political science, and anthropology, the book maps the tensions between depoliticized scholarly and professional practices and the urgent need for politicized action. With compelling examples from Australia, Brazil, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, the USA, and Sweden, this book offers fresh insights into ongoing research on the struggles for more equitable, inclusive, and environmentally just cities. It also provides opportunities to understand the historical contextuality of each case and to reflect on the nuances, similarities, and global connections between different cases across different geographies.

Burcu Yiğit Turan is a senior lecturer at the Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. Her work lies at the intersection of critical theory and urban and landscape studies and focuses on environmental and socio-spatial justice-oriented histories, theories, methodologies, and practices in planning and design.

Melissa Cate Christ is a landscape architect, academic, artist, and director of transverse studio, a multidisciplinary design, research, and engagement consultancy which focuses on the planning, design, and activation of vibrant and sustainable urban places. Currently Sydney-based, Melissa has lived and worked in Sweden, Hong Kong, Canada, China, and the USA.

Cristina Cerulli is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Reading and a founding director of research-led social enterprise practice Studio Polpo. She works across practice and academia around supporting collective endeavors in the city and countering inequality through practices of care and actively proposing and implementing alternatives.