Drawing on the literature of post-politics and post-democracy, the literature of neoliberalism as mode of governance and the study of the city of Valencia’s long-standing emphasis on the development of prestige mega-projects of iconic architecture as a means to achieve economic regeneration and urban revitalisation, this paper evaluates the social and economic effects of urban mega-projects and analyses them as conduits of neoliberal globalisation and de-politicisation of the public sphere. On the one hand, an urban policy based on the use of mega-projects represents a turn from welfarism to entrepreneurialism which, beyond the evident urban transformation and re-imaging, results in an increase in social inequality, the creation of precarious jobs, and an underinvestment in social services. On the other hand, the mechanisms used to implement mega-projects – including both exceptionality measures and privatisation of management through the creation of semi-public delivery bodies – result in a lack of transparency and democratic control, which in turn lead to more authoritative and privatised forms of decision-making. Moreover, mega-projects – through their focus on expertise and technocracy and a populist politics and discourse constructed around them – play a crucial role in the erosion of democracy and the establishment of a consensual politics where ideological struggle does not exist.

Manuel Castells spoke of the urban as a unit of collective consumption, yet much of the politics of collective consumption he documented was evident in the suburbs. The tendency for suburbs of most complexions to lack services and amenities has been and continues to be a focus of politics in Europe. In Spain, as elsewhere in Europe, a grassroots politics surrounding the making good of these deficits in basic services and amenities has broadened and formalised somewhat to become part of a competitive local representative politics concerned with shaping a sense of place. Here we consider this legacy of grassroots politics as it has played out more recently in a politics of place making in Getafe and Badalona in metropolitan Madrid and Barcelona. In conclusion we suggest that this enduring suburban question -of making the suburban urbanplaces them at the centre of contemporary metropolitan governance and politics. However it also raises further issues for study -notably the scalar politics in which suburban place-making is empowered or constrained, the role of political parties and individual politicians on the place making process, the point at which grassroots politics of collective consumption becomes urban entrepreneurialism.

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The focus of this paper is on the importance of collective imaginaries for urban policy mobility, and on the agents and modes of power through which imaginaries are

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