Be Berlin! Governing the City through Freedom

Abstract

In this article, I examine how contemporary Berlin is governed, with a particular focus on the production of urban space. My points of reference are the term 'government' (as employed by Foucault) and the field of governmentality studies (where it is applied empirically). Based on a critical discourse and dispositive analysis of the city's current urban development policy, I propose that urban governance in Berlin may be analysed through the lens of three central dispositives: the dispositive of governing through citizenship; the dispositive of the creative city; and the dispositive of the social city. I discuss the characteristics of these dispositives of urban governance, drawing on a number of examples taken from the discipline of urban space production in order to look specifically at the aims and objectives of governance, its subjects and the ways it manifests itself. In conclusion, I suggest that the new forms of governance based on empowerment and cooperation have by no means replaced disciplinary technologies of governance, but are rather embedded within them.

Putting Paris and Berlin on Show: Nightlife in the Struggles to Define Cities’ International Position

“…Berlin's local policy thus gradually shifted from a "capital of all Germans" towards a "creative city", which "manifested itself (among other ways) in the city's attitude towards informal subcultural appropriations of space (clubs, bars, street art, etc.)" and was also rapidly undertaken by private investors seeking to recycle 'wastelands' (Lanz 2013(Lanz , 1314. Some urban districts [Bezirk], such as Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain, have facilitated the opening of clubs and music venues since the 2000s as a way to redevelop local economic activity.…”

The Born‐Again Favela: The Urban Informality of Pentecostalism in Rio de Janeiro

“…In my analysis of the interaction between churches as social actors and the favela as a social space, between believers and their religious communities, I draw on studies on governmentality that have come out of two fields: urban studies (for example, Rose, ; Blakely, 2010; Lanz, ; Rosol, ) and, for the analysis of modes of governance in Pentecostal communities, religious studies (Carrette, ; Marshall, ; Lanz and Oosterbaan, this issue). In particular, I make reference to studies that employ the governmentality approach in their investigation of the modes of governing the favela (Lanz, ) and, within that, the role of churches (Garmany, ; ).…”

“…Secondly, with regard to the role of religion as a creator of social order in everyday life in the favela, the concept of governmentality facilitates an examination of how religious ‘government programs inscribe themselves into their subjects and take effect' (Lanz, : 1306). Far from suppressing subjectivity, governmentality—understood by Michel Foucault (: 116) as the ‘totality of procedures, techniques, methods that constitute the way people rule one another'—promotes technologies of the self that can be tied to the objectives of those doing the governing.…”

‘Social Mixing' or ‘Gentrification'? Contradictory Perspectives on Urban Change in the Berlin District of Neukölln

“…In one article, the contention that ‘drug dealers go to the park to work as if they were going to work in an office' ( Die Welt , 2009) is rhetorically contrasted with the construction of a formerly (supposedly) respectable working‐class district. Deviations from the norm are labelled as people being work‐shy and ‘developing a dependency mentality' (Sarrazin quoted in Lanz, : 1316): ‘Inhabitants of Neukölln are not aiming for the top, they want to live in peace. They like to hang around' ( Die Welt , 2009).…”

“…Based on an integrated development scheme, so-called neighbourhood managements are installed in the respective areas to coordinate the development and implementation of measures, the spending of financial resources and communication between municipal and local actors. Also a Zwischennutzungsagentur has been established in Nord-Neukölln as 'a kind of real estate agency that specializes in temporary use' (Lanz, 2013(Lanz, : 1314. It aims to find creative entrepreneurs and operators of studios and galleries to rent vacant properties for little money--until they have 'to give way to profit-oriented development and thus be subjected to the logic of exchange value' (ibid.…”