Constructing Neoliberal Urban Democracy in the American Inner-city

Abstract

The neoliberalization of urban governance has profoundly problematized issues of 'local' and 'urban' democracy on both sides of the Atlantic. This paper explores the changing modalities of urban democracy under neoliberalism through a case study of Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati. A historically maligned inner-city neighbourhood, Over-the-Rhine is the locus for a concerted neoliberalizing gentrification drive and site of a coordinated resistance to market-oriented redevelopment. Three key processes of neoliberal restructuring are analyzed to highlight the centrality of contestations over local democracy for local economic development. Governance restructuring and the implementation of key spatial imaginaries are argued to produce a neoliberal articulation of urban democracy that discursively legitimizes development from above via an understanding of the neighbourhood as a physical environment, usurping pre-existing grassroots organizations conceptualizing Over-the-Rhine as a social structure.

Spatial Stigma and Health in Postindustrial Detroit

“…While a large literature on neighborhood effects 15,16 has typically focused on the material and social conditions that exist within the bounded spaces of neighborhoods and communities, the notion of spatial stigma focuses attention on the broader societal meanings that are attached to and derived from places. From this perspective, spatial stigma in marginalized urban neighborhoods cannot be separated from the structural and institutional systems that shape these spaces and the often racialized tropes used to articulate their “failings.” 17,18…”

After Gentrification: Social Mix, Settler Colonialism, and Cruel Optimism in the Transformation of Neighbourhood Space

“…But claiming a stake in the neighbourhood is premised on dispossession rather than inclusion. At its inception in 2003, 3CDC was inserted into a political space which was already occupied by the OTR Community Council, the People's Movement, and a whole assemblage of existing actors engaging in neighbourhood planning and governance (Addie ). These organisations had just convened a series of participatory planning sessions and co‐developed the 2002 neighbourhood plan, which had subsequently been adopted by the mayor's office and City Council.…”

“…The OTR Chamber formed a partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce in 2004 to establish the Over‐the‐Rhine Foundation, which promotes cultural and artistic programming in the neighbourhood. The OTR Chamber and Foundation acted as a parallel set of institutions that both bypassed the established Community Council and actively sought to discredit the organisations and development model of the People's Movement (Addie ). A community organiser noted early on that these new institutions were “speaking on behalf of Over‐the‐Rhine and their interests do not include low‐income people.…”

Class Monopoly Rent and the Contemporary Neoliberal City

“…Emerging in the late 1990s (see Swyngedouw 2000), the literature on urban neoliberalization is now voluminous and remains an important topic of study, from its historical and variegated unfolding (Brenner and Theodore 2002;Keil 2009;Brenner et al 2010;Peck et al 2009Peck et al , 2010, to its contingent manifestations (Keil 2002;MacLeod 2002;Wilson 2004Wilson , 2007Hackworth 2007;McCann 2011), and to the myriad forms of contestation it confronts (Leitner et al 2007;Addie 2008Addie , 2009Kunkel and Mayer 2012). Attention has recently shifted to its adaptive capacities (and limitations) in response to the myriad challenges presented by the crisis (Keil 2009;Sheppard and Leitner 2010;Peck et al 2012Peck et al , 2013 and as a lens through which (Marxist) urban political economy and Foucauldian studies on neoliberal governmentality can be reconciled (Kunkel and Mayer 2012).…”