Irish Neoliberalism and Neoliberal Urban Policy

Smart urbanism and smart citizenship: The neoliberal logic of ‘citizen-focused’ smart cities in Europe

“…Smart cities, then, have emerged as the latest, tech-led phase of the entrepreneurial city (Hollands, 2008;Shelton, Zook and Wiig, 2015), through which private interests seek to capture public assets and services by offering technological solutions to urban problems (e.g., congestion, emergency response, utility and service delivery). Dublin in Ireland illustrates this phasing, adopting ideas of entrepreneurial planning in the 1990s, the creative city discourse in the 2000s, and finally the smart city in the 2010s (MacLaran and Kelly, 2014;Coletta, Heaphy and Kitchin, 2017). While setting appropriate goals for cities via systems of urban benchmarking, the neoliberal smart city aims to attract foreign direct investment, offering areas of the city as testbeds to pilot new technologies, fostering innovative indigenous start-up sectors or digital hubs, and attracting mobile creative elites.…”

Living austerity urbanism: space–time expansion and deepening socio-spatial inequalities for disadvantaged urban youth in Ireland

“…In Ireland, austerity intensified inequality and spatial injustice (Kearns, 2014). However, most investigations focus on changes in income and wealth, the influence of financialisation on urban development, or the impact of the country's specific history of neoliberalism on the unfolding of the crisis (Fraser, Murphy, & Kelly, 2013;Kitchin, O'Callaghan, Boyle, Gleeson, & Keaveney, 2012;MacLaran & Kelly, 2014). More subjective experiences of living with austerity has, until recently, received less attention (Hall, 2015;Hitchen, 2016).…”

Entrepreneurial Urbanism After the Crisis: Ireland's “Bad Bank” and the Redevelopment of Dublin's Docklands

“…Such interventions often involve the establishment of special purpose development agencies (Swyngedouw et al ). This has meant the migration of planning and development functions from local governments to urban development companies and regeneration agencies tasked with stimulating and coordinating private sector‐led development, sometimes with the aid of specific financing arrangements, fiscal incentives from central government and public–private partnerships, or by “pump‐priming” areas to reduce investment risk (MacLaran and Kelly ). Entrepreneurial strategies also typically involve a “partnership” approach, bringing the various stakeholders in urban development together to coordinate concerted action (Ball and Maginn ; MacLeod ).…”

“…Entrepreneurial strategies also typically involve a “partnership” approach, bringing the various stakeholders in urban development together to coordinate concerted action (Ball and Maginn ; MacLeod ). EU in Dublin has developed over the last two decades and has borrowed many features from the UK experience and further afield (MacLaran and Kelly ). During the 1990s and 2000s local government's role was side‐lined in favour of the establishment of special purpose agencies providing fast‐track planning and fiscal incentives in targeted areas (McGuirk and MacLaran ; Swyngedouw et al ).…”

“…As such, this initial phase of Docklands development was driven by entrepreneurial dynamics in the form of a special purpose development agency pursuing intensive, place‐based development facilitated by generous fiscal incentives (Williams ). These dynamics reflected wider shifts in Irish urban policy including: “light touch planning” (MacLaran and Kelly ); the migration of planning functions to special purpose development agencies (McGuirk and MacLaran ); widespread tax incentives to boost development (McCabe ); extensive use of public–private partnerships (Bisset ; Hearne ); and the facilitation of private‐led development by local government and other public agencies (McGuirk and MacLaran ). Furthermore, the Urban Renewal Act provided the backdrop for the emergence of the International Financial Services Centre by reducing corporation tax to 10% for companies involved in international financial services (Williams ).…”