Neoliberalizing Space

Abstract

This paper revisits the question of the political and theoretical status of neoliberalism, making the case for a process-based analysis of "neoliberalization." Drawing on the experience of the heartlands of neoliberal discursive production, North America and Western Europe, it is argued that the transformative and adaptive capacity of this farreaching political-economic project has been repeatedly underestimated. Amongst other things, this calls for a close reading of the historical and geographical (re)constitution of the process of neoliberalization and of the variable ways in which different "local neoliberalisms" are embedded within wider networks and structures of neoliberalism. The paper's contribution to this project is to establish a stylized distinction between the destructive and creative moments of the process of neoliberalism-which are characterized in terms of "roll-back" and "roll-out" neoliberalism, respectivelyand then to explore some of the ways in which neoliberalism, in its changing forms, is playing a part in the reconstruction of extralocal relations, pressures, and disciplines.

From London to Mumbai and Back Again: Gentrification and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective

“…As Butler and Lees (2007: 4) posit, 'the globalization literature and the gentrification literature have, to date, paid little attention to each other' while Lees (2007, p. 230) similarly suggests that 'writings on cosmopolitanism' need to be brought into gentrification work. There are likewise important yet unexplored links between greater state intervention in gentrification over the last decade and Peck and Tickell's (2002) identification of a shift from 'roll-back' to 'roll-out' neoliberal policy-making. In the creation of new privatised cultural landscapes and the generation of new circuits of capital accumulation, gentrification has become a key urban arena in the development of neoliberal policies (Brenner and Theodore, 2005;Hackworth, 2007).…”

The spatialities of actually existing neoliberalism in glasgow, 1977 to present

“…While recognizing the variegated strains of the 'neoliberal virus' which exist in different historical and geographical settings, and dubbing teleological readings of neoliberalism's trajectory 'politically complacent and theoretically erroneous', Peck and Tickell (2002) provide a useful overview of the genesis, diffusion and evolution of neoliberalism in advanced capitalist nations. In so doing they mobilize the notions of roll-back neoliberalism and roll-out neoliberalism.…”

Workfare Schemes as a Tool For Preventing the Further Impoverishment of the Rural Poor

“…The principle of workfare even appears in the new Hungarian Constitution. It thus contains elements of étatist regimes that go beyond the centralisation of authority, and by their coercive and "illiberal" nature are not far from the "roll-out" neoliberal authoritarian state practices discussed by Peck and Tickell (2002). Furthermore, instead of allowing market actors to pursue commercial viability through administrative control of public employees as the neoliberal paradigm suggests, the Hungarian state has refrained from "letting private actors in" and has monopolised the planning and implementation of workfare programmes.…”