Spaces of Neoliberalism - (Antipode Book) by Neil Brenner & Nik Theodore (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This is the first volume to analyse systematically the role of neoliberalism in contemporary processes of urban restructuring.

• Includes contributions from leading scholars in the fields of critical urban studies, radical geography and state theory.
  
• Analyses the role of neoliberalism in contemporary processes of urban restructuring.
  
• Synthesises a variety of new theoretical approaches to key issues in contemporary urban studies.
  
• Incorporates new case study material of ongoing urban transformations in the USA, Canada, the UK and other Western European countries.

From the Back Cover

This is the first volume to analyse systematically the role of neoliberalism in contemporary processes of urban restructuring. Drawing upon cutting-edge theoretical work within radical geography, critical urban studies, neo-marxian state theory and critical social theory, contributions by leading scholars map the spaces of neoliberalism that have been forged and contested within contemporary North American and Western European cities.

The volume synthesizes a variety of new theoretical approaches to the critical analysis of contemporary urban transformations while also providing new case study material on the restructuring of urban policy, urban space and urban socio-political struggles in major North American and Western European cities.

Review Quotes

"...a fantastic, empirically rich and theoretically innovative, exploration of the macropolitical realignment and ongoing spatial restructuring that have taken place since the 1970s. This is cutting-edge urban research: not only students of contemporary cities and their institutional geographies, but municipal policy makers as well as activists concerned with reshaping cities towards more democratic and socially just ends will find this collection indispensable." Margit Mayer, Freie Universität, Berlin

"This thoughtful and thought-provoking book examines the dynamics and consequences of neoliberal policies in the unstable geography of contemporary cities. The book synthesizes a range of current explorations of urban space and neoliberal ideology, and ends with a new and coherent conceptualization of what is happening on the ground around us." Peter Marcuse, Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia University

"Brenner and Theodore have done an excellent job in bringing together an innovative collection of work on urban restructuring - a collection that combines some of the most interesting insights from critical political economy and radical geography to explain important aspects of the spatial reconfiguration of capitalism since the 1970s." Stephen Gill, Professor of Political Science, University of York, Toronto

"Brenner and Theodore have put together a stimulating series of investigations that explore how recent economic strategies, state agendas and spatial logics produce urban landscapes marked by striking levels of inequality and social exclusion. This collection provides a theoretically sophisticated and politically incisive examination of the ways in which restructuring cities have become central to the new geographies of power."
William Sites, University of Chicago, author of Remaking New York: Primitive Globalization and the Politics of Urban Community

"This is a stimulatimg text, the ambitious designs of which provide a rich theoretical resource" Peter Sunley, University of Edinburgh for Progress in Human Geography

"Exploring 'the spaces of neoliberalism' is clearly a project whose time has come. The current collection of papers does an excellent job in laying out some of the substantive issues involved, the nature of the changes that the neoliberal agenda has conditioned, and the conflicts that its imposition has generated." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space

About the Author

Neil Brenner is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies at New York University. He is the co-editor with Bob Jessop, Martin Jones and Gordon MacLeod, of State / Space: A Reader forthcoming from Blackwell Publishing.Nik Theodore is Assistant Professor in Urban Planning and Policy and Research Director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago.