The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism

by Jason Hackworth

The shift in the ideological winds toward a "free-market" economy has brought profound effects in urban areas. The Neoliberal City presents an overview of the effect of these changes on today's cities. The term "neoliberalism" was originally used in reference to a set of practices that first-world institutions like the IMF and World Bank impose on third-world countries and cities. The support of unimpeded trade and individual freedoms and the discouragement of state regulation and social spending are the putative centerpieces of this vision. More and more, though, people have come to recognize that first-world cities are undergoing the same processes.

In The Neoliberal City, Jason Hackworth argues that neoliberal policies are in fact having a profound effect on the nature and direction of urbanization in the United States and other wealthy countries, and that much can be learned from studying its effect. He explores the impact that neoliberalism has had on three aspects of urbanization in the United States: governance, urban form, and social movements. The American inner city is seen as a crucial battle zone for the wider neoliberal transition primarily because it embodies neoliberalism's antithesis, Keynesian egalitarian liberalism.

Focusing on issues such as gentrification in New York City; public-housing policy in New York, Chicago, and Seattle; downtown redevelopment in Phoenix; and urban-landscape change in New Brunswick, N.J., Hackworth shows us how material and symbolic changes to institutions, neighborhoods, and entire urban regions can be traced in part to the rise of neoliberalism.

Genres: Cities, Urban Studies, Economics, Politics, Urban Planning, Nonfiction, Sociology

248 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2006

Reviews

[Margaret]

Hackworth wants to "ground" neoliberalism both ideologically and politically, by offering an intellectual genealogy of the concept and examining its impact in the real world of city governance. Hackworth offers two valuable contributions to the emerging discussion of neoliberalism and urban politics. First is the concept of "glocalization", which sounds a bit gimmicky but is actually quite helpful in understanding the ways in which neoliberalism scales up control (to the global economy) and scales down responsibility (to the city) while skipping the nation-state in the middle. The results are incredibly uneven ideologies and places, with the remnants of Keynesianism ideas and policies alongside neoliberal ideologies and structures. The second contribution is his very thoughtful articulation of the significance of the correlation between decreasing federal aid to cities and increasing reliance on the private debt market. He does a very good job explaining the details of the debt market (particularly the bond ratings agencies) and the impact that private world has on the public world of city life and politics. The analysis suffered from Hackworth's embrace of the Peterson view of the impotence of city government. He actually expands this view to argue that even the nation-state is sharply constrained by the global economy. Yet like many Peterson acolytes, Hackworth slips into an analysis heavily grounded in politics. In this case, he argues very convincingly of the impact of shifts in national ideology on the local level without sufficiently discussing the political origins of these shifts. His case studies are also a weakness of the book; rather than working as a springboard from which he can begin his analysis, they seem tacked-on and unnecessary. This is a significant problem for a book intended to ground neoliberlism in cities. The book does succeed in offering a thoughtful analysis of the ideological unevenness of neoliberlism and its material consequences within cities. It does a particularly good job in regard to the bond rating agencies. Its weaknesses appear on the political level, when Hackworth offers an unsatisfying critique of a cartoonish version of regime theory without paying sufficient heed to the political origins of many of the economic policies he so thoughtfully critiques.

[Laureen Hollge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good as a basis for understanding neoliberal city, however, some parts are outdated by now. I really appreciate how he uses empirical data to support his theories. The book is based on US cities and Hackworth argues that given that US is one of the most neoliberal countries, we can expect neoliberalizing cities elsewhere to mirror the development in the US. I would urge against such US-centric and developmentalist lense as that is nit really the case.

[Dustin Dye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a bit dense, but the history of neoliberalism is great. The highlight of the book is the way rating agencies can twist the arm of local governments, threatening bad ratings if governments don't conform to the agencies' agenda.

[Annelissa Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book does have some very good and valuable information in it, it is written in such an extremely dry, boring, overly verbose, overly technical way that trying to learn from it is like trying to fill a sieve with water. You have to constantly fight to not fall asleep and will probably have to re-read several sections to try to see the connections the author is trying to make. So good info, but really only to be read in small doses.