Between Realism and Revolt: Governing Cities in the Crisis of Neoliberal Globalism

Abstract

Between Realism and Revolt explores urban governance in the “age of austerity”, focusing on the period between the global economic crisis of 2008-9 and the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019. It considers urban governance from the perspective of governability. How did cities navigate the crisis and the aftermath of austerity, with what political ordering and disordering dynamics at the forefront? To answer these questions it engages with two influential theoretical currents, Urban Regime Theory and Gramscian state theory, with a view to understanding how governance enabled austerity, deflected or intensified localised expressions of crisis, and generated more-or-less influential political alternatives. It develops a comparative conjunctural analysis of case studies in the cities of Athens, Baltimore, Barcelona, Greater Dandenong (Melbourne), Leicester, Montreal and Nantes, and concludes by highlighting five characteristics that cut across the cities unevenly, with different tonalities and in different configurations: economic rationalism, weak hegemony, retreat to dominance, weak counter-hegemony and radically contagious politicisations. The book can be ordered online from https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/between-realism-and-revolt.