Neoliberalism on the Ground: Architecture and Transformation from the 1960s to the Present

by Kenny Cupers (Editor), Catharina Gabrielsson (Editor), Helena Mattsson (Editor)

Overview

Architecture and urbanism have contributed to one of the most sweeping transformations of our times. Over the past four decades, neoliberalism has been not only a dominant paradigm in politics but a process of bricks and mortar in everyday life. Rather than to ask what a neoliberal architecture looks like, or how architecture represents neoliberalism, this volume examines the multivalent role of architecture and urbanism in geographically variable yet interconnected processes of neoliberal transformation across scales—from China, Turkey, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Britain, Sweden, and Czechoslovakia. Analyzing how buildings and urban projects in different regions since the 1960s have served in the implementation of concrete policies such as privatization, fiscal reform, deregulation, state restructuring, and the expansion of free trade, contributors reveal neoliberalism as a process marked by historical contingency. Neoliberalism on the Ground fundamentally reframes accepted narratives of both neoliberalism and postmodernism by demonstrating how architecture has articulated changing relationships between state, society, and economy since the 1960s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822987376
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	03/31/2020
Series:	Culture Politics & the Built Environment
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	439
File size:	71 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Kenny Cupers (Editor)
Kenny Cupers is associate professor of history and theory of architecture and urbanism at the University of Basel, where he cofounded and leads its new division of urban studies.

Helena Mattsson (Editor)
Helena Mattsson is professor in theory and history at KTH School of Architecture.

Catharina Gabrielsson (Editor)
Catharina Gabrielsson is associate professor in urban theory and docent in architecture at the KTH School of Architecture.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Undead Neoliberalisms by Kenny Cupers, Catharina Gabrielsson, and Helena Mattsson Part 1. Shifting Objects and Representations 1. Palace on Mortgage: The Collapse of a Social Housing Monument in France by Anne Kockelkorn 2. A Ruin in Reverse: The National Library of the Republic of Argentina, 1961–1992 by Ana María León 3. Through the Anxieties of Style: The Rigging of Neoliberalism and the New Vasa Museum in Stockholm by Catharina Gabrielsson 4. Faceless Concrete Monsters, ca. 1990 by Maroš Krivý Color plates Part 2. Policies and Spatial Production 5. The Political Economy of Flexibility: Deregulation and the Transformation of Corporate Space in the Postwar City of London by Amy Thomas 6. Building Reform: The Block and the Wall in Late Mao-Era China by Cole Roskam 7. Norm to Form: Deregulation, Postmodernism, and Swedish Welfare State Housing by Helena Mattsson 8. Austerity Architecture: Contradictory Aspirations for Apartheid’s End by Sharóne Tomer Part 3. Professional Practices in Transformation 9. The Laws of Persuasion: Discretionary Zoning, Manageability, and the Rise of the Urban Designer by Deepa Ramaswamy 10. Optimizing Freedom and Choice: Cedric Price’s Potteries Thinkbelt by Mary Louise Lobsinger 11. Surfing the Wave of Neoliberalism: Rem Koolhaas in Lille by Valéry Didelon 12. Creative Uncertainty: Arup Associates, Fire Safety, and the Metaengineering of Government Liam Ross Color plates Part 4. Subjectivities in Formation 13. Mexican Remittance Architecture: Building Neoliberal Subjectivities in the Spaces of Migration by Sarah Lopez 14. The “Right to Buy” in Milton Keynes: Constructing Consumer-Citizens and Commodifying Urban Life by Janina Gosseye 15. Human Territoriality and the Downfall of Public Housing by Kenny Cupers 16. Homo economicus of the “New Turkey”: Urban Development of Istanbul in the 2000s by Esra Akcan Epilogue: Neoliberalism and Architecture, Backward by Reinhold Martin Contributors Illustration Credits Index

Editorial Reviews

The material origins and consequences of the political and economic reasonings of neoliberalism are as pervasive as they are difficult to define. This volume has successfully taken on the challenge of revealing an archive of facts and events that make visible the processes and systems that shaped cities and territories in the past half-century. Neoliberalism on the Ground will greatly expand historical and theoretical understanding and is an indispensable contribution to our comprehension of our present moment.

Timothy Hyde

The essays in this book are wonderful—models of architectural history that are deeply engaged, well researched, and carefully written. Nearly all of the chapters are formulated around a case study . . . taking in social and political issues wider than those normally canvassed in architectural scholarship. . . . The chapters also share a certain sensibility—maybe a kind of sublime?—in the way they allusively touch on the incommensurability of conventional architectural values and the contemporary socio-economic dispensation.

Isis

An impressive collection of interesting and thoroughly researched studies of recent architectural history which is worth reading for anyone interested in understanding our present moment. The book will surely prove useful to many scholars researching the particular places and actors studied, as well as functioning as an introduction to architecture, urbanism and neoliberalism.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

This impressive edited volume addresses the links between worldwide neoliberal policies and recent architectural trends. If neoliberalism equals the belief that market economies provide the sole key for progress and emancipation, this book discusses how this ideology impacts architectural culture and the everyday built environment, bringing together in-depth theoretical analysis with wide-ranging and intriguing case studies.

Hilde Heynen

An impressive collection of interesting and thoroughly researched studies of recent architectural history which is worth reading for anyone interested in understanding our present moment. The book will surely prove useful to many scholars researching the particular places and actors studied, as well as functioning as an introduction to architecture, urbanism and neoliberalism.” —International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

“The essays in this book are wonderful—models of architectural history that are deeply engaged, well researched, and carefully written. Nearly all of the chapters are formulated around a case study . . . taking in social and political issues wider than those normally canvassed in architectural scholarship. . . . The chapters also share a certain sensibility—maybe a kind of sublime?—in the way they allusively touch on the incommensurability of conventional architectural values and the contemporary socio-economic dispensation.” —Isis

“This impressive edited volume addresses the links between worldwide neoliberal policies and recent architectural trends. If neoliberalism equals the belief that market economies provide the sole key for progress and emancipation, this book discusses how this ideology impacts architectural culture and the everyday built environment, bringing together in-depth theoretical analysis with wide-ranging and intriguing case studies.” —Hilde Heynen, author of Architecture and Modernity: A Critique

“The material origins and consequences of the political and economic reasonings of neoliberalism are as pervasive as they are difficult to define. This volume has successfully taken on the challenge of revealing an archive of facts and events that make visible the processes and systems that shaped cities and territories in the past half-century. Neoliberalism on the Ground will greatly expand historical and theoretical understanding and is an indispensable contribution to our comprehension of our present moment.” —Timothy Hyde, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

From the Publisher