Introduction: Contradictions of Neoliberal Urban Plannin

Abstract

Neoliberalisation manifests itself as a ‘prevailing pattern of market-oriented, market-disciplinary regulatory restructuring’ (Peck, Theodore, & Brenner, 2009, p. 51). The neoliberalisation of social, economic and political processes pervades urban development, planning and governance discourses and practices, and pushes them in a market-oriented direction; however the terms ‘neoliberalisation’ and ‘planning’ are seldom heard together in the same phrase. The concept of neoliberal planning may actually seem to be a contradiction in terms to some planners; while to others it may be a signal to ‘give up’. The neoliberal city actually exists, as does neoliberal urban planning; but as urban planning becomes increasingly neoliberal and entrepreneurial, serious contradictions arise in the governance of cities. The fragmented and divergent array of planning responses to the neoliberalisation of political-economic urban policies is treated in this book as a manifestation of the neoliberalisation of planning. In this respect, a neoliberal approach does not necessarily mean catering to the needs and demands of private market actors, but rather underlines the challenges to planning in neoliberalising cities, which need to respond to contradictory processes. Neoliberal planning can best be understood as the embodiment of a set of contradictory urbanities that typify contemporary urban neoliberalism across the Western world (Baeten, Chapter 2, this volume).