Introduction: Locating the political in late neoliberalism

Abstract

This introductory chapter takes as its starting point two pathbreaking moments: the financial collapse of 2008 and the urban protests and insurgencies of 2011. Together these have set the stage for what we term the late neoliberal condition. The introduction first offers an overview of existing conceptual approaches that attempt to come to terms with the shifting ground of the urban political today, connecting these reflections to the trajectories of contemporary capitalism. It then argues that our current urban political horizon is ambivalent: marked by myriad experiments in progressive politics as well as resilient forms of exploitation and domination.