Constructing Neoliberal Urban Democracy in the American Inner-city

Abstract

The neoliberalization of urban governance has profoundly problematized issues of ‘local’ and ‘urban’ democracy on both sides of the Atlantic. This paper explores the changing modalities of urban democracy under neoliberalism through a case study of Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati. A historically maligned inner-city neighbourhood, Over-the-Rhine is the locus for a concerted neoliberalizing gentrification drive and site of a coordinated resistance to market-oriented redevelopment. Three key processes of neoliberal restructuring are analyzed to highlight the centrality of contestations over local democracy for local economic development. Governance restructuring and the implementation of key spatial imaginaries are argued to produce a neoliberal articulation of urban democracy that discursively legitimizes development from above via an understanding of the neighbourhood as a physical environment, usurping pre-existing grassroots organizations conceptualizing Over-the-Rhine as a social structure.

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