103 – Beyond Neoliberal Urbanism?

Podcast: Urban Political Podcast (LS 28 · TOP 10% what is this?) Episode: 103 – Beyond Neoliberal Urbanism? Pub date: 2026-02-02 Get Podcast Transcript → powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization Authoritarian Urbanism Series Are we seeing the emergence of a new conjuncture for urbanism? The final part of our mini series asks whether authoritarian neoliberalism has created the conditions for a more illiberal and distinct type of urban governance . Authoritarianism is not new to neoliberalism – the Pinochet regime, Thatcherism in the UK – these were evidently authoritarian and neoliberal, and given crises and stagnation it is no surprise to see these tendencies re-animated. But is something more also happening? The high point of neoliberal hegemony was associated with the development of technocratic, often obscure, market systems as well as notions of ‘sustainable development and even at times ‘participation’ and ‘consensus’ even if these were highly circumscribed. When we look at some new urban projects today, and those envisaged by leading powers, there seems to be less room for both markets, preventing climate breakdown or ‘woke’ notions of democracy and instead a more naked focus on iconoclastic real estate projects regardless of the social and ecological cost. The episode is hosted by Gareth Fearn with guests Jason Luger, Miklós Dürr, Aysegul Can and Oksana Zaporozhets. This episode is one of a three-part series which cover different aspects of ‘authoritarian neoliberal urbanism’, based on a special issue in the Urban Studies Journal edited by Guldem Ozatagan, Gareth Fearn and Ayda Eraydin. The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ross Beveridge, Markus Kip, Mais Jafari, Nitin Bathla, Julio Paulos, Nicolas Goez, Talja Blokland, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.