Operation.City 2008. the Neoliberal Frontline. Urban Struggles in Post

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Operation:City 2008 The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies [ZAGREB, 04. 12. - 07. 12. 2008.] conference newsletter Donors TeodorCelakoski,TomislavDomes, Project team Analog Partners AlliancefortheCentreIndependent CultureandYouth Organised by Print Design LeonardoKovačević,TomislavMedak,PetarMilat, Newsletter editors IMPRE 2

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CONTENTS Who iswho Limits ofanurbanparadigm Mega-gentrification Brian Holmes Renovation, population, resistance Urban planningincontemporary Petersburg: Thomas Campbell &Dmitry Vorobyev US) (Urban Subjects Sabine Bitter &Helmut Weber How to reclaim thecommon? Doina Petrescu … andofhousinginLeipzig-Grünau ofparticipation The destruction Ines Weizman The wrong story Keller Easterling Ideas towards thepostsocialistLeft Artemy Magun by acontemporary Sofiaflâneur neutralisation ofthecity Few preliminary notes concerning the Boyan Manchev Postsocietalism intheneoliberal ages Filtered inclusion/ Stefan Nowotny God isbackintown Boris Buden Challenging theneoliberal city Jason Hackworth New urbanism Neil Smith Introduction Petar Milat zagreb, 04.12.→ The Neoliberal Frontline:UrbanStrugglesinPost-Socialist Societies operation:city 2008 OPERATION:CITY 2008 Balkan TrustforDemocracy European CulturalFoundation Charles StewartMottFoundation (City ofZagreb) City OfficeforEducation,CultureandSports Ministry ofCultureRepublicCroatia Katarina Pavić Marko Sančanin,SonjaSoldo,EminaVišnić, Tomislav Medak,PetarMilat,AnaPlančić, Right totheCityInitiative Kontejner |bureauofcontemporaryartpraxis Community CenterMosor Clubture Network BLOK -LocalBaseforCultureRefreshment Platforma 9,81-InstituteforResearchinArchitecture Multimedia Institute www.operacijagrad.org Zagreb, December2008. Ruta Marko Sančanin SSUM 07. 12.2008.

OPERATION:CITY Introduction Petar Milat PHOTOSTREAM Petar Milat

PHOTO BY Ana Hušman S Minor andmajor cal societiesasatop-down action, ofglobalisationimpact onthe lo sation processes whichfind the terpretation ofneoliberal globali- and to privatize italtogether. to deregulate publiccityspace for itsproclaimed goal haschosen public space –neoliberal doctrine creationcities with ofsocalled ed onspatial organization ofthe vate interests -whichwasreflect tained between publicand pri- precarious balance hasbeenat ment some kind offragileand ernisation inthe urbanenviron- gent strategies ofneoliberalism. way to summarizeallthe diver fastest and the most operative this stand –thisisprobablythe eral practice,but–we aretaking only way to questionthe neolib sistance to them. This isnot the neoliberal strategies and the re taken city-space asaparadigmof INTRpretation and action. cates the known models ofinter and analyticaluselessness, dislo into semanticindetermination neoliberalism and Eastern Europe the caseand that convergence of meaninglessness? at some pointimplodesinto range ofthe term “neoliberalism” possible scope ofthe signifying inasmuchthe broadest viable, Eastern Europeand neoliberalism ODUC improbablerelation of otherwise cal convergence make infact an ing. Doesthisrhetorical and logi- unattainable. determination almost and deficiency makes any positive whose proverbially assumed lack Eastern Europeisthe region ventionism. On the other hand, ofthethe politicalinter aspects tions ofglobalhighfinances and to everyday work stress, machina- broken windows incitydistricts, measures one musttake to repair today denotes allthere isfrom TIscope: neoliberalism -which with almost inexhaustiblefier On the one hand, there isasigni- the leastofalland the most ofall. two denominations signifying O inconjoiningical riskisevident rhetorical level. The methodolog - N But, incomparison to usualin- While backinthe days ofmod- As the prime examplewe have We areassumingthat thisis Minor and major, allornoth- lated on risk,starting we have- madeacalcu ism and Eastern Europe ference onneoliberal- etting the scope ofcon------vatisation ofthe publicspace. biguous situation isthe total pri- al answer to thishybrid and am- and digital. neoliberThe clearcut relationship between physical still not sufficiently understood tionalisation, and determined by balisation and abottom-up-dena- by processes ofatop-down-glo modernisation, today islimited nel ofsocialdevelopment and tures. similar complex and vaguefea- problematic ofpublicspace shows like and subterranean one), the of bothprocesses (the umbrella understood asthe complex result globalisation. Ifglobalisation is ofbottom-upresulting insort sical framework ofnation state – social regulation dissolve the clas their own measures and ways of local societiesthemselves with here the phenomenon where the words, denationalisation marks tion asdenationalisation. Inother nology, inthe lightofglobalisa - using here SaskiaSassen’s termi- public cityspace could beseen, bal actors,the privatisation ofthe dominated by transnational, glo i.e. regardingthem asthe process ing their own operationalisation. promising to come to aclosuredur demands that are not a priori circleof ticulation ofintertwined that we arefollowing here anar ferent desiresand intentions, but ofdif unanimous mis-en-oeuvre mination characterizedby soleand which we speakofisnot adeter aware of,isthat operativityof methodological one, whichwe are politics. exclusivist driventerventionism ofexpert asopposedtoacting random in- decision-makingand flecting, open, collective processes ofre erationality and operativityas sus intervention into the city. Op ferentiation: operation-city ver place, makesdif this important moniker thisconference takes the socialconsensus.achieving well become in instruments even transgressive practicescan of resistance, that witnessing tent ofpermeability ofthe lines which additionallyshows the ex in theneoliberal very rhetoric, tion ofneoliberalism isinscribed have noted inrelation to descrip cy and operationality that we Neoliberalism compressed The publiccityspace, that ker The problem,and not only Operation:city, under which The parameter ofspeed,urgen------Petar Milat operation:city 2008 Introduction The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 3

Convergence of neoliberalism and Eastern Europe into “ semantic indetermination and analytical uselessness dislocates the known models of interpretation and action

global order, but a phenomenon nected our globe into a tight net- for whose terminological designa- work - or at least that part of the tion the spatial extension bares a planet that possesses and manages great importance, in the same information currents. way as in geographical context, Neoliberalism, described in neoliberalism doesn’t represent a this way, creates the circumstanc- new geopolitical intuition, but it es where a few enjoy all the bene- is rather seen as a description of fits of this rapid technological de- new spatial constellations defined velopment, while great majority by concrete measures. of world population is destined to All of this makes of neoliberal- live in a permanent poverty on ism something new: neoliberal- the margins of megalopolises. ism is a system-space and notion- David Harvey equals this with space, and we can’t dispense with the processes of primary accumu- it recalling classical matrix of ide- lation, calling neoliberal social ology and world order. setup “accumulation by dispos- We can answer the question of session”. how many neoliberalisms there is But, if we regard the overlap- i.e. the question of its unanimity ping of system and space in a less and/or multiplicity, by analyzing total way, we will face ourselves the extent of intersection be- with a story, or better, with limit- tween system and space. less stories about neoliberalism, If we consider neoliberalism as which are almost untranslatable an uniform global narrative where and incomprehensible outside system and space are almost com- the context of its own emergence. pletely overlapped, then we are Croatian society, for example, talking about the assemblage of experienced the effects of neolib- different measures that have eral economy politics, with a de- eventually brought to dissolution lay, only in the recent years - the modern wellfare-state. Neo- mainly because of the war, and liberalism, for example, incites partially because of the economi- complete liberation of the mar- cal transition (transformation ket, privatization of the public and privatization) which is some- goods, and exclusively limited what similar to certain neoliberal state-intervention into domain of premises, but is isolated from economy and trade. wider, global courses. This neoliberal model achieves In this loose narrative, neolib- its full affirmation in the begin- eralism is more an exception than ning of 90s, with the new wave of the rule and it happens in strictly globalization. From this moment defined spatial pockets. Neoliber- on, the neoliberal economical al practices parasitize here on al- measures are founded on already ready existent infrastructures, uneven level of development of and extra/surplus profit is created world regions and societies, mak- by taking into account the differ- ing existing difference between ential between various regions

PHOTO BY Ruta BY PHOTO nations and regions all the more and spaces. profound. The factual freedom of Neoliberalism: it is simultane- goods and capital circulation - as ously a name for the new histori- The operationality taken as Neoliberalism, sentially pejorative, and there- neoliberal peers are calling upon - cal phase of capitalism, and a norm asks for responsible and neoliberalisms? fore polemic one. Talking about doesn’t lead to freedom of human practice difficult to define which consequential, efficient and How many neoliberalisms neoliberlisam, even if we want it circulation. On the contrary, the has tendency to parasitize on al- measured behaviour, but calls for there are today? This question or not, declares our views. But, declarative freedom of the choice ready established models, using ludic, ignorant and stubborn ac- doesn’t concern only the defini- other aspect of this term seems as for many people has been dimin- and deepening previously exist- tions, as well. Taken as a norm or tion and taxonomy of neoliberal more characteristic and more im- ished to exploitative work that ing differences. ■ operational stand it transversally types, but it addresses the very portant: neoliberalism is a demar- doesn’t even provide for their ba- cuts through professions, life- foundation of what we call neo- cation of the places or processes sic needs, even in the countries of styles and social groups – creating liberalism. Neoliberalism, on the where the systemic categories are the North (working-poor phe- a real political solidarity against one hand, seams as a well-estab- transferred and translated into nomenon). For the elite, however, privatisation and gentrification. lished technical term, but it is es- geo-spatial categories. We could new way of managing the econo- argue that neoliberalism, there- my brings surplus profits, based in fore, is not solely an independent the great extent on the extraordi- Creating a real political solidarity against assembly of practices and con- nary development of the informa- “ privatisation and gentrification cepts, nor a description of new tion technologies that have con- PHOTO BY Ruta BY PHOTO Ruta BY PHOTO operation:city 2008 Neil Smith * excerpted from New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies New urbanism Strategy [Antipode 34/3_July 2002] 4 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

state underwrote wide swaths of broad financial deregulation since New urbanism* social reproduction, from hous- the 1980s may be more a response ing to welfare to transportation to globalization than its cause. infrastructure, represented the The globalization of cultural im- rooted in specific places. This in this vision, even as the rela- zenith of this definitive relation- ages in the era of computers and builds on a familiar picture of glo- tions between them are trans- ship between urban scale and so- unprecedented migration is also balization, defined in terms of the formed. As Brenner (1998:11) puts cial reproduction. This is a con- very powerful, but it is difficult to economic shift from production it, Sassenís account remains ìsur- sistent theme that has run sustain a claim for the novelty of to finance. Global cities emerged prisingly statecentric.î I want to through the work of European cultural globalization given the when, in the 1970s, the global fi- argue here that in the context of a and American urban theorists extent of pre-existing cultural nancial system expanded dramat- new globalism, we are experienc- since the 1960s, from urban revo- cross-fertilization. Long before ically and foreign direct investing the emergence of a new ur- lution (Lefebvre 1971) to urban the 1980s, all ìnationalî cultures ment was dominated, not by capi- banism such that the containers crisis (Harvey 1973) and Castellsí were more or less hybrid. This tal invested directly in productive themselves are being fundamen- (1977) explicit definition of the leaves us with production capital, functions, but rather by capital tally recast. ìThe urbanî is being urban in terms of collective con- and I think a good case can be moving into and between capital redefined just as dramatically as sumption, and has been an endur- made that to the extent that glo- markets. This, in turn, pollinated the global; the old conceptual ing concern of feminist urban balization heralds anything new, N eil SM ITH a broad expansion of ancillary containersóour 1970s assump- theory (Hansen and Pratt 1995; the new globalism can be traced producer services concentrated in tions about what ìthe urbanî is or Katz 2001; Rose 1981). Equally a back to the increasingly globalóor command and control posts in the wasóno longer hold water. The center of capital accumulation, at least internationalóscale of financial economy, and those new new concatenation of urban func- the Keynesian city was in many economic production. As late as urban forms are marked by ex- tions and activities vis-à-vis the respects the combined hiring hall the 1970s, most consumer com- treme bifurcations of wealth and national and the global changes and welfare hall for each national modities were produced in one poverty, dramatic realignments not only the make-up of the city capital. Indeed the so-called ur- national economy either for con- of class relations, and dependence but the very definition of what ban crisis of the late 1960s and sumption there or for export to a on new streams of immigrant la- constitutesóliterallyóthe urban 1970s was widely interpreted as a different national market. By the bor. This, of course, is the paradig- scale. crisis of social reproduction, hav- 1990s, that model was obsolete, matic global city. The balance of Cities have historically per- ing to do with the dysfunctionali- definitive sites of production for economic power has shifted since formed multiple functions rang- ty of racism, class exploitation, specific commodities became in- the 1970s ìfrom production placing from the military and reli- and patriarchy and the contradic- creasingly difficult to identify, es, such as Detroit and Manches- gious to the political and com- tions between an urban form elic- and the old language of economic ter, to centers of finance and mercial, the symbolic and the cul- ited according to criteria of accu- geography no longer made sense. highly specialized servicesî (Sas- tural, depending on the history mulation and one that had to be In autos, electronics, garments, sen 1992:325). and geography of their construc- justified in terms of the efficiency computers, biomedical, and many A welcome alternative to the tion and transformation. The of social reproduction. Let us now other industrial sectors ranging blithe optimism of globalized scale of the urban is similarly ex- step back and look at the question from high tech to low, production utopias, Sassenís account is astute pressive of particular social geog- of ìglobalization,î because if we is now organized across national about the shifting contents of raphies and histories. With the are talking about global cities pre- boundaries to such a degree that some urban economies. However, development and expansion of sumably their definition is impli- questions of national ìimportî it is vulnerable on both empirical industrial capitalism, burgeoning cated in the processes thereof. and ìexportî are supplanted by grounds, which indicate a far cities increasingly express the What exactly is globalizing at the questions of global trade internal more complicated set of relation- powerful impulse toward the cen- beginning of the twenty-first cen- to the production process. The ships connecting global cities and tralization of capital, while the tury? What is new about the idea of ìnational capitalî makes a wider range of cities that can be scale of the urban is increasingly present? Certainly it is not com- little sense today, because most grouped under the label, global defined in terms of the geographi- modity capital that is globalizing: global trade across national cities (Taylor 1999), and on theo- cal limits to daily labor migration. Adam Smith and Karl Marx both boundaries is now intrafirm: it retical grounds. In the end, Sas- That is, as soon as the social divi- recognized a ìworld market.î Nor, takes place within the production senís argument is a little vague sion of labor between production by the same token, can it be fi- networks of single corporations. about how places are, in fact, con- and reproduction become simul- nancial capital that is globalizing. There is little doubt that in structed. It does not go far taneously a spatial division, and Contemporary levels of global fi- strictly economic terms, the pow- enough. It is as if the global social whatever other functions the city nancial interchange are only now er of most states organized at the economy comprises a plethora of performs and activities it embod- beginning to reach again the lev- national scale is eroding. This in containersónation-statesówithin ies, the social and territorial or- els of the period between the no way invokes a ìzero-sumî con- n her skillfully synthetic ac- which float a number of smaller ganization of the social reproduc- 1890s and World War I. The Bret- ception of scale (Brenner 1998; counts (1992, 1998, 2000), containers, the cities. Globaliza- tion of laboróthe provision and ton Woods institutions estab- MacLeod 2001), nor is it a simplis- Saskia Sassen offers a bench- tion brings about a dramatic maintenance of a working-class lished after 1944, especially the tic argument that the nation- mark argument about the change in the kinds of social and populationócomes to play a pivot- International Monetary Fund, state is withering away. In the importance of local place in economic relations and activities al role in the determination of were intended to re-stimulate first place, the political and cul- theI new globalism. Place, she in- carried on in these containers, a the urban scale. More than any- and regulate global financial tural power of nationalscale pow- sists, is central to the circulation re-sorting of activities between thing else, the scale of the mod- flows interrupted by depression er is not necessarily eroding at all of people and capital that consti- different containers, and an in- ern city is thereby calibrated by and war. Viewed in this historical and may be hardening in many tute globalization, and a focus on creased porosity of the national something quite mundane: the light, the global expansion of places. Second, the erosion of eco- urban places in a globalizing containers, such that turbulence contradictory determinations of stock and currency markets and nomic power at the national scale world brings with it a recognition in the wider global sea increasing- the geographical limits of the dai- of the rapidly declining signifi- ly buffets cities directly. Howev- ly commute of workers between cance of the national economy, er, with the exception of some home and work (Smith In the context of a new globalism, we are while also insisting that globali- national containers that may ac- 1990:136ñ137). “ experiencing the emergence of a new zation takes place through specif- tually sink, the containers them- The Keynesian city of ad- ic social and economic complexes selves remain rather rigidly intact vanced capitalism, in which the urbanism Tomislav Medak Tomislav BY PHOTO Medak Tomislav BY PHOTO Why don’t you adress the Mayor? adress you don’t Why confrontation] of cultural [workshop the Mayor? adress you don’t Why confrontation] of cultural [workshop Neil Smith operation:city 2008 New urbanism The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 5 is highly uneven and not neces- dominate the regional scale, rath- tainly, specific functions and ac- The scale of the modern city is thereby sarily universal, with the US or er than the other way round. In tivities previously organized at Chinese state enjoying a quite dif- place of the American Northeast the national scale are being dis- “ calibrated by something quite mundane: the ferent fate from Malaysia or Zim- or Midwest, the English Mid- persed to other scales up and contradictory determinations of the geographical babwe. For example, Mészáros lands, and the German Ruhr, for down the scale hierarchy. At the (2001) has argued that the ambi- exampleóclassic geographical same time, however, national limits of the daily commute of workers between tion of the US state seems to be fruits of modern industrial capi- states are reframing themselves home and work its transformation into a global talismówe have São Paulo and as purer, territorially rooted eco- state, and the conduct of the bru- Bangkok, Mexico City and Shang- nomic actors in and of the mar- mute into São Paulo, for example, tion of social reproduction at the tal ìwar on terrorismîóin reality a hai, Mumbai and Seoul. Whereas ket, rather than external compli- can begin for many at 3:30 a.m. urban scale is certainly painful, war for global hegemony (Smith the traditional industrial regions ments to it. Social and economic and take in excess of four hours in unlikely to pass unopposed, but forthcoming)óseems to confirm were the backbone of national restructuring is simultaneously each direction. In Harare, Zimba- also partial. Rather, it lies in the this analysis. Yet the sources of capitals in the nineteenth and the restructuring of spatial scale, bwe, the average commuting large and rapidly expanding me- increased economic porosity at much of the twentieth centuries, insofar as the fixation of scales time from black townships on the tropolises of Asia, Latin America, the national scale are undeniable: these new, huge urban economies crystallizes the contours of social urban periphery is also four hours and parts of Africa, where the communications and financial de- are increasingly the platforms of poweró who is empowered and each way, leading to a workday in Keynesian welfare state was nev- regulation have expanded the ge- global production. This rescaling who contained, who wins and which workers are absent from er significantly installed, the de- ographical mobility of capital; un- of production toward the metro- who losesóinto remade physical home for sixteen hours and sleep- finitive link between the city and precedented labor migrations politan scale is an expression of landscapes (Brenner 1998; Smith ing most of the rest. The econom- social reproduction was never have distanced local economies global change; at the same time, it and Dennis 1987; Swyngedouw ic cost of commuting for these paramount, and the fetter of old from automatic dependency on lies at the heart of a new 1996, 1997). same workers has also expanded forms, structures, and landscapes home grown labor; national and urbanism. Neoliberal urbanism is an inte- dramatically, in part as a result of is much less strong. These metro- local states (including city gov- The corollary is also taking gral part of this wider rescaling of the privatization of transporta- politan economies are becoming ernments) have responded by of- place, as national states have in- functions, activities, and relation at the behest of the World the production hearths of a new fering carrots to capital while ap- creasingly moved away from the tions. It comes with a considera- Bank: commutes that consumed globalism. Unlike the suburbani- plying the stick to labor and dis- liberal urban policies that domi- ble emphasis on the nexus of pro- roughly 8% of weekly incomes in zation of the postwar years in mantling previous supports for nated the central decades of the duction and finance capital at the the early 1980s required between North America and Europe, Oce- social reproduction; and finally, twentieth century in the ad- expense of questions of social re- 22% and 45% by the mid 1990s ania, and Japan, the dramatic ur- class and race-based struggles vanced capitalist economies. In production. It is not that the or- (Ramsamy 2001:375ñ377). ban expansion of the early twen- have broadly receded, giving local the US, President Fordís refusal to ganization of social reproduction Why is this happening? Many ty-first century will be unambig- and national governments in- bail out New York City amidst a no longer modulates the defini- well-meaning planners indict the uously led by the expansion of so- creased leeway to abandon that deep fiscal crisis (immortalized in tion of the urban scale but rather lack of suitable infrastructure, cial production rather than repro- sector of the population sur- the famous Daily News headline: that its power in doing so is sig- and that is undeniably an issue. duction. In this respect, at least, plused by both the restructuring ìFord to City: Drop Deadî), fol- nificantly depleted. Public de- However, if we step back one lev- Lefebvreís announcement of an of the economy and the gutting of lowed by the failure of President bates over suburban sprawl in Eu- el of abstraction, there is a funda- urban revolution redefining the social services. The mass incarcer- Carterís attempted urban plan in rope and especially the US, in- mental geographical contradic- city and urban struggles in terms ation of working-class and minor- 1978, gave the first intimation of tense campaigns in Europe pro- tion between the dramatically in- of social reproductionóor indeed ity populations, especially in the a national economy increasingly moting urban ìregeneration,î and creased land values that accompa- Castellsí definition of the urban US, is the national analogue of delinked from and independent the emerging environmental jus- ny the centralization of capital in in terms of collective consump- the emerging revanchist city. of its cities. The wholesale demise tice movements all suggest not the core of these metropolises tionó will fade into historical Comparatively low levels of of liberal urban policy followed in only that the crisis of social repro- and the marginal, exurban loca- memory. If ìcapitalism shifted struggle were crucial in the virtu- fits and starts, working toward duction is thoroughly territorial- tions where workers are forced to gearsî with the advent of Keyne- al nonresponse by government to Clintonís cynical slashing of the ized but, conversely, that the pro- live due to the pitiful wages on sianism ìfrom a ësupply-sideí to a the Los Angeles uprisings after social welfare system in 1996. If duction of urban space has also which that capital centralization ëdemand-sideí urbanization,î as 1992, which stand in dramatic the effects are often more muted come to embody that crisis. A con- is built. Yet, extraordinarily, cha- Harvey (1985:202, 209) once ob- contrast to the ameliorativeóif and take myriad forms, the trajec- nection exists between the pro- otic and arduous commutes have served, twenty-first-century ur- paternalisticó response after the tory of change is similar in most duction of the urban scale and the not yet led to an economic break- banism potentially reverses this uprisings of the 1960s. of the wealthiest economies, al- efficient expansion of value, and down; the impulses of economic shift. Two mutually reinforcing though Italyóthe transfer of some a ìmis-scaledî urbanism can seri- productionóand, especially, the This restructuring of scale and shifts have consequently restruc- national state power to the Euro- ously interfere with the accumu- need to have workers turn up at the cautious re-empowerment of tured the functions and active pean Union notwithstandingó- lation of capital. The crisis of daily the workplaceóhave taken prece- the urban scaleóGiulianiís ambi- roles of cities. In the first place, may be an exception. commuting lies at the center of dence over any constraints ema- tion for a five-borough foreign systems of production previously The point here is not that the this crisis. I once surmised (Smith nating from the conditions of so- policyó represents just one thread territorialized at the (subnation- national state is necessarily weak- 1990:137) that where the geo- cial reproduction. The rigors of al- of neoliberal urbanism. It dove- al) regional scale were increasing- ened or that the territoriality of graphical expansion of cities out- most unbearable commuting tails with the more culturally at- ly cut loose from their definitive political and economic power is stripped their ability to get peo- have not yet compromised eco- tuned assessment of political ge- national context, resulting not somehow less potent. This argu- ple from home to work and back nomic production. Instead, they ographer Peter Taylor (1995:58), just in the waves of deindustriali- mentóthat global power today re- again, the result was not just ur- have elicited a ìdesperate resil- who argues that ì[C]ities are re- zation in the 1970s and 1980s but sides in a network of economic ban chaos but a ìfragmentation ienceî and been absorbed amidst placing states in the construction in wholesale regional restructur- connections rather than in any and disequilibrium in the univer- the wider social breakdown that of social identities.î Cities like ing and destructuring as part of a particular placeóis embodied in salization of abstract labourî that Katz (forthcoming) calls ìdisinte- São Paulo and Shanghai, Lagos reworking of established scale hi- the influential treatment of Em- went to the heart of economic co- grating developments.î and Bombay, are likely to chal- erarchies. As a result, production pire by Hardt and Negri (2000), hesion. While this contradiction Thus, the leading edge in the lenge the more traditional urban systems have been downscaled. but it is flawed by a certain necro- between geographical form and combined restructuring of urban centers, not just in size and densi- The territorialization of produc- mancy with finance capital and a economic process no doubt en- scale and function does not lie in ty of economic activityóthey tion increasingly centers on ex- blindness to the contradictions of dures, the evidence from cities in the old cities of advanced capital- have already done thatóbut pri- tended metropolitan centers, power that comes with the neces- many parts of Asia, Africa, and ism, where the disintegration of marily as leading incubators in rather than on larger regions: the sary fixing of economic activities Latin America presents a rather traditional production-based re- the global economy, progenitors metropolitan scale again comes to and political control in space. Cer- different picture. The daily com- gions and the increasing disloca- of new urban form, process, and Tomislav Medak Tomislav BY PHOTO Medak Tomislav BY PHOTO Why don’t you adress the Mayor? adress you don’t Why confrontation] of cultural [workshop the Mayor? adress you don’t Why confrontation] of cultural [workshop operation:city 2008 Jason Hackworth The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies Challenging the neoliberal city 6 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

identity. No one seriously argues REFERENCES that the twenty-first century will Brenner N. (1998) Global cities, glocal states: Global city formation and state Challenging see a return to a world of city- territorial restructuring in contemporary statesóbut it will see a recapture Europe. Review of International of urban political prerogative vis- Political Economy 5:1–37 the neoliberal city Castells M. (1977) The Urban Question. à-vis regions and nation-states. London: Edward Arnold Finally, the redefinition of the Hansen S. and Pratt G. (1995) Gender, Work, scale of the urban in terms of so- and Space. London: Routledge tions, but also, more seriously to particularly pronounced in cities. cial production rather than repro- Hardt M. and Negri A. 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(1999) The a difference between the social- is ësoldí to voters as a ësolutioní heightened significance precisely reconquest of the historic centre: Urban ism of Eastern Europe, and high but rarely even comes close to because of the dismantling of conservation and gentrification in O RTH taxes in the United States during achieving its putative goals. More Puebla, Mexico. Environment and state responsibilities. However, Planning A 31:1547–1566 the 1960s and 1970s. All forms of often than not, it leads ironically state abstention in this area is Katz C. (2001) Vagabond capitalism and the collectivization whether they be to an increase in the power of the matched by heightened state ac- necessity of social reproduction. progressive taxation, labor un- stateóexcept that rather than pro- Antipode 33:708–727 tivism in terms of social control. Katz C. (forthcoming) Disintegrating ions, public space, subsidized viding public housing and wel- The transformation of New York Developments: Global Economic housing, socialist societies, or fare, states are providing prison into a ìrevanchist cityî is not an Restructuring and Children’s Everyday simple planning proposals were, cells, more police officers and Lives. Minneapolis: University of isolated event, and the emer- Minnesota Press and continue to be, derided by ne- new rules to crack down on gence of more authoritarian state Lefebvre H. (1971) La Révolution Urbaine. oliberal ideologues as ìenemies of ëundesirablesí. forms and practices is not diffi- Gallimard: Paris freedomî. It scarcely matters So why has it been so difficult MacLeod G. (2001) New regionalism cult to comprehend in the con- reconsidered: Globalization and the whether these forms occur in to contest? As an abstract set of text of the rescaling of global and remaking of political economic space. Yugoslavia in 1965 or the United principles, it rarely enjoys wide- International Journal of Urban and local geographies. According to CK W States in 2008óin the neoliberal spread public support, and it has Regional Research 25:804–829 Swyngedouw (1997:138), the sub- failed to achieve stated goals Mészáros I. (2001) Socialism or Barbarism: worldview, all forms of collectivi- stitution of market discipline for From the “American Century” to the zation are a ìroad to serfdomî, to around the world from Zagreb, to that of a hollowed-out welfare Crossroads. New York: Monthly Review borrow Hayekís (1944) famous Washington, to Toronto. No easy state deliberately excludes signif- Ramsamy E. (2001) “From Projects to Policy: so n title. answers to this question exist, The World Bank and Housing in the icant parts of the population, and Developing World.” PhD dissertation, On the one hand, such a ridicu- but I think that the crucial bur- the fear of social resistance pro- Department of Urban Planning, Rutgers lous premiseóthat all forms of den that we face as scholars and vokes heightened state authori- University collectivization can be treated activists is to continually rein- Rose D. (1981) Accumulation versus Ja tarianism. At the same time, the reproduction in the inner city. In M Dear HA the sameómight be seen by pro- force the point that, despite its new urban work force increasing- and A Scott (eds) Urbanization and gressive scholars with a certain successes in the policy realm, ne- Urban Planning in Capitalist Society (pp ly comprises marginal and part- 339–382). London: Methuen flippant joy, as it should be easy to oliberalism is not ëinevitableí or time workers who are not entire- Sassen S. (1992) The Global City. Princeton, dispel this notion with simple re- ënaturalí as its supporters often ly integrated into shrinking sys- NJ: Princeton University Press Sassen S search and activism. But the fact characterize it. Neoliberalism is (1998) Globalization and Its incredibly powerful, but it is not tems of state economic discipline, Discontents. New York: New Press that we are gathered at a confer- as well as immigrants whose cul- Sassen S. (2000) Cities in the World Neoliberalism here, ence to lament the rise of urban inevitable, natural, or even desir- tural and political networksópart Economy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine neoliberalism there, neoliberalism and contemplate able. It is a political philosophy of the means of social reproduc- Forge Press neoliberalism everywhere ways of reversing it suggests, if that benefits a small class of peo- Smith N. (1990) Uneven Development: tionóalso provide alternative Nature, Capital, and the Production of nothing else that, despite its ple. Though it is a formidable po- norms of social practice, alterna- Space. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Once when I was in Yugoslavia, I transparently fallacious claims, litical force, I do think that it can tive possibilities of resistance. Smith N. (forthcoming) Scales of terror: The calculated that the difference be- neoliberalism and its proponents be challenged. What follows is a manufacturing of nationalism and the In summary, my point here is war for US globalism. In S Zukin and M tween the degree of socialism in are a force to be reckoned with, series of reflections on some stra- not to argue that cities like New Sorkin (eds) After the World Trade Yugoslavia and in the United and that simply ërevealing the tegic positions that could be rein- York, London, and Tokyo lack Center. New York: Routledge States at that time was, if my truthí as scholars and activists is forced by progressive scholars in Smith N. and W. Dennis (1987) The power in the global hierarchy of restructuring of geographical scale: memory is right, fourteen per- not enough. Neoliberalism, in the battle against neoliberalism. urban places and high finance. Coalescence and fragmentation of the centage points. In the United the words of Perry Anderson The list is necessarily partialóa The concentration of financial northern core region. Economic States, the corporate income tax (2000) is nothing short of, ìthe starting point in a conversation, Geography 63:160–182 and other command functions in Swyngedouw E. (1996) Reconstructing was then 52 percent, and so the most successful ideology in the more than a definitive end point. these centers is undeniable. Rath- citizenship, the rescaling of the state, government owned 52 percent of history of the worldî. It has trans- er, I am trying to put that power and the new authoritarianism: Closing every enterprise. In Yugoslavia, formed the developed and devel- Contesting neoliberalism the Belgian mines. Urban Studies in context and, by questioning 33:1499–1521 the central government was tak- oping world alike. It has affected Let me start with a clarifica- the common assumption that the Swyngedouw E. (1997) Neither global nor ing about 66 percent of the prof- trading relations between coun- tion that may not go over that power of financial capital is nec- local: “Glocalization” and the politics of its of the worker co-operatives. tries, altered domestic policies in well in this audience, but which scale. In K Cox (ed) Spaces of essarily paramount, to question Globalization: Reasserting the Power of — Milton Friedman, 1984, p. 16 vastly different societies, and needs in any case to be said. I the criteria according to which the Local (pp 137–166). New York: transformed basic notions of think that scholars play only one, cities come to be dubbed ìglobal.î Guilford begin with this obscure ëcommon senseí that are difficult fairly small, role in the contesta- Taylor P. (1995) World cities and territorial If there is any truth to the argu- states: The rise and fall of their quote from one of the patri- to reverse. Its logicócentered on tion of neoliberalism, or any so- ment that so-called globalization mutuality. In P Knox and P Taylor (eds) archs of modern neoliberal- the veneration of individuals and cial force for that matter. We can, results in the first place from the World Cities in a World System (pp ism, Milton Friedman, both markets, and the vilification of all and I believe should, challenge the 48–62). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge globalization of production, then University Press in wry attempt to legitimate that is social and collectiveóhas nonsense that neoliberal political our assessment of what consti- Taylor P. (1999) So-called “world cities”: myselfóaI scholar of American cit- permeated societies and contexts economists feed to the willing, tutes a global city should presum- The evidential structure within a iesóto a group that is primarily in- across the globe. As with many unwilling, and ignorant press, ■ literature. Environment and Planning ably reflect that claim. 31:1901–1904. terested in post-socialist transi- social forces, its effects have been and conversely support the clari- PHOTO BY Ana Hušman BY PHOTO Tomislav Medak Tomislav BY PHOTO Public Space Between CarsPublic Space and Pedestrians: in Zagreb Square the Case of Kvaternikov table] [round Between CarsPublic Space and Pedestrians: in Zagreb Square the Case of Kvaternikov table] [round Jason Hackworth operation:city 2008 Challenging the neoliberal city The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 7 ty provided by progressive econo- and organized them into three this contradiction. Radical con- All forms of collectivization whether they be mists and the progressive press. strategies for challenging neolib- servatives have not only success- But that is far from enough. The eralism. fully mobilized the institutions “ progressive taxation, labor unions, public very institutions that Friedman of the Religious Right for neolib- space, subsidized housing, socialist societies, or and his ilk so reviledólabor un- Decoupling neoliberalism eral purposes like lower taxes and ions, progressive state policies, Neoliberalism, in my view, deregulation; they have also man- simple planning proposals were, and continue to socialism, cooperativesówere owes much of its current power aged to lend a sort of spiritual be, derided by neoliberal ideologues as “enemies of themselves the result of years of to its proponentsí ability to use credibility to neoliberalism by in- freedom” struggle by affected parties. other movements and ideologies voking a literal divine inspiration. Scholars were a part of many of as political cover. If neoliberal- Within the evangelical Christian pling from neoliberalism, as the such battles. these stories, but they only mate- ism, as an abstract set of princi- movement, at least three logics latter is able to absorb legitimacy Take, for example, the aca- rialized when large numbers of ples, was placed on a ballot, it have been used to justify such a from the invocation of religion. demic literature on ëgovernment workers, citizens, or students en- would rarely receive majority position: 1) Dominionism; 2) Progressive scholars thus need failuresí. Over the past thirty gaged in direct and electoral ac- support. However, if as is often Christian libertarianism; and 3) not only to point out the obvious years or so a group of right- tions to affect such changes. the case, it is coupled or connect- Prosperity Theology. Dominion- contradictions but to delve deep- winged scholars has quietly de- There is a role for progressive ed to a different logicóone that ism was a term first coined by the er to challenge the sources of le- veloped the concept of ëgovern- scholarship, but only if it is en- has its own legitimacyóthe terms sociologist Sara Diamond (1995) gitimacy that gives neoliberalism ment failuresí as a counter to the gaged with the reality that it of such a political decision be- referring to the principle some of its power. Once decou- notion of ëmarket failuresí. The needs to be driven by and inspired come more confusing. I think amongst conservative evangeli- pled from movements that give it notion of market failures is by on-the-ground activism. that it is important that progres- cals that secular laws and institu- political cover or legitimacy, it linked to socialist and Keynesian So what would such a role look sive scholars work to decouple tions must be replaced by reli- can be critiqued and perhaps skepticism of how markets had like? I donít pretend to have all of neoliberalism from the various giously-inspired ones, particular- more successfully contested in its inherent flaws which blocked the answers, but I do think that movements its proponents use to ly those that were inspired by col- own right. As the case of evangel- their ability to provide goods and recognizing this as a long battle of confuse, distort, and legitimate lectivist ideals. Its proponents ical Christianity implies however, services in an efficient or equita- ideasórather than something that its manifestations. By ëdecou- draw inspiration from the book of this might require progressive ble manner. An enormous litera- can simply be explained away pleí, I mean that we should aim to Genesis (1:26; 1:28) where human scholars to supplement their cur- ture of case studies, theoretical with a single studyóis crucial. In reveal and separate neoliberalism ëdominioní over the earth is jus- rent focus on the ëusual suspect- statements, and analyses emerged the last decade of studying neo- from the other movements to tified. Its proponents have ex- síóthe IMF, Worldbank, Thatcher, in the mid-twentieth century to liberalism in North American cit- which it has been attached, and tended this logic to argue that and Reaganówith one that also demonstrate and elaborate upon ies, it has struck me that progres- from which it gains some popular Christians should seize control critiques the role of ostensibly this fact. This research was used sive scholars have already script- legitimacy. Take the case of evan- over the institutions of secular non-neoliberal legitimators. to justify government interven- ed a convincing narrative that ties gelical Christianity in the United governance for their own ends. tions to ëcorrectí market failures. the movement to the ëusual sus- States. Similarly, Christian libertarian- Destabilize neoliberalism Right-winged political econo- pectsíóReagan and Thatcher, the Evangelical Christians are an ism invokes the Bible to justify an Neoliberalism also derives a mists and economists have, since International Monetary Fund enormously powerful voting bloc anti-socialist outlook in life. It great deal of power from the as- the 1970s, tried to shift the atten- (IMF) and the Worldbank, and in the United States, with esti- argues that libertarian (or neolib- sumption that, in the words of tion away from market failures to right-winged think tanks in mates as high as 41 percent of the eral) principles can be justified by Margaret Thatcher, ìthere is no al- an ostensible analog, ëgovern- Washington and London. Though adult population (Lindsay, 2007). Bible, namely John 8:36, which in- ternativeî. Pro-neoliberal politi- ment failuresí. A large literature I do not want to diminish these Though there is no singular agen- vokes the language of ëfreedom cians have, for decades, been able has emerged, mostly published in narratives in any way, I would da of the evangelical community for mení. It is powerfully articu- to frame neoliberalism as a mat- conservative journals and think- like to suggest that much of neo- in the US, there are hundreds of lated by chief advisor to President ter of necessity. Markets will tank publications to bolster the liberalismís political success does powerful groups that organize its Bush, Marvin Olasky, and is pro- crash, jobs will be lost, peopleís claim that governments are mate- not come from a fair comparison political interests in a way over- moted by the think tank the Ac- lives will be ruined unless we pri- rially inferior to markets at pro- with other alternatives, as states their actual population ton Institute. Finally, prosperity vatize, lower taxes, and deregu- viding a whole host of goods and though it was chosen by the count (Wilcox and Larsen, 2006). theology is a movement that of- late. The Left has been slow, shy services. Such economists delib- world electorate, or by a jury at a Often, though not always, the ar- fers an ostensible vehicle to or reluctant about countering erately position their work as a trial. Much of its success, I think, chitecture of these political or- wealth and the evaporation of this logic with plausible alterna- justification for market-based so- derives ironically in its ability to ganizations have been mobilized guilt for being wealthy. It draws tives of its own. Surely, a great lutions, especially privatization morph and conform to other polit- to promote neoliberal ends. This on a number of biblical verses and deal of this has to do with the of public goods. Extending this ical movements that may or may is interesting at least to the ex- is the organizing principle for complexity of problems that are logic, this group of thinkers aims not have anything to do with neo- tent that religion has been used many high profile televangelists at stake, and no reasonable critic to use ëgovernment failuresí to liberalism in an ideational sense. historically to justify very non- in the US, including Joel Osteen could say that the Left ësimplyí justify ëmarket solutionsí. This is I think that it is crucial that we neoliberal ideals like ëliberation and TD Jakes. Though they have has to come up with an alterna- a key premise in the larger neolib- focus our attention on revealing theologyí (Beaumont, 2008; different purposes, all of these tive of its ownóas though we eral argument, but very few pro- and exposing the neoliberalism Jamoul and Wills, 2008) and un- movements lend credibility to ne- were dealing with a refereed de- gressive economists, geographers, that hides behind centre-left gov- ion organizing (Sziarto, 2008). oliberalism by reinforcing its bate in which rational thought or political economists have ernments, religion, and compli- There is a contradiction, or at agenda. Dominionism invokes di- would win the day. But while a spent time countering this cated financial institutions. To least a set of principles that have vine inspiration for challenging comprehensive, progressive solu- premise, or many of the others explain what I mean, I have sum- been mobilized for diabolically the secular state. Christian liber- tion to the various problems to upon which the movement ex- marized the contents of three opposite ends. tarianism invokes divine inspira- which neoliberal solutions are ists. This is unfortunate, as such separate research projects in But the job of activists is much tion for abhorring socialism and thrown, may be impractical with- ideas percolate into mainstream which I am currently engaged, more than simply pointing out the welfare state. Prosperity the- out the think-tanks and ideo- thought unchallenged. ology deploys divine absolution logues that the Right enjoys, it is This logic percolates to the for accumulating capital. Each far from impractical for the Left mainstream press in a variety of There is a role for progressive scholarship, draws inspiration from the Bible to challenge the individual ways. I just completed a study, “ but only if it is engaged with the reality that and, as such, invokes a legitimacy premises upon which neoliberal for example, of the way that Hab- that is rooted in faith. This is dif- solutions are built. Unfortunate- itat for Humanity, a worldwide it needs to be driven by and inspired by on-the- ficult to challenge in a rational ly, progressive scholars have housing non-governmental or- ground activism manner, but it is worth decou- shown little interest in taking on ganization is framed in the main- PHOTO BY Ana Hušman BY PHOTO Ana Hušman BY PHOTO Public Space Between CarsPublic Space and Pedestrians: in Zagreb Square the Case of Kvaternikov table] [round Between CarsPublic Space and Pedestrians: in Zagreb Square the Case of Kvaternikov table] [round operation:city 2008 Jason Hackworth The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies Challenging the neoliberal city 8 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

Right-winged political economists and vulnerable to the decisions of We are all neoliberals now? REFERENCES capital market gatekeepers. Sec- In 2005, the scholar David Anderson, P. 2000. Renewals. New Left “ economists have, since the 1970s, tried to ond, because of demographic Harvey penned the book A brief Review. 1: 17. shift the attention away from market failures to an changes and the generalized shift history of neoliberalism. In it, Har- Beaumont, J. 2008. Faith action on urban toward generating wealth vey expertly traced the rise of the social issues. Urban Studies. 45(10): 2019-2034. ostensible analog, ‘government failures’ through finance capital, institu- ideology from the debates in the tions such as pension funds, mon- Mont Pelerin society to the policy Diamond, S. 1995. Roads to Dominion: Right-winged movements and political stream press in North America Denaturalize neoliberalism ey market funds, and insurance changes instituted by Thatcher power in the United States. New York: (Hackworth, 2008). What I found Neoliberalism is routinely pre- firms now constitute a greater and Reagan. In reflecting on the Guilford. was disconcerting, namely that sented not only as necessary but share of the securities industry 1990s, Harvey raised the question Friedman, M. 1984. Market or Plan? An there has been a steady rise in the natural, or non-political. Often than before. Several new and ex- of whether “we are all neoliberals exposition of the case for the market. positioning of Habitat for Hu- this form of neoliberalism is at- isting federal laws in the US and now”, provoking us to remember London: The Centre for Research into Communist Economies. manity as a replacement for the tached to large institutions abroad place limits on the that US President Richard Nixon welfare stateóa ësolutioní to whose purpose is much broader amount of speculative-grade debt once lamented that “we are all Hackworth, J. 2008. ìNormalizing ësolutionsí to ëgovernment failureí: ëgovernment failureí. This hap- than simply promulgating neolib- institutions can hold. Given the Keynesians now”. Nixon wanted Media representations of Habitat for pened in a variety of waysófrom eralism. Take the case of bond increased presence of funds with to enact neoliberal policy forms Humanityî, article manuscript. directly suggesting that such or- rating agencies and their impact such limitations, the judgments but could not because the prevail- Available from author on request. ganizations should replace the on cities and sovereign govern- of rating agencies have, by de- ing wisdom of Keynesianism so Hackworth, J. 2007. The Neoliberal City: welfare state, to more subtle jabs ments around the world. Bond fault, become more important be- dominated political thought. Governance, ideology and development in American urbanism. that local government should de- rating agencies are secretive, non- cause there are fewer bond buyers Harvey invoked this moment not Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press. regulate the sector so that such elected organizations, that have willing and legally able to ignore to argue that we all secretly pine Hackworth, J. 2002. Local autonomy, organizations could flourishóbut an incredible amount of power in their assessments. Third, less mu- to be neoliberal, but rather to sug- bond-rating agencies and neoliberal in each case the government is financial markets, and in the day- nicipal lending takes place gest that the political ethos has urbanism in the US. International framed as the ëfailureí and the to-day governance of cities, through traditional banking insti- changed so much, that the as- Journal of Urban and Regional private non government organi- states, and national governments. tutions than before. The relative sumptions of neoliberalism are Research. 26(4): 707-725. zation is framed as the ësolutioní. They have power over the latter security of this form of lending hegemonic, and that changing Harvey, D. 2005. A Brief History of and investment has been replaced Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford This assumption permeated cen- because they effectively set the those assumptions would involve University Press. tre-left newspapers like the New terms of a governmentís ability to by a more volatile system of di- more than simply proposing su- Hayek, F. 1944. Road to Serfdom. Chicago: York Times, and right-winged ones borrow money for infrastructure, rect lending. The remaining in- perficial alternatives. Though I University of Chicago Press. like the Wall Street Journal; Cana- labor costs, and the like. If a gov- vestors (households and funds) think that Harvey is largely cor- Jamoul, L. and Wills, J. 2008. Faith in dian papers like the Globe and ernment is behaving in a way that are more reliant on ëprofessionalí rect in asking this question, it is politics. Urban Studies. 45(10): Mail, and American ones like the is ëtoo socialistíóbuilding too assessments than before because still difficult not to be over- 2035-2056. Washington Times. Differences in much affordable housing for ex- the banking intermediary has dis- whelmed by a sense of nihilism – Lindsay, D. M. 2007. Faith in the Halls of approach certainly exist, but all ampleóa rating agency can decide appeared. if neoliberal assumptions are so Power: How evangelicals joined the of these newspapers were care- that their credit rating is at risk The interesting element of deep, so the pessimism goes, American elite. Oxford University Press. lessly building their journalism and release this opinion to inves- this series of events is not just what is the point in trying to re- Sziarto, K. 2008. Placing legitimacy: on the premise that government- tors, who will then charge that that the power of institutions verse them? Call me naïve if you Organizing religious support in a provided housing was a ëfailureí city significantly more interest if that lurk in the shadows has in- will, but I would like to think hospital workers’ contract campaign. and that Habitat for Humanity they do want to borrow capital. creased during the last thirty that there is still some room for Tijdschrift voor economische en was the ësolutioní. It is impossi- They do this by hiding behind the years, but also that it has hap- change. sociale geografie. 99(4): 406-425. ble to establish a direct link be- language of nature. They impose pened with very little challenge Iíve tried to sketch out some of Wilcox, C. and Larson, C. 2006. Onward tween the activities of right- such conditions because it is ënat- from the Left. That is, a great deal these thoughts in this essay. I Christian Soldiers: The religious right in American Politics. Boulder, CO: winged economists and what uralí for investors to expect such of the critique against neoliberal- think that progressive scholars Westview Press. counts as ëcommon senseí to conditions. In their view, they ism is aimed at the ëusual sus- can make an impact by decou- newspaper reporters, but it is are doing nothing that is contro- pectsíóReagan, Thatcher, the IM- pling, destabilizing, and denatu- clear that the ideas of the former versial or politicalóneoliberalism Fówhile much of the ëdirty workí ralizing neoliberalism. They percolate to the mainstream with is common sense to them. of the movement is done behind should decouple it from the other too little challenge from progres- Bond-rating officials regularly the scenes by organizations like discourses that give it legitimacy. sive scholars. meet with city officials in the US rating agencies. Their actions are They should destabilize it by be- The assumption of neoliberal (and increasingly abroad) to map dismissed as confusing or irrel- coming more involved in chal- inevitability rests on a number of out future allocation plans. Their evant by critics of neoliberalism, lenging the various micro as- smaller assumptions that are not role has grown more powerful in and as ënaturalí and ënecessaryí sumptions upon which the meta- challenged enough by progressive the last three decades for a varie- by proponents of neoliberalism. theory of neoliberalism sits. And scholars. The Right is very effec- ty of reasons (Hackworth, 2007; Progressive scholarship needs not they should denaturalize it by tive at using the legitimacy of Hackworth, 2002). First, the gen- only to continue its critique of challenging policy forms and scholarship to bolster such as- eral shift away from the federal the ëusual suspectsí but to devise practices that are positioned as sumptions. The academic litera- maintenance of collective con- a language to criticize the shadow ënormalí, ënaturalí, or ëjust part ture and accompanying main- sumption in the United States has enforcers of neoliberalism like of doing businessí. But above all stream absorption of the idea of accelerated in recent years. Cities rating agencies. The first step in else, progressive scholarship ëgovernment failureí is one such now receive fewer dollars per cap- this is a denaturalization of their should proceed forward with the assumption. All too frequently ita than before but their responsi- work. They operate under the as- assumption that such work is on- such work goes completely un- bilities often remain high. Mu- sumption that their work is non- ly a small part of the pictureóthat challengedósmugly dismissed by nicipal lending has partially cov- controversial, and not political, we should support, not replace, many of us as so transparently ered extant housing, welfare, and when it is most assuredly both social movements whose aim it is ideological as to not necessitate a general assistance demands, as controversial and implicitly polit- to challenge neoliberalism. Only retort. Neoliberalism cannot be well as more recently intensified ical. Exposing this reality is the then can we begin to plausibly destabilized until such assump- pressures, such as prison con- first step toward changing it. imagine a world where neoliber- tions are more aggressively chal- struction and law enforcement. alism is a subject only taught in lenged. Cities are thus, by default, more history class. ■ PHOTO BY Boris Cvjetanović BY PHOTO Boris Cvjetanović BY PHOTO Mladen Stilinović [installation] 2008. ‘68, Marie-Antoinette For Mladen Stilinović [installation] 2008. ‘68, Marie-Antoinette For Boris Buden operation:city 2008 God is back in town The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 9

The difference between “private” and God is back in town “ “public” cannot be conceived of in terms of a clear-cut and stable boundary. We can think of this hy there is so much played in this new urban interest in urban development. difference as being itself a sort of space – the space space? We are so There are few reasons why this of translation. keen to reflect on its project suits well our analysis. transformations al- First, it is clearly framed in histor- thoughW we know very well that ical terms, namely within the However, there is one particular Tudjman to come to power, has they are only impacts and effects event called “the democratic rev- element in the project that makes presented itself as both the lead- of another transformations that olutions of 1989/90”. Secondly it it especially interesting. This ing force of democratization and happen elsewhere, in politics, in explicitly addresses an important small abbreviation added to the retroactively as the main victim society or generally on the scene social transformation that is as notion of church – Ltd. It implies of the communist past. As a con- we still call history? Why don’t one of its consequences ascribed an economical meaning of desec- sequence it has also claimed both we grasp them where they origi- to this event – a phenomenon we ularization, a dimension, which is the right to exert influence not nally happen instead of chasing can call “desecularization” of normally excluded from the at- only on political life in the coun- them around in the urban space? modern societies, or at least the tempts of political – mostly liber- try but on all the spheres of social In the same context we are also crisis of modern secularism. Fi- al – theory to deal with this phe- life, like education, public moral,

Bo ri s talking about urban struggles. nally this phenomenon has politi- nomenon. Is this because the eco- or media, as well as the compen- Aren’t these struggles in fact po- cal meaning or more precisely, nomic dimension cannot be sim- sations for the loses it had suf- Bud en litical, social or historical strug- implies and articulates a political ply ignored if we are going to seri- fered under the communist rule. gles? Why then do we call them conflict. For what is actually ously reflect on transformations One particular element of this “urban”? If urban space is more “desecularization”? Jürgen Hab- in urban space? Probably, but it is compensation claim was the de- than a simple site of these strug- ermes, who explicitly attaches precisely this economic dimen- mand for permission to build new gles, can we think of some sort of this phenomenon to the histori- sion that evokes the original sacral buildings. Naturally the their urban cause that transcends cal change of 1989/90, defines it meaning of the notion of secular- Church got this permission with- their political, social or historical in political terms: since 1989/90 ization. Namely, its historically out any problems and the result meaning? religious traditions and religious first meaning was a juridical one. was already mentioned project There is no simple answer to communities have gained in – un- It meant an enforced transfer of “Spiritual Ring of City of Split”. these questions. We are therefore til then unexpected – political im- ownership over church proper- Let us put aside the concrete best advised to look for some con- portance.01 ties to the authority of secular results of this building campaign, crete case in which urban space In fact, Habermas addresses a state. So has the phenomenon of i.e. the quality of the new build- has become an authentic site of common impression that we have desecularization platforma 9.81 ings and the new urbanity that it political conflict, in which it is ar- been witnessing recently a world- deals with precisely the reverse has created, both subjected to the ticulated as a texture of social wide renaissance of religious be- meaning of the original concept critical analysis of platforma 9.81. transformation and saturated liefs, which has radically put in of secularization, the passing of Generally, the critique suggests with historical time; a case in question the process of modernist public properties into the church that the whole building campaign which urban space also appears as secularization. There are many ownership, or as it is also called, has in fact regressive effects. It an ideological battlefield, on strong symptoms of this change privatization, a key concept of rolls back the former achieve- which we can deploy our analyti- we are very aware of like for in- the process of post-communist ments of modern urban develop- cal concepts. stance the so-called religious fun- transition.04 ment that had been realized un- Fortunately, there is an artistic damentalism and religiously mo- The architects from platforma der – or to stay within today’s he- project – at the same time a tivated terrorism, a renaissance of 9.81 focused on the situation in gemonic ideology, despite of – the project of social and political crit- religious beliefs in the former city of Split, on the Croatian Adri- communist rule.05 icism – that has already tackled communist countries, or even in atic coast, where the Church to- However, the key element of this problem. A group of archi- the very centre of the Western gether with the political repre- their analysis that has made this tects from Croatia called platfor- capitalist world, in the United sentatives of the city including insight possible is the difference ma 9.81 has been analyzing for States, as well as a growing im- the city planners realized the between “private” and “public” years the changes in urban space pact of religion on public life all project called “Spiritual Ring of or rather a – historically, political- taking place during the process of over the world. In short, the as- City of Split”, a plan to build 16 ly and theoretically – specific un- the so-called post-communist sumption that we live in a secu- new church buildings, mostly in derstanding of this difference. In transition. We will focus on one larized world is generally false.02 the new suburbs around the cen- short, it is not value free, i.e., it particular part of their research Habermas calls this new histori- tre of the city. The realization of presupposes a clear normative labelled Crkva d.o.o. (Church Ltd.). cal condition “post-secular”. In a the project started 1993 and it is claim: “public” is, at least in the It is dedicated to the role the post-secular society “we must ad- today almost completed. Howev- case of urban space, better than Croatian Catholic Church has just ourselves to the consistency er, its origin lies in the political “private”. So is the process of his- (Fortbestehen) of religious com- change that happened 1990, the torical regression presented – and munities in a continually secular- overturn of communist rule in spacialy visualized – as the expan- 03 The process of the izing environment.” Croatia. Croatian Catholic sion of the private space at the This post-secular condition can Church, which helped the nation- cost of public. “ post-communist be conceived of as general histori- alistic movement led by Franjo transition has an cal context of platforma’s Church Ltd-project. Here we are invited ambiguous character to challenge the phenomenon of Croatian Catholic Church owing to its and must be reconside desecularization precisely in the “ properties, annual income and investments form of its urban consequences, red in terms of its the transformations of urban has become recently one of the leading regressive tendencies space that it has directly caused. entrepreneurs in the country Tomislav Medak Tomislav BY PHOTO PHOTO BY Boris Cvjetanović BY PHOTO Mladen Stilinović [installation] 2008. ‘68, Marie-Antoinette For Mladen Stilinović [installation] 2008. ‘68, Marie-Antoinette For operation:city 2008 Boris Buden The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies God is back in town 10 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

Let us take a look at few diagrams presented in the analysis: During the socialist period in the building were accommodated few The visualization of these ur- faculties of the Split university, city library and the Art academy. ban – respectively socio-political 1. An interpolation in the centre of the city, a monastery being re- – transformations is based on constructed within an already defined urban space. The building has three elements: two types of expanded at the cost of the square. space, an original public space and an ecclesiastic space that in the given relation – mutually exclud- ing opposition – actually denotes private space; the third element is the line of expansion of this ecclesiastic/private space.

original public space, i.e. After the return the whole building is occupied by the Church and used for its offices, representative spaces and guest accommodation. spaces used by public institutions

church, i.e.

spaces used exclusively by the church

line of expansion of church property

This clearly evokes the way liberal political theory deals with The property return enabled the Church to expand its facilities and the phenomenon of deseculariza- to annex the large part of a park, which had been used before the col- tion. It too uses similar conceptu- lapse of communism by surrounding schools and faculties: Primary al tool – a dividing line between school, Normal school, Naval highschool, Faculty of natural sciences “private” and “public” – and in- and mathematics, Faculty of chemical technology – only one relatively terprets the process of deseculari- Monastery at Dobri Square small part was used by The Seminary and Theological Faculty. zation in terms of an expansion of what we can provisionally call Another example: A new church built directly nearby Kaufland “private cause”. Concretely reli- shopping mall. In Split people call this church “Our Lady of Kaufland”. gious communities increasingly The space for parking was taken from the already existent basketball insist on using religious argu- playground. ments in public debates. They goal is to influence political decisions and so reshape the state in terms of their own interests, or better, in the interest of their religious beliefs. According to the classical liberal theory this would jeopardize neutral – secular – character of the state, which is the political precondition of religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence of citizens. Rawls in his After the return the largest part of the playground – now fenced – Political Liberalism from 1993 still belongs exclusively to The Seminary and Theological Faculty and is draws a sharp distinction be- used at the rate of 40 seminarists per 10.000 square meters. tween private and public reasons. Religious questions like the one of which god we ought to worship counts as a private matter. How- ever, Rawls revised this argument later and included what he calls “proviso”, which allows for the Ravne njive — “Our Lady of Kaufland” — parish church. expression of religious arguments in public debates – so long as they 2. One form of post-communist privatization is the so-called proper- can be sooner or later translated ty return. An originally private property, which had been nationalized, into the language of public rea- that is to say, appropriated by the communist state after 1945, is now son.06 after the collapse of the communist rule returned to its primal owners. This implies that the differ- This has also happened to one part of the church property. The next di- ence between “private” and “pub- agram shows one example of this phenomenon: The Bishop’s palace in lic” cannot be conceived of in the centre of the city with a large park nearby before and after proper- terms of a clear-cut and stable ty return. boundary. Moreover, we can PHOTO BY Ana Iveković-Martinis BY PHOTO Ana Iveković-Martinis BY PHOTO Sanja Iveković [intervention] Sisters Baković? Who were Sanja Iveković [intervention] Sisters Baković? Who were Boris Buden operation:city 2008 God is back in town The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 11 think of this difference as being Here the visualization of the were left empty or unfinished. If an institution of religious belief is publicly itself a sort of space – the space of transformation operates again After having realized this, the translation. Whereas Rawls forces with two types of spaces, one ec- church authorities started to “ already recognized as a business group, a only religious citizens to trans- clesiastic, for which we are sup- build churches, which are from capitalist entrepreneur, it should also be critically late their religiously based moral posed to think of as “private”, and the very beginning planned and convictions into secular moral another that comprises retail fa- designed to include commercial reflected as such terms, for Habermas is the trans- cilities within the church com- or business facilities or to be rent- lation requirement a cooperative plex. The relation between these ed for such activities. our example, of Roman Catholic tween public and private has be- task in which both sides must two spaces is different from the This simply means that even Church in Croatia, as simply try- come obsolete. It is for this reason participate. For him “public” and cases mentioned above. Here the the Church itself doesn’t antici- ing to catch up with this develop- that the visual tools of this secu- “private” are mutually translata- ecclesiastic space doesn’t expand pate the existence of an authentic ment? It is already an institution larist critique of the post-commu- ble. However, he cuts the public at the expense of public space. On and exclusive space of belief. In of today’s ideological hegemony nist religious renaissance and its space in two parts divided by the contrary, the space of com- short, even the professional be- and enjoys almost the uncondi- social consequences rather ob- what he calls “institutional mercial activities that is in the lievers don’t believe any more in a tional support of political power. scure than clarify this phenome- threshold”, a threshold between end a space of private business pure belief. This is probably the Moreover, it is already publicly non. Typically for the bourgeois an informal public sphere and the (but as a shopping mall it is also a most important feature of the re- approved as “one of the richest critique of religion and its ideo- public sphere of parliaments, form of public space) occupies the awakened religious belief in post- business groups in Croatia”, re- logical function they make us courts of justice, ministries, pub- space of religious belief. The red communism – it reappears only in spectively “one of the leading en- blind for its economic meaning – lic administrations, etc. For Hab- line here actually represents the its hybridized form, that is to say, trepreneurs in the country”. Why not in terms of an economic ermas translation is required only line of expansion of private busi- irrevocably merged with other then to draw this red line within sphere understood as the material on this threshold. One part of ness, in other words, of capitalist spheres and contents of social its buildings supposed to differen- base of a religious superstructure public space, the so-called infor- economy. life. tiate an ecclesiastic from a com- but in terms of a historic change mal public, must stay open for In fact Croatian Catholic But precisely this fact makes mercial space and claim an “un- in the mode of production that private reasons, that is, in princi- Church owing to its properties, today the classical secular cri- natural” infiltration of an alien has put in question the very idea ple contaminated with “private”. annual income and investments tique of religion that is based on a space of private business into a of economy as a separate sphere A similar dissolution of a clear- has become recently one of the clear differentiation between two space of allegedly pure belief? A of social reproduction. cut boundary between “private” leading entrepreneurs in the spheres of social life, public and shopping mall is undoubtedly a If an institution of religious and “public” – this time against country. Already at the end of ecclesiastic/private. retail facility build and owned by belief is publicly already recog- the background of the capitalist 2005 it was ranked among the The question is now: does this private business – although it is at nized as a business group, a capi- market – can be found in another five richest business groups in distinction still make sense to- the same time a sort of public talist entrepreneur, it should also diagram of platforma’s project: Croatia. This phenomenon has al- day? Why is Fine Art Academy space – but is the space of reli- be critically reflected as such. In 3. This is a peculiar mixture of so become increasingly visible in public but church offices and its gious belief something essential- other words, one should never ecclesiastic and secular, commer- the urban space. The authors of representative spaces private? ly different? judge church by its religious cov- cial facilities or more precisely this analysis, the architects of Why is Naval highschool or Facul- We must obviously stop ascrib- er. Yet such a critique still awaits the merging of the space of reli- platforma 9.81, argue that the ba- ty of natural sciences and mathe- ing an essential quality to the re- its visual tools. ■ gious belief with business space, sic interface of church as institu- matics public but Theological Fac- ligious belief. Consequently there in short with the market. On tion with a city life gets more and ulty private? Of course from ar- is no space – neither of private their own property the Church more commercial character. chitectural perspective the dis- nor of public character – that orig- 01 See Jürgen Habermas, “Religion in has namely incorporated com- On the other side, growing po- tinction seems quite simple: pub- inally belongs to, emanates from der Öffentlichkeit. Kognitive Voraus- mercial activities. litical and economical power of lic space is the one where one can or authentically surrounds reli- setzungen für den ‘öffentlichen Ver- nunftgebrauch’ religiöser und säkula- Here is the example of the Church hasn’t been accompanied freely move in and stay without gious belief as such. This means rer Bürger”, in: J. Habermas, Zwischen Franciscan monastery of our Lady with a growing number of true being excluded, like streets or that we can also think of this Naturalismus und Religion, Frankfurt of Health and the shopping mall believers. At the end of the build- parks that are typical public spac- space in terms of its socioeco- am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005, S. 119-155. “Monestery”: ing campaign the new churches es. This also includes buildings nomic meaning. A church or a Here, p. 119. that are open to the public, that is monastery could be also per- 02 Peter L. Berger, (ed.) The Deseculariza- to say, freely accessible and that ceived as a site of productive lation of the World: Resurgent Religion are mostly state property, or as it bour or more precisely – and more and World Politics, Ethics and Public was the case in former Yugosla- adequately in the world whose Policy Center : Washington, 1999, p. via, the so-called social property. material reproduction is increas- 15. Clearly a fenced space of semi- ingly based on the post-fordist 03 Jürgen habermas, Glauben und Wis- nary and theological faculty is mode of production – as a site of sen, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, not open to the public. But the affective or immaterial labour. A 2001, p. 13. space of schools, universities and pastoral care is nothing more 04 The whole research project is called even libraries, are they today than a “service”, like health care, Superprivate. more open to the public. Educa- child care, or, why not, like edu- 05 This necessarily implies that the pro- tion too has become on all of its cation, transportation, entertain- cess of the post-communist transiti- levels a matter of private busi- ment, etc. What characterizes on has an ambiguous character and ness, especially after the neo-lib- these and similar activities is the must be reconsidered in terms of its eral turn in economy and radical central role played by knowledge, regressive tendencies. In short, it changes of all sorts of social life communication, information and cannot be simply identified with a that this new form of late capital- affect. progressive linear development from totalitarianism to liberal democracy, ism has initiated? In fact an over- It is from this angle that we as it is usually the case. all privatization has long ago must reconsider the classical sec- opened its road to success and se- ularist critique of religion that 06 See John Rawls, “The idea of public cured its ideological hegemony entirely relies on the doctrine of reason revisited”, The University of Chicago Law Review, 64(3), 765-807. and decisive support of political “separate spheres” from the nine- power it enjoys today all over the teenth century. At least due to globe. Why then not to think of the feminist research the very as- institutionalized religion, or as in sumption of stable boundaries be- PHOTO BY Ana Iveković-Martinis BY PHOTO Ana Iveković-Martinis BY PHOTO Sanja Iveković [intervention] Sisters Baković? Who were Sanja Iveković [intervention] Sisters Baković? Who were operation:city 2008 Stefan Nowotny The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies Filtered inclusion / Postsocietalism in the neoliberal ages 12 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. Filtered inclusion Postsocietalism in the neoliberal ages

hen we speak about a specific form of capitalism cal construction of an interreg- unimaginable to consider Jewish the relations be- which was based on the state ap- num ideologically legitimated by experiences to be Austrian expe- tween neoliberalism paratus rather than on markets in the perspective of a future “real riences). So what we equally have and postsocialist so- order to leave behind the precapi- socialism” does not apply to a to keep in mind is the more or tny cieties, we are obvi- talistic, feudal elements charac- country like Syria in the same less subtle interrelations between ouslyW dealing with two different teristic for the countries where sense as to the Soviet Union. And the retrospective and prospec- categories, both of which require “socialist” revolutions actually it each case where a self-pro- tive, retroactive and proactive

o some investigation. The main ar- took place. According to Tamás, claimed socialist regime actually contructions of social bonds and gument I will try to develop in the “reality” of socialism itself came into power, we would have both the terms “society” and the following will focus on one of was sort of postponed in this to lead a quite different discus- “socialism”. these categories, namely “neolib- process as the existing conditions sion about the question to what It is not my intention here to eralism”. For precisely this rea- of access to the means of produc- extent it was a revolution and to utter some painstaking critique an w son, though, I want to first speak tion (following the principle of what extent it was a coup d’etat of the notion of postsocialism – about the second category, that is “private ownership”) were not that brought about the change. even less so, as, in many respects, “postsocialist societies”. What is thoroughly revolutionized, but But what, then, is it that connects I would strongly consider myself it that we have the habit to call instead confided to a new politi- a single term like “socialism” to be in a learning position when “postsocialist societies”? The an- cal elite ideologically legitimat- with such a variety of political it comes to “postsocialist socie- swer is temptingly simple: post- ing and maintaining their inter- contexts? ties”. What I do indeed want to socialist societies are societies regnum between “presocialism” The third problem is perhaps suggest, though, is that what we that have experienced what we and “real socialism”. It is quite ob- more connected to the conceptu- (coming from both “postsocial- f Ste

No are equally used to call “really ex- vious that the term “postsocial- al element “society” than to the ist” and “non-postsocialist” socie- isting socialism”. However, I have ism” does not make sense in such element “postsocialist” in the ties) probably have to share is the impression that there are at a perspective, since keeping to term “postsocialist society” – more than just a common – albeit least three problems inherent in the political-conceptual value of even though it might be useful to maybe incongruent – experience this kind of qualification. Let me “socialism” here generates a not forget about the close prox- with neoliberalism in the sense briefly try to sketch out these different kind of historical per- imity between the terms “socie- of “neoliberal reforms”, and that three problems: ception, namely that “socialism”, ty” and “socialism”. Once again I the term “postsocialism” is per- First, and this is a conceptual instead of being realized and then will address it in the form of haps not particularly helpful in argument, the term “postsocial- overcome (or defeated), somehow some questions, namely: Whom this respect. When I am saying ist”, as it is most frequently used, got stuck inbetween its concrete do we consider to be the members “more”, I don’t mean to say “more implies that it is precisely the historical preconditions and the of “postsocialist societies”? than (just) neoliberalism”, but past of one or the other “really very condition of its own Croates? Serbs? Bosnians? Rus- rather “more about neoliberal- existing socialism” that confronts realization. sians? Lithuanians? Estonians? Or ism”: we have to share experienc- both the societies that have expe- Secondly, the term “postsocial- rather former Yougoslaves? Or es that are not limited to the im- rienced it and the societies that ist societies” usually refers to so- former citizens of the Soviet Un- plementation or contestation of didn’t experience it with the par- cieties in Eastern (Central East- ion? But what about Roma, for in- neoliberal reforms within this or ticular phenomenon of either be- ern, South Eastern) Europe and stance in Slovakia or in Romania? that society, but that develop a ing a postsocialist society or hav- thus tends to geographically fix And what about Roma from Ro- sense for how neoliberalism has ing to deal with such societies. the realities of both “socialism” mania, who now live for example not only entered the plane of so- Thus the use of the category con- and “postsocialism”. But why in Naples or other Italian cities cial and political affairs, but in- fuses the conceptual value of the shouldn’t we relate the question and find themselves exposed to deed redefines this plane. political term “socialism” with of “postsocialist societies” to racist attacks (just as they have What kind of experiences am I the – past – appearance of the al- countries like China or Vietnam? been exposed to racism in “social- talking about? In my view, they legedly “real” historical manifes- Or, in a different sense, to Cambo- ist” Romania and still are exposed strongly relate to the three prob- tation of this value. It is quite im- dia? Or, again in a different sense, to racism in “postsocialist” Roma- lems linked with the term “post- probable, though, that those who to Ethopia or Mosambique? Or to nia)? What I am trying to suggest socialism” that I have addressed (still?) believe in the value of so- places like Syria or Libya, or to the by raising these questions is that above. One part of these experi- cialism will ever accept this kind transformation of Palestinian po- when we refer to societies whose ences is that neoliberal doctrines of confusion. For they can be just litical organisations in different members supposedly share a spe- usually present themselves as car- as critical about “really existing countries? Or even to Western cific historic experience, we risk riers of a universalist principle, to socialism” as their opponents, European societies, where the to retrospectively construct a be applied onto different particu- without however identifying “so- term “postsocialism” could be “social bond” which defines who lar situations. In that sense, the cialism” with “really existing so- used to indicate for instance a is part – and in what sense – of denial of universalist claims cialism”. They may even go as far number of transformations con- these societies. (I am saying this linked with socialism goes along as maintaining that so-called “re- cerning both leftist political as someone who has spent most with a similar denial of universal- ally existing socialism” was in thought and forms of leftist polit- of his life as “a member of the ist claims linked with social de- fact no socialism at all, but rather ical organization? In each of these Austrian society”, a society in mocracy, the idea of the welfare a “capitalism pure and simple.”01 contexts, the term “socialism” which so many people still have state, self-management, etc.; that For Gáspár Miklós Tamás for ex- would certainly have to be treat- difficulties to recognize the post- is, neoliberal doctrines “particu- ample, from whom I adopt this ed in a different way, and the fascist and post-Nazi character of larize” conflicting universalist latter expression, “really existing same goes for “postsocialism”. To this society, and in which so ideas or reinterprete them as socialism” was nothing else than give just two examples, the politi- many people still seem to find it “particular situations” related to Danijel Baserminji Danijel BY PHOTO Baserminji Danijel BY PHOTO Dalibor Martinis Dalibor Project Housing Social (Bird) Zagreb [installation] Martinis Dalibor Project Housing Social (Bird) Zagreb [installation] Stefan Nowotny operation:city 2008 Filtered inclusion / Postsocietalism in the neoliberal ages The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 13 a specific past, onto which re- principle of conceiving human ernment must house me!’, and so The term “postsocialist societies” usually forms have to be adjusted. Anoth- conditions and human relations. they are casting their problems er part of these experiences is As far as the specific neoliberal on society and who is society? “ refers to societies in Eastern (Central that neoliberal doctrines usually versions of postsocietalism are There is no such thing! There are Eastern, South Eastern) Europe and thus tends to present themselves as carriers of concerned, we may first think of individual men and women and a global principle, that is, as the the initial “laboratories” for the there are families and no govern- geographically fix the realities of both “socialism” answer to the transformations implementation of neoliberal “re- ment can do anything except and “postsocialism”. But why shouldn’t we relate that societies have to undergo in forms”, namely of states in the through people and people look the question of “postsocialist societies” to countries the age of “globalization” in order South American cono sur such as to themselves first.”03 to be properly inscribed into the Argentina or especially Chile in According to a common analy- like China or Vietnam? “world order”. They thus block or the 1970ies. Here again, we fre- sis of this pronouncement, what at least develop a strong impact quently encounter an explanato- becomes manifest in Thatcher’s tant implication of Thatcher’s cial politics whose main chal- on alternative visions of global re- ry pattern referring to “social- negation of “society” as such is statement. I don’t want to follow lenge was to cushion the effects lations, and maybe even a term ism”, not yet in terms of “postso- specifically the political will to this line of analysis here, howev- of the new labour system. This is that appears at first glance as neu- cialism” but in those of “antiso- cancel the “class contract” that er. For when one tries to do jus- in short where Castel locates the tral as the term “postsocialism” cialism”, when it comes to expli- had been an important principle tice to Margaret Thatcher, one historical emergence of the “so- could in this sense considered to cating the correlation between of social appeasement policies in should probably at least clarify cial question” and, in a way, of be a neoliberal term. Finally, a neoliberal agendas and the exten- the post-World War II history of what kind of justice it is that is “society” as we know it: third part of these experiences is sive political violence exerted by the United Kingdom.04 However, actually at stake within the con- “The ‘social question’ is a fun- that neoliberal doctrines usually the military juntas in these coun- one can ask oneself if Thatcher’s flict in question. In order to do so, damental aporia, in which a socie- do not only, in the wake of 1989, tries. However, the sociologist Pe- denunciation does not in fact I will neither assume the position ty experiences the enigma of its present themselves as carriers of ter Imbusch has proposed an ex- touch upon issues of a wider his- of a legal opponent nor the posi- cohesion and seeks to conjure the a postsocialist principle par excel- planation that goes beyond the torical range. In order to approach tion of a judge, because I neither risk of its fracture. It constitutes a lence, but indeed as carriers of sometimes perhaps overstrained this question let me first point to want to quasi-metaphysically as- challenge, which tests and calls what I will call a postsocietal Cold War perspective, when he the easygoing way in which sert that there is indeed “such a into question the capacity of a so- principle. stated that in view of strong Thatcher seems to identify “gov- thing as society” (which would be ciety (of that which, in political It is this third principle, the forms of leftist opposition (by ernment” and “society”: people the logical counterpart to Thatch- terms, is called a nation) to exist principle of postsocietalism, that trade unions, political parties, are addressing the government, er’s quasi-metaphysical denial of as a collectivity linked by rela- my further reflections will dwell students, etc.) it was regarded she says, because they want it to such an assertion), nor do I claim tions of mutual dependency.”07 on. But let me first state that in necessary “to tailor a new socioe- solve this or that problem that to have the authority to decide From this angle, it is quite use- my view the three principles that conomic basis”02 in order to effi- they encounter; and now Thatch- upon this dispute. I will rather try less to argue about the existence I have just outlined could also ciently launch neoliberal eco- er operates a remarkable shift as, to adopt the position of, let’s say, or non-existence of “such a provide a better understanding of nomic policies. And indeed, the in order to demonstrate the prob- a critical journalist or analyst, thing” as society – precisely be- the reasons why neoliberal doc- destruction of societal structures, lem with all these requests, she who tries to understand what a cause “society” is not (and has trines tend to perfectly go along and not only of individuals, can does not say “but there is no gov- given conflict is all about and how never been) a “thing”, but rather with various discourses on “cul- be seen as one of the major ef- ernment”, but rather arrives at it could ever emerge. the experience of its own aporia ture” and “cultural” relations, or fects of the dictatorship in times saying “but there is no such thing This might require, though, a or its own enigma. And as an ex- indeed with the culturalization of the neoliberal “miracle of as society” (which she repeats lat- specific attention towards what perience it is at the same time his- of social, economic and political Chile” (Milton Friedman). er on in the interview). How is we can call a “history of the torically shaped, it is a historical issues. We could perhaps even say However, we do not need to this shift performed? Of course I present”. It is precisely this for- form, and this concerns not only that culturalistic discourses allow turn our eyes to particularly vio- have left out an important link in mula, first coined by Michel the specific multiplicity of singu- neoliberal doctrines to present lent forms of interference into so- Thatcher’s argument, namely Foucault, that the French sociolo- lar experiences, but also the themselves in the described way: cietal structures in order to grasp that in-between she states that, gist Robert Castel has used to de- forms in which they are shared to the extent that they draw upon the negation of the societal that precisely by addressing the gov- scribe his historical account of (or in which such sharing is a more or less empty, or at least is linked with neoliberalism. ernment in the described way, what is well-known as the “social blocked) and in which they are very vaguely defined, universal- There is indeed a sort of locus people “are casting their prob- question.” In his book Les méta- publicly and politically represent- ism (for instance the oblique uni- classicus for this negation, which lems on society.” So let me do jus- morphoses de la question sociale,05 ed. I do not want to state, of versalism of “culture matters”, to can be found in an interview that tice to Margaret Thatcher: her Castel tries to understand current course, that there is no need to as- pick up a well-known formula by Margaret Thatcher gave in Octo- point of view is of course that it is processes that are discussed un- sume a sort of primordial “sociali- Samuel Huntington) in order to ber 1987. It reads: not herself who identifies govern- der such names as “precarization” ty” in order to conceive of the particularize each and every his- “I think we have gone through ment and society; it is the way in against the background of the specific configuration that bears torical-political situation (some- a period when too many children which people are wrongly ad- transformations that European the name “society” (even the times with the telling exception and people have been given to un- dressing the government which societies have undergone in the “postsocietal” Margaret Thatcher of one’s own situation); but derstand ‘I have a problem, it is identifies government and socie- 18th and 19th centuries. Accord- assumes such a sociality, and si- equally to the extent that they the Government’s job to cope ty. Why? Because there is no soci- ing to him, this era was not only multanously reduces it to fami- pretend to offer a principle of glo- with it!’ or ‘I have a problem, I ety, and so, consequently, there is marked by the industrial revolu- lies). But what is social is not nec- bal understanding, and that they will go and get a grant to cope no possibility of an identification tion, but also by a corresponding essarily societal. Whereas the first pretend to offer a postsocietal with it!’, ‘I am homeless, the Gov- of government and society. and “equally important juridical notion allows to envisage rela- It’s the government, stupid, revolution,”06 which consisted in tionality as such, the second one We have to share experiences that are not Thatcher implicitely says, but the implementation of a free ac- refers to a representable totality people don’t seem to really un- cess to the labour market (replac- of social relations, even though “ limited to the implementation or derstand what a government is ing for instance the guild system) the aporia addressed by Castel contestation of neoliberal reforms within this or (or should be). Now there has and in the contractualization of may always and inevitably re- been much talk about neoliberal (wage) labour relations. However, main inscribed in this that society, but that develop a sense for how redefinitions of the tasks and as the structure of free labour representation. neoliberalism has not only entered the plane of functions of a government contracts soon turned out to be As far as the political form of (linked with keywords such as fragile in that it specifically brang such representation is concerned, social and political affairs, but indeed redefines this the “slender state”), which of about developments of massive I think that Castel is quite right- plane course correspond with an impor- pauperization, it gave rise to a so- fully evoking the name “nation”, PHOTO BY Marijan Crtalić BY PHOTO Danijel Baserminji Danijel BY PHOTO Dalibor Martinis Dalibor Project Housing Social (Bird) Zagreb [installation] Siniša Labrović [workshop] Education Undergraduate operation:city 2008 Stefan Nowotny The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies Filtered inclusion / Postsocietalism in the neoliberal ages 14 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

although I would for various rea- mands” of domestic labour mar- 01 Cf. Gáspár Miklós Tamás, “A Capita- sons prefer the name “nation kets), and the other one referring lism Pure and Simple”, www.grund- state”. What his analysis offers, to the filtering of immigration ac- risse.net/grundrisse22/aCapitalism- PurAndSimple.htm (last consulted on however, is something other than cording to criteria which check

PHOTO BY Ruta BY PHOTO Oct 28, 2008). the, let’s say, nationalist explana- the immigrants’ disposition to tions of what a nation state is. It linguistic and “cultural” assimila- 02 P. Imbusch, “Die Gewalt von Mil- is not necessarily related to myths tion (which of course is mostly itärdiktaturen in Südamerika”, in: Thomas Fischer / Michael Krennerich called “integration”). But what of heros and poets, nor to the nar- (eds.), Politische Gewalt in Lateinameri- ratives of a “national culture” or we are increasingly facing today, I ka, Frankfurt/Main: Vervuert 2000, those which presume to docu- think, is in fact not so much the p. 35–59, here: p. 54 (quotes from ment an “original national lan- predominance of one or the other other than English texts are translat- guage” somewhere in the mists of filtering mechanism, but rather ed by myself, unless otherwise indi- history. It is not even related to that it is precisely the falling cated). the strange Enlightenment myth apart of the two planes of inclu- 03 Cf. www.margaretthatcher.org/ of an original “social contract” sion that allows to arrange them speeches/displaydocument. supposed to constitute the in a way which in itself consti- asp?docid=106689 (last consulted on threshold between a “state of na- tutes a filter. Thus the nation Oct 28, 2008); the interview was originally published on Oct 31, 1997, ture” and a state of sociality, civil- state is less and less functioning under the title “Aids, education and ity, politicality. However, it in- as the political form of the repre- the year 2000!” in the magazine deed urges us to think of a con- sentation of a “society”, nor does Woman’s Own. tractual condition of modern so- it offer any longer the horizon of 04 Cf. for example Hans-Christoph cieties, but in very concrete an “equality” or, at least, “social Schröder, “Die Geschichte Englands. terms: the terms of contractual security”, and this neither to the Ein Überblick”, in: Hans Kastendiek / labour relations bringing about people that it does not even try to Karl Rohe / Angelika Volle (eds.), the specific aporia which is con- represent nor to the people Großbritannien. Geschichte – Politik – stitutive for such an enigma as whom it still pretends to Wirtschaft – Gesellschaft, Frankfurt/ 2 “society”, to the extent that they represent. Main and New York: Campus 1999, p. 15–69, here: p. 56. are at once providing (more or The new filtering mechanisms less) free access to the labour mar- ermerging in this process cannot 05 R. Castel, Les métamorphoses de la ket and challenging a “society’s” any longer be properly conceived question sociale. Une chronique du sal- political capability to be inclusive of along the divisive line of inclu- ariat, Paris: Fayard 1995; quotes will refer to the German edition Die Meta- in a double sense – in terms of in- sion/exclusion, which also im- morphosen der sozialen Frage. Eine cluding individual labour power plies that crucial devices linked Chronik der Lohnarbeit, trans. Andreas in the nation state’s productivity with the nation state, as we his- Pfeuffer, Constance: UVK 2000. and in terms of including individ- torically know it, alter their func- 06 Ibid., p. 29. uals into a legal constitution of tion. This can be observed in what that nation state by granting Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neil- 07 Ibid., p. 17. 11 them civic and social rights, or in- son have called a “proliferation 08 Cf. esp. the last chapters in Castel’s deed civic rights as social rights. of borders”, specifically operated book, which treat of “The New Social Now the neoliberal withdraw- through the temporalization of Question”. al from the “government’s” task border regimes in order to exert a 09 Cf. esp. R. Castel, “Die Fallstricke des of meeting the challenge of inclu- more capillary control over tran- Exklusionsbegriffs”, trans. Gustav sion in the second sense, as im- snational mobility, but also for in- Roßler, in: Heinz Bude / Andreas plied in the quoted statement of stance in the proliferation of la- Willisch (eds.), Frankurt/Main: Margaret Thatcher’s, can be ana- bour contracts that we particular- Suhrkamp 2008, p. 69–86. lyzed as a falling apart of these ly observe in countries like 10 Cf. E. Terray, “Le travail des étrangers two functions of inclusion, which that Castel is rightfully avoiding the falling apart of economic and France. Let me conclude this es- en situation irrégulière ou la délocali- is certainly linked with the fact the term “exclusion”, pointing, political inclusion. say by quoting a sentence from sation sur place”, in: Etienne Balibar / that nation states can no longer among other arguments, to the I would like to refer to this the article by Mezzadra and Neil- Monique Chemillier-Gendreau / Jac- queline Costa-Lascoux / Emmanuel be easily identified with stable juridical dimension of this term.09 phenomenon by proposing the son which also sheds a glance to Terray, Sans-papiers: l’archaïsme fatal, territories of economic produc- Nevertheless the growing “zone term “filtered inclusion”. Of the perspective of a political ac- Paris: La Découverte 1999, p. 9–34. tivity. Castel, whose account of insecurity” described by Castel course both the devices of inclu- tion contesting these processes: tends to focus on the – albeit en- can equally implicate exclusion in sion into a generalized labour “Corollary to this is the system 11 Cf. S. Mezzadra / B. Neilson, “Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of igmatic – centre of societies, or a strict juridical sense, as becomes market and into “the nation” of differential inclusion, which Labor”, in: transversal, 06/2008, “Bor- rather, on the question of their evident when we consider the sit- have known their specific filters, far from constituting the political ders, Nations, Translation”, http:// possible “cohesion,” sociological- uations of migrants without pa- establishing gradations of work- through exclusion involves a se- eipcp.net/transversal/0608/mezz- ly registers this falling apart pers, that is, without access to ing capacity and incapacity to lective process of inclusion that adraneilson/en (last consulted on Oct mainly by referring to what he civic rights, whose inclusion into work, of qualification and non- suggests that any totalization of 28, 2008). calls the “supernumeraries” or labour markets allows for, as the qualification, of sameness and the political is contingent and 12 Ibid. the ”disaffiliated,”08 that is to French sociologist Emmanuel otherness, etc. Again the legacies subject to processes of those who are no longer provided Terray10 has called it, “delocaliza- of these filters can be clearly contestation.”12 with civic rights as social rights tions on the spot,” that is, profit- traced in current debates on mi- Maybe this is one of the per- or whose status as citizens no maximizing strategies which are gration policies especially in spectives that we should share, longer guarantees them social se- precisely enabled by a presence of Western Europe: there is not one, from postsocialist societies or curity. And when doing so, I think the (legally) absent, and hence by but in fact two hegemonic posi- not, finding ourselves in a world tions in these debates, one refer- of postsocietalism. ■ ring to the filtering of immigra- Neoliberal doctrines present themselves as tion according to criteria of “qual- “ of a postsocietal principle ification” (with a view to the “de- PHOTO BY Marijan Crtalić BY PHOTO Marijan Crtalić BY PHOTO Siniša Labrović [workshop] Education Undergraduate Siniša Labrović [workshop] Education Undergraduate Boyan Manchev operation:city 2008 Few preliminary notes concerning the neutralisation of the city The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies by a contemporary Sofia flâneur zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 15 Few preliminary notes concerning the neutralisation of the city by a contemporary Sofia flâneur

ra that replaces the aura of the susbtantial transformation of the Is there a possibility for a new form of past: the divine sacred is ousted. urban space that we are witnes The new sacredness isn’t tran- sing today. It seems that their “ collective sensible experience to emerge in scendent, it is immanent, it is insight is especially poignant if the time of the neutralisation of the city? here and now. Or, more precisely, we project them onto each other it is trans-immanent, it is the and as a result we get the state transcendent in the immanent. ment “The urban space nowadays its always obstructed tactileness). nating information’, Qfront is This contemporary trans-imma- is turning into (or tends to turn What is being called today “virtu- simultaneously an interior and nence constructs its ethereal, sa- into) a space that tries to ensure a al” does not mean at any rate “im- exterior media space symptoma cred body, the body of the trans- (total?) accessibility to the material”; is in fact a totalised and tic of what Igarashi Taro calls immanent presence. The body of ‘brains’ of its inhabitants”. ontologically neutral sensitive superflat urbanism. The enormo the inorganic fetish. I will use this hypothetic state- thing. If the new media space is a us central screen called Q’s eye Think of the images from the ment as a point of departure for a super-eroticised surface, this (23.5m high and 19m wide) shows clips, commercials and messages yan screens, from the magazines and critical analysis with which I points before all a to its super-re the billboards: they encircle their would try to shed some light on activity and efficiency: touching to the unceasing flow of people sacred transcendence above the the radical transformation in this surface brings about an inst underneath. Does it also count on profane organics of the city. Like question, affecting the structure ant effect, a non-explosive, ‘non- consciousness free for access like Manet’s ‘idol’ Olympia (‘Olympia of the public space in general and classical’ but a sinusoidal orgasm. the TV screen? And is it accidental Bo Man c hev is a scandal, an idol’, writes therefore the space of the city. The neutral and inorganic space that the screen is called eye? Valéry), they are indifferent, en- Let me describe it in advance as a of pure sexuality means We do not watch the inorganic tirely absorbed by their synthetic transformation of the public achieving maximum effect after a fetich. It watches us. flesh. In fact, those appealing ad- space in a new media space, in a minimal contact confirming * * * vertising bodies aren’t appealing giant media screen. Benjamin’s argument that “in for or against anything; their link The new media space provides comparison to the inorganic, the The transformation of the with any referential plane is bro- (or masks) the public space as potential of the organic as an urban space of the city Sofia ken. But their power is precisely availability, as availablity that instrument is very limited”. should be conceived of than not the effect of this break. The inor- could be appropriated or absor so much as a ‘deviation’ with ganic fetish is indifferent to the bed, in other words as a private * * * regard to the archetypal ideal profane crowds milling down space – a space which is subjected The billboard is a media screen model of the city, but as subor below. to the control of the priviliged that irradiates us. dinate to the logic of the symptom. private access. The new media The highway type of billboards The deviation of the city space of * * * space apparently presents itself as that has invaded the urban space Sofia allows the symptom to Let me remind the already fa- a materialisation and localisation of Sofia is not only a monstrous appear in a pure form: the trans mous infamous statement of of the global public space. Thus, contamination. It is also an formation of the city space in a Patrick Le Lay, the director of the the new media space reduces pub- embryo – or rather, a symptom – neutral new media space. The French TV channel TF 1: “Our lic space to superficial, accessible, of the giant screen of superflat manifestation of the symptom programmes aim at making the neutral, efficient and reactive architecture. allows reflecting on the complex he inorganic is a rupture brain more accessible (…) What surface. The new media space could Apparently, the biggest screen structure of this transformation in the decaying tissue of we sell to Coca Cola is the time be decsribed as a super-eroticised in the world - Viva Vision, longer in whose basis lies the paradox the mortal. It does not when the human brain is surface offering ‘pure’ access to than five football pitches, appe ical double bind of the organic decompose, it is resist- accessible.”01 In the same year the neutral sexuality of the inor ared on Fremont Street in Las and the inorganic, of the sacred ant. It is infinite. The in- 2004, at a public debate organised ganic.02 Unlike the deterministic Vegas on 15 June 2004. But is Las fetish and its organic ‘waste’, its organicT is the new transcendence by the project Visual Seminar in and finite framework of the orga Vegas a city at all? It seems to me radical otherness in which, of modernity. The inorganic – the Sofia, the media theorist Georgi nic, the inorganic is endlessly that a more appropriate example simultaneously, it sprouts. ■ artificial, the plastic, the synthet- Lozanov compared the visual reversible and in this sense it is would be the Qfront project, part ic object, virtual reality, cosmet- environment of the contempo- essentially superficial. of which is the largest open air 01 Announced by the France Press news ics, plastic surgery, digital camer- rary city with a media, with a New media space supposes an screen in Japan. The project is agency (AFP) on 9 July 2004, com- as, electronic music, biotechnolo- television in some sense. Regard immediate access to the target: carried out in 1999 in Tokyo, one mented on by Libération gies, cloning, the images of adver- less of whether I agree or not, I the distance is condensed as of the world’s most ‘mediatized’ (10-11/07/04): “Patrick Le Lay: the tising, of the poster and the bill- cannot but admit that both state much as possible between the cities. Qfront is located at the exit brainwasher” [“Patrick Le Lay, board, the face and body on the ments are insightful with regard initial impulse and the final of the Shibuya station, an inster décerveleur ”]. screen, they all possess a new au- to the radical and in a sense effect, it is reduced to a point- section of five major railway and 02 In Mario Perniola’s book The sex-ap- instant. One may even say that metro lines, and where 500, 000 peal of the inorganic the Benjaminian the constitutive horizon of the people and 90, 000 cars pass by figure of the “sex-appeal of the inor- It seems unproductive to approach the new media space is the absolute every day. Qfront is in fact the ganic” is generalized as an intensive designation of the transformed con- accessibility. It is a surface of the home of the central Tsutaya shop “ ongoing transformation of the cities dition of human existence today. without relating it to the current processes of infinite spreading of efficiency. that sells CDs, DVDs, video See Mario Perniola. Il Sex appeal Accesisbility takes the place of games, manga, books, etc. Desig dell’inorganico. Torino: Giulio Einaudi fundamental political transformation, or crisis contact (as though replacing also ned as a ‘shopping centre dissemi- Editore, 1994. PHOTO BY Marijan Crtalić BY PHOTO Marijan Crtalić BY PHOTO Siniša Labrović [workshop] Education Undergraduate Siniša Labrović [workshop] Education Undergraduate operation:city 2008 The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies 16 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. zagreb, 04. 12. — 07. 12. 2008. community center mosor, zvonimirova 63 The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies aims to → reflect on transformations of cities, urban landscapes and urban governance in Croatian and other post-socialist societies in the Eastern Europe at a moment of urgency when the development of cities in those societies increasingly comes under pressure of neoliberal policies and economic overexploitation of space. conference team: Petar Milat (coordinator), Tomislav Medak, Leonardo Kovačević, Marko Sančanin

Thursday, December 4 Friday, December 5

20:00 → 21:00 11:00 → 12:00 13:15 → 14:15 16:00 → 17:15 keynote 1: panel 1: panel 2: panel 3: Neil Smith Scales of Neo-liberalism Neo-liberalism at the Urban Struggles and At the intersection of Test of Post-socialist Public Imagination 21:00 → 23:00 → disciplines such as critical Societies What are the historical social theory, political economy Opening Party The particular path that trajectories resistance to and radical geography → [with Pytzek] Eastern European societies post-fordist capitalism is part of, neoliberalism has become an → have taken since the demise of and how this new militancy fits umbrella-concept: too pervasive real-socialist regimes has been into a larger historical narrative and - at the same time - too reflected upon in many divergent of contestation? In what sense imprecise to describe manners, but it seemed for a globalization in general and heterogenous processes. In recent while that the debate was transitional processes in years extensive methodological dominated by a mixture of emerging regions, in particular, care has been given to identifying liberal-democratic institutional have displaced the dominant different scales of neoliberal approach and an inflection of the forms of popular struggle? Are interventions (be they local, postcolonial theory. Critical urban life and its antagonisms national, regional or global), intellectual voices have described still the privileged domain to which evidently has made the 02. 12. — 07. 12. this tendencies as a culturalist question and transform societies? community center mosor, description of contemporary pacification of political action, panelists: Daniel Chavez, Gal zvonimirova 63 capitalism even more complex. stressing those inassimilable Kirn, Gerald Raunig, Paul This panel will highlight those How the City Builds the traits making Eastern Europe an Stubbs developments, but also ask about City object not to be easily put into a the normative implications of given interpretative frame. Of 17:30 → 18:45 [documentary exhibition on such considerations. urbanism] particular interest for this panel panel 4: panelists: Jochen Becker, Jason The exhibition compares the will be the convergence of the Neo-liberal Hackworth, Brian Holmes, socialism’s and the current above-mentioned culturalization → Neil Smith Governmentality and approach toward urban planning to and the neoliberal interventions, moderator: Petar Milat Urban Development understand better their qualities and as well implications of Eastern negative aspects. European experiences for The panel will try to authors: Luciano Basauri, Dafne 12:00 → 13:00 neoliberal interpretative frame. distinguish quality Berc, Marko Sančanin keynote 2: → panelists: Boris Buden, Artemy planning from mediocre Jason Hackworth development, and understand 22. 11. — 07. 12. 2008. Magun, Boyan Manchev, If You Encounter them Stefan Nowotny better the difference between moderator: Leonardo efficient and inefficient on the Streets, Join In Kovačević governance behind the execution [artistic interventions in public space] of the current models of urban This series of interventions is 14:15 → 16:00 policies. Evident co-existance of → determined by the necessity to Break the masterplan structure and radically redefine urban cohabitation development strategies will serve as well as the belief that cohabitation as a starting point for the is a sine-qua-non of the city. discussion. coordinator: Sonja Soldo panelists: Luciano Basauri, curators: Olga Majcen Linn, Sunčica Ostojić, Sonja Soldo, Vesna Keller Easterling, Miran Vuković Gajšek, Vedran Mimica assistant: Ivo Poparić 19:00 → 20:00 wednesday, 03. 12., keynote 3: community center mosor, Boris Buden zvonimirova 63 European Cultural 20:00 → 21:00 Policy and the keynote 4: Intependent Cultural Keller Easterling Scene of the Western Balkan Region [panel discussion] The aim of this panel discussion → is to inform Western Balkan independent cultural organizations, as well as general public, about the position of culture in the EU and it’s future perspectives. speakers: Daphne Tepper (Culture Action Europe - EFAH, Bruxelles), Nevenka Koprivšek (Bunker and Stara Elektrarna, Ljubljana), Ivet Ćurlin (WHW — What, how and whom, Zagreb), Lovro Rumiha (BADco., Zagreb) moderator: Emina Višnić operation:city 2008 The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 17 programme

Saturday, December 6 Sunday, December 7

03. 12. at 18:00 16:00 → 17:15 11:00 → 12:00 12:00 → 14:15 community center mosor, keynote 5: panel 6: Meetings / Workshops zvonimirova 63, zagreb Ines Weizman Semantics of Emerging Implosion of the Left, Capitalisation Politics of Culture and 12:00 → 14:15 Recent history of urban Social Experimentation panel 5: transformations in post- → [round table] Dissenting Architectural socialist societies has brought The round table will debate the Practices into existence new spatial past and present state of the imageries and development → The session brings together left in the region, reflect on the typologies with their respective political role of civil and socio- practitioners and → social expressions call for critical cultural activism therein, touch upon theoreticians from South-East consideration and new languages questions of culturalization of politics European region. Individuals, for understanding. In the focus and politics of culture, look back on informal initiatives, non- here will be the semantics of this collective actions and authentic governmental and other new phenomenal world. political incursions. associations will present urban speakers: Boris Bakal (Zagreb), Boris panelists: Sabine Bitter / phenomena in the region through Buden (Berlin/Zagreb), Jasenka Helmut Weber, Maroje their projects. Second part will Kodrnja (Zagreb), Aldo Milohnić Mrduljaš, Mirko Petrić, Ani deal with a possibility of new (Ljubljana), Branimir Stojanović Vaseva (Belgrade), Miha Zadnikar architectural practice as a form of (Ljubljana), Igor Toshevski (Skopje) resistance that fits neither into moderator: Tomislav Medak the common repertoire of 17:30 → 18:45 (Zagreb) architectural tools nor familiar panel 7: activist tactics. 25. 11. at 19:15 presenters: Dafne Berc, Ana Struggles against community center mosor, Đokić / Marc Neelen, Emil Capital Unlimited zvonimirova 63 Jurcan, Florina Jerliu, Dinko Encroachments of capital Public Space Between Peračić, Armina Pilav, Tanja → on regulatory constraints, Cars and Pedestrians: Rajić, Dubravka Sekulić public property, social equality the Case of Kvaternikov discussion: Srđan Jovanović take many forms: privatizations Weiss, Ivan Kucina, Arjen of public space, gentrifications, Square in Zagreb Oosterman, Andrej Prelovšek, deregulations, sanitations... The [round table] Kai Vöckler panel will look beyond particular speakers: Niko Gamulin, Damir moderator: Marko Sančanin cases and bring insights into Fabijanić, Žarko Puhovski, Gordana Vnuk, Vera Petrinjak- mechanisms at work. But most of 14:15 → 16:00 Šimek, Teodor Celakoski all it will look into the lessons moderator: Zrinka Vrabec Mojzeš Break learned from contestations - a pedagogy of the street teaching 26. 11. at 19:00 us a thing or two about spatial community center mosor, justice and strategies that could zvonimirova 63 address and overturn those Why don’t you adress developments. the Mayor? panelists: Teodor Celakoski, Blaž Križnik, Doina Petrescu, [workshop of cultural confrontation] Based on Augusto Boal’s Dimitry Vorobyev theatrical method this moderator: Tomislav Medak → workshop and performance have sought to enable the participants and 19:00 → 20:00 the public to reflect upon everyday keynote 6: injusticies, making the behaviour of Brian Holmes local city-government palpable. coordinators: Nataša Govedić, Vilim Matula 20:00 → 21:00 keynote 7: 04. 12. at 13:00 Edi Rama community center mosor, zvonimirova 63 National Forum for Space: Space and Sustainable Development [round table]

16. 12. at 20:00 literary club booksa, martićeva 14d Life in the Neoliberal Reality [discussion] operation:city 2008 Artemy Magun The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies Ideas towards the postsocialist left. 18 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

ginal force. It is more or less clear and not an incorporation of the Ideas towards the from the polls and from the re- left-wing program, nevertheless cent events that if the social ten- it was a society sui generis which sions growing in the country ex- did have some communist traits, postsocialist Left plode, then the majority of the although precisely not in the offi- protesters would take an extreme cial sense, and in spite of it. Thus, nationalist position. Indeed, con- the total alienation of people from often shared by conservatives and vorites) in Russia in the 1990s servatism is now the hegemonic property and power led, paradoxi- liberals), with the exception of were usually apolitical, in the ideology, and not the low-educat- cally, to a possibility of genuine small groups of soviet non-ortho- best case, pro-capitalist, or even ed classes which would be the ob- solidarity, etc. The Western left, dox Marxists (B. Kagarlitsky, A. fascist, in the worst. Thus, the vious candidates for revolt would which is tightly connected to lib- Buzgalin, Al. Tarasov, and the critical theory of Baudrillard is of- know how to avoid its grip. More- eralism, usually understands so- like). Only starting in the years ten understood the criticism of over, the criticism of globaliza- cialism and communism as a re- 2000, when the “right-wing”, the contemporary Western cul- tion and of the US policy is natu- gime of joint property, of the re- conservative ideology of the rul- ture as a whole, with its social rally interpreted in the sense of approproation of the world, of the ing regime was becoming obvious movements, feminism, public Russian nationalism: Putin is general friendliness and sense of and even self-reflected, and when sphere, etc., while Deleuze and joined here by many intellectuals. civility. In this sense, socialism is the post-soviet intelligentsia Benjamin were read in the liberal Thus, the task of socialist educa- close to be achieved in the devel- gradually understood the global way (end of ideologies and politi- tion by the left seems immense, oped countries of Europe. But for ideological debate, that there cal struggles, praise of anony- and even the task of converting a radical alternative, this kind of m y A rte u n Mag started appearing small, mostly mous masses watching TV), and the elites seems distant enough. society lacks negativity, lacks a youth organizations with what is Deleuze’s discourse of machines This condition, between liber- sense of habituation to the Other, often called “the internationalist of war is sometimes used as an alism and nationalism, seems which has been partly achieved in left” agenda. “Chto delat” was apology of violence. The links of rather typical for the left in the the Soviet society, in its opposi- one of such groups. It inherited a the repressive rationalist order post-socialist countries, particu- tion to the State. Finally, because tradition of the 1990s, where phi- criticized by the contemporary larly in the former Yougoslavia (if Russia lived through intense revo- losophers interested in contem- philosophy (which is predomi- not for all semi-periphery lutionary times, and now lives porary Us and French theory ac- nantly anarchist) with capitalism countries). through the time of authoritarian tively collaborated with contem- have not been seen at all, because However, its existence makes despotism, the position of the left porary artists. This gave to philos- capitalist modernization was per- sense, and it provides a perspec- is sharply different from the West ophers and critics possibilities of ceived as a force that would oust tive genuinely different from the where there have been no revolu- alternative self-expression and the old Soviet nomenclatura and mainstream Western left. I’ll tions since 1968, and people are public activism, and provided the introduce the Western standards speak of Russia, but suspect that not expecting major change, are contemporary artists with the of social life. Therefore, our in- this can be applied to other coun- taking the current social condi- discursive legitimation which is sistence on the Marxist criticism tries, too. First, the Russian left tions and biopolitical measures the sine qua non of this fluid gen- and utopian thinking has been can rely on a serious national tra- (such as the new smoking regula- re. In the case of Chto Delat, an largely perceived by intellectuals dition of left-wing thought, polit- tions) for granted. The revolution additional factor was the interna- and especially artists as either re- ical practice, and art. This is even appears in a relaxed way, such as tional career orientation of most pressive moralism or a new weird expressed in the title of the group Negri and Hardt’s exodus of the group members, their education, PR strategy. “Chto Delat”. This was a radical multitude. In Russia, on the con- which taught them that both the However, in the years 2000 emancipatory tradition, even trary, we are living in a rift zone n Russia, the left, in the tra- boldest contemporary art and the things partly changed, in the though it should be criticized for of the developed imperial capital- ditional Western terms, has radical philosophy of the genre sense that the happy coexistence the tendencies that would later ism, and the mixed political econ- been all but endemic in the Benjamin - Adorno - Derrida - De- of capitalism with authoritarian- bring the revolution to failure. omies of the peripheries. The ten- 1990s, because the libertari- leuze are normally associated ism has become obvious, and so Thus, we should speak to the na- sion is great, and the power, a an or liberal opposition to with the left political agenda, the has the need and value of active tionalists, and agree on the need mixture of modernizing force and theI Soviet regime understood it- more radical, the more radical is public resistance in the face of of organic and deeply grounded traditionalist conservatism, be- self (although only since 1992) as the intellectual radicalism. More- the cynical use of arbitrary power culture - however, the organic haves cynically and ruthlessly. the “right-wing” (because they over, the avant-gardist art and lit- by the state. Thus, the leftist posi- culture for Russia is precisely rev- Thus, the political stance of the believed in the advantages of cap- erary expression, for which most tion received somewhat more at- olutionary, utopian, and “alter- left can not easily remain moder- italism, and this position corre- of group members have a prefer- tention, and a part of liberals globalist” - being always involved ate, or vaguely anarchist. The situ- sponded, in their minds, over ence, also connected, for them, to started moving toward a revolu- in the global affairs from a haf- ation, to be changed, requires a their emancipatory ideas), and a radical political position, for an tionary, predominantly demo- outsider point of view. strong leadership, strong and top- the name of the “left” was re- act and gesture going beyond the cratic program and allied them- Second, the Russian left cannot bottom effort of the mobilizing served with the “Communist par- art’s frame. The case of Russia, selves with the small leftist ignore the Soviet “socialist” expe- enlightenment of the people, who ty of the Russian Federation”, the where this connection has been groups (the “Other Russia” and rience. Although it is generally are being de-enlightened by the heir to the Communist Party of for most part not read, was both the “March of the discontent”). agreed that the Soviet Union was state and capital, and a vision of the Soviet Union - which has felt as a confusion to be settled, However, they still remain a mar- a right-wing bureaucratic empire, an alternative. All of this is an been relatively popular (with and as an interesting symptom, anathema to your average French some of those who suffered from which denuded the hidden con- The political stance of the left can not easily or American leftist who is still in the reforms) and has consistently servative elements of the new 1968 and is most afraid of dicta- defended, until now, a classical theory, and the need of a new “ remain moderate, or vaguely anarchist. The torship and of organization. Thus, social-conservative program synthetic theoretical work, situation, to be changed, requires a strong agreeing in principle, we disagree (with a touch of chauvinism and which would integrate the expe- on the subjective position the clericalism). There was virtually rience of the post-socialist art and leadership, strong and top-bottom effort of the leftist position takes. Thus, a new no left, in the traditional sense of thought, by interpreting it in a mobilizing enlightenment of the people, who are political and ideological synthesis the word (which is defined by the utopian or emancipatory way. is needed, and the Chto Delat is form of the political position, not Indeed, the interpretations of being de-enlightened by the state and capital, and a gradually trying to bring it by the socialist content, which is Deleuze and Baudrillard (the fa- vision of an alternative forward. ■ PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Marko Pašalić Marko Tour Tourist Gossiping (Transitional tgtt ‘08 zg [sightseeing] ‘08) Zagreb Pašalić Marko Tour Tourist Gossiping (Transitional tgtt ‘08 zg [sightseeing] ‘08) Zagreb Keller Easterling operation:city 2008 The wrong story The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 19

entrenchment. One must fight war and resistance at the battle- The wrong story for the right, choose up sides, de- ground or barricade. Still, how clare principles, and decide who is much could one know about the not sympathetic. It is a very nar- world after consistently march- narratives. If they inspire incre- ready with another swaggering row but a very well-rehearsed ing in that direction? Wars and dulity, perhaps it is because their tale of hyperbolic building in Du- habit of mind that has organized conflicts press themselves into instrumentality and logic are sim- bai, Qatar, Kuwait, Chongqing, most of our classic political our view. Yet telling are those ply underexplored. Many such Astana, or Moscow. Architecture thought and established epistem- moments when the templates phantom turning points and ful- is accustomed to telling itself that ic frameworks for huge bodies of and narratives of war seem to lack crums are not easily taxonomized it is not invited to weigh in on of- knowledge. The right story is of- information. (Bush was very or moralized by the left or the ficial policy and so cannot bear ten an epic, tragic, totalizing nar- helpful in this regard.) Our ex- right. Yet however invisible to any real responsibility for it. But rative in which global forces nat- hausted forms of tragic or com- our political orthodoxies, they within the parameters of the urally part into symmetrical du- bative narratives lead us again in- may be the real cause of shifts in wrong story, the less official po- eling forces that must conquer to regular wars aimed at the sentiment, changes in economic litical field seems more vast and the other for total revolution. An- wrong violence, where the chem- fortune, an escalation or suspen- consequential. ything less would constitute col- istry of righteous mimicry and sion of violence, or a swift epi- Indeed, most of what happens lusion. Righteousness intensifies competition only has the power demic of change. While not sanc- in the world might be considered such combative dispositions. to further escalate tensions. tioned by a recognized form of to be part of the wrong story— Even those theories that admit to When the world is divided into polity, these events reside in a the things that are not supposed complicities and mixtures some- symmetrical warring camps, oth- more extensive parallel polity to happen. how still drift toward epic herald- er false oppositions and category with fickle or unexpressed logics. ry and the theme music of ene- mistakes appear. The architecture For instance: The right story mies and innocents. In contempo- of global relations is not, of The politically conservative Despite the exhaustion of our rary theories of empire, multi- course, arranged as a series of terling and seemingly immovable “red proper political narratives, we of- tude or total war, monistic and symmetrical face-offs or head-to- states” in the US, have suddenly ten continue to cling to the right binary structures prevail to or- head battlegrounds. Far from be- and quickly shifted their econo- stories rather than learn from the ganize information. The grand ing a world with sides and causes, there is ample evidence of over- s mies. Although they are support- wrong ones. On February 15, strategies of the left and the right ers of big-oil politicians, they 2003, the metropolitan world thus even share a structural re- lapping networks of influence grow ethanol. Their megachurch- marched in the streets against an- semblance. Moreover, the this- and allegiance. For instance, theo- es sign the Kyoto protocol, and other unspeakably wrong story: kills-that habit of mind that often ries that pit state against non- their oil pirates have begun to the Iraq War. For the grand strate- organizes historical events and state or national against non-na- steal old cooking oil from US fast- gists of neo-realpolitik, the Bush political phenomena in terms of tional/transnational forces proba- food restaurants to fuel cars. presidency was going to be the successive rather than coexistent bly create a false opposition that and recurring events remains in skews theory. In what Stephen Keller Running counter to the auto- right story, the one and only epic E a mobile and aeronautic research historical story. Yet Bush, cos- place. The epistemes of wars and Krasner has called “hypocritical conducted and deployed in the tumed in clanking armor, was not revolution that have organized so sovereignty,” state and non-state major superpowers, post–World supposed to be getting his lines much of history remain intact. actors in an ancient, mutually War II Japan pursued high-speed wrong. And for the opposition, an The pyrotechnics of combative sustaining partnership, relies on trains and now lends that tech- epidemic of dissent was not sup- struggles perhaps even camou- the lubrication of transnational nology to countries in the Middle posed to fail…but it did. A suppos- flage other forms of violence in proxies, doubles and camouflages East, the epicenter of oil. Trans- edly representative government the world. Even when an argu- to reinforce the power of the portation rivals like airlines and did not operate like the participa- ment only assumes this struc- state. Moreover, the overt opposi- trains that used to be pitted tory democracy that it wished to ture, structure by default be- tions of war are often national against each other in a war of ob- offer to the newly “liberated” comes content and medium mes- pageants to cover for a wide array solescence and replacement are Iraq. Clearly there were other po- sage, shaping thought and provid- of non-state activities that like to now absorbing and mimicking litical stories at work here. Yet in ing the comforting sensation of remain duplicitous, under the ra- each other. the aftermath of the spectacular being right. dar, and outside of political While the US gun and tobacco failures of crude, primitive bellig- Some forms of activism must jurisdictions. lobbies might seem equally erence in the Bush administra- declare their name and allegiance The notion that there is a prop- matched in power, it is quite easy tion, the left and the right rein- as resistance. Yet, by maintaining er forthright realm of political to buy a gun one day and kill force their own symmetrical op- customary habits of mind that negotiation (the right story) usu- someone the next while it is now position and strengthen their of- bracket out contradictory evi- ally acts as the perfect camou- impossible to smoke a cigarette ficial core positions. dence, resistance is often left flage for parallel political activity The wrong story after dinner in a restaurant. For the activist, for instance, marching against an illusive or (the wrong story.) It is often a ince we often expect Contrary to all the avowed ne- the right story is, by most ac- non-existent enemy and curing mistake to cling to recursive log- political stories to fol- cessities of the US Department of counts, resistance. Resistance as- its failures with another purifica- ics and disregard caprice—the low familiar epic or Defense, interrogators like Deuce sumes an oppositional frame- tion ritual. So much knowledge subterfuge, hoax, and hyperbole tragic plot lines, seem- Martinez in US offsite prisons ex- work—an organizational disposi- has been and will continue to be that actually rules the world. ingly unlikely political tract more information with long tion of symmetrical competitive arranged within the epistemes of Power escapes. Becoming the cat- Sevents excite feelings of resource- empathetic conversation than egory mistake to absolute logics fulness. They constitute outlying with coercive aggression.01 or zero sum games, it wriggles evidence and category leftovers— Surely architecture should be Architecture, as extrastatecraft, finds itself out to take shelter in another the butterflies that do not get considered within a list of things ruse or join other moving targets. pinned to the board because they that are not supposed to happen. “ in an unexpectedly consequential position, For every forthright gesture do not reinforce expectations. We have even developed a fatigue manipulating codes of passage and points of there is a duplicitous one. It is not These “wrong stories” exceed for expressing incredulity at the so hard to be right. Many people prevailing logics or conventional booms of building in China and leverage in the thickening back channels of spatial come disguised as right. It may wisdom and reset our accustomed the Middle East. We are often infrastructures around the world even be incorrect to be right, es- PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Marko Pašalić Marko Tour Tourist Gossiping (Transitional tgtt ‘08 zg [sightseeing] ‘08) Zagreb Škart and 3 embroiderers Mirjana Boksan) Brigita Međo, Zelenović, (Lenka action] [street As it is — My Cooks operation:city 2008 Keller Easterling The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies The wrong story 20 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. pecially when one is absolutely trouble making and leverage that Architecture should be considered within a Comedy right. Perhaps our own expecta- often includes, ironically, not the Comedy has long been an actions of proper techniques and terri- opposition of tense resistance and “ list of things that are not supposed to happen tivist’s secret weapon. Rather tories for political work supply some competition, but rather gifts, than arousing competitive en- of activism’s most significant con- compliance, aesthetic appeals, arm and deliver independence assess behaviors and arrange- trenchment, the comedian dis- straints. Wandering away from nuanced dispositions, misdirec- from authority. Like the Panda, it ments of power implied by an ar- tracts, diffuses, and disarms. Hu- monisms, binaries, oppositional tion/distraction, meaningless- might also make a supposed au- borescent, hierarchical network mor topples accustomed con- stances, and purification rituals, ness, comedy, unreasonable inno- thority beholden to the obedient or a hub-and-spoke organization. structs while also lifting up a what extended repertoire of ac- vation and spatial contagions. servant.02 We understand the resilience or mask to honestly expose the trick. tivism might one acquire from The architect’s typical syco- weakness of a computer network Comedy unravels the rigidity and the wrong stories? The Panda or Gift phantic behavior to a client might organized in a parallel rather than danger that accompanies both One powerful technique of be transposed to an exaggerated a serial arrangement. One might concentrations of power as well as Dissensus leverage is the gift or the “Panda.” compliance that displays its own learn from Gregory Bateson, who the resistance that opposes that In 2005, China offered to Taiwan artful power. When the Danish/ described behavior in terms of power. Architecture culture has … I would rather talk about two pandas named TuanTuan and Belgian architect team, PLOT the architecture of group interac- not been terribly successful in the dissensus than resistance.… YuanYuan, names which when (now BIG and JDS Architects) de- tions or aggregations. Bateson comedic register. It is not the art —Jacques Rancière, Artforum translated mean “unity.” The Pan- signed the VM houses in 2002, identified symmetrical align- form to which one would go to be International da is typically designed to be the they included a portrait of the de- ments that escalated violence and tutored in the production of un- offer you can’t refuse. It is a veloper as an entry mural. BIG competition, like the binaries controllable hilarity. The counter Most of the political life of subor- steamroller of sweetness and similarly designed an airport ho- that arrange our thought into ar- culture demonstrations and lam- dinate groups is to be found nei- kindness. It is the means of con- tel and conference center in gumentative forms of combat. He poons of Ant Farm or Archigram ther in overt collective defiance of trolling and leveraging others Stockholm the windows of which also identified those asymmetri- perhaps register more significant- powerholders nor in complete he- while appearing to be chirpy and create portraits of Crown Princess cal or complementary organiza- ly as models than do postmodern gemonic compliance, but in the sweet. Architecture and urban- Victoria, Princess Madeleine and tions in which the roles of domi- mannered ironies. Erandi De Sil- vast territory between these two ism, inextricably bound up with Prince Carl-Philipe (completion nance and submission were clear. va’s Logopelago satirizes The polar opposites. the irrational desires and compet- date 2010). When the mayor of Finally he identified reciprocal World—Dubai’s familiar island —James C. Scott, Domination itive urges embodied by symbolic Copenhagen, Ritt Bjerregaard organizations in which multiple formation—by creating similar is- and the Arts of Resistance: capital, is often a Panda. Yet it is pledged to produce five thousand relationships were interwoven land formations in the shape of Hidden Transcripts often one bestowed with more affordable apartments, BIG, in and interbalanced to the degree logos. Yet this humor is perhaps capitulations than countering mock obedience, instantly deliv- that they did not necessarily pro- not as disarming as that of the The The phantom narrative or the demands. ered a design for all five thousand duce any violent precipitant. One World itself, a hyperbolic develop- non-story constitutes a kind of Architecture and urbanism in apartments (the Kloverkarréen might also learn from Erving ment that, in a sense, creates its extrastatecraft. Here is a vast pas- the form of architectourism, re- project).03 The project stands as Goffman who discussed the dis- own critique. Francoise Roche’s ture of nonconforming material tail, entertainment, or resort de- an insistent reminder of the origi- positions coalescing from the DustyRelief/B_mu intensifies its expanding beyond our own re- velopment are often delivered in nal promise. myriad texts and subtexts that power by expanding into a rela- strictive endgames. Extrastate- conjunction with the blue-jeans- any individual or group present. tional, active register. The build- craft may not conform to political and-Coke fiction linking global Rumor/Gossip The spatial chemistry of paten- ing was designed for Bangkok, orthodoxies or recognized eco- markets with a desire for partici- James C. Scott also identifies cy, redundancy, hierarchy, recur- Thailand in 2002, to electrostati- nomic logics, and it remains ex- patory democracy. Architects ago- gossip and rumor as one of the sion, or resilience may be the ve- cally attract dust from the sur- trinsic to and in excess of proper nize over whether or not to par- chief forms of aggression among hicle of or recipe for aggression, rounding polluted air.04 The build- political channels. Multiple forc- ticipate in this transfer seemingly the powerless. While rumor is a submission, exclusion, or duplici- ing’s continual obliging willing- es, assembling and shape-shift- limited by a repertoire of choices favorite in any micro-salon, it is ty. Cities and nations possess a ness to clean its surroundings ing, replace the fantasy Goliath of that only includes collusion or re- also a practical technique of mar- disposition reliant on the physi- coupled with its slow miniscule monolithic capital or corporate fusal. The Panda is a reminder of kets and governments. Hoax and cal chemistries of their infra- advances towards becoming a gi- culture with even more insidious the ever-present possibility of spin are the raw material of poli- structures as well as the multiple gantic and adorably flocked fuzz moving targets. leverage. It offers as a technique tics. The hoax that attempted to messages of their naturally du- ball is actively comic in visual, In addition to direct, head-to- the excessively soft and cute, but demonstrate that global warming plicitous sovereignties. Cities like temporal, and cognitive registers. head political action, this re- arm-twisting, handshake. was a hoax successfully helped to Jerusalem that have fostered a Its critique of pollution as some- search looks for political instru- delay political support for green symmetrical standoff have an or- thing reified in an attempted rem- mentality in indirect techniques Compliance policies. Yet two can play at this ganizational disposition very dif- edy could not be more explicit. It or aesthetic regimes that may, af- game. Design is, in a sense, hoax. ferent from that of more cosmo- fosters sympathetic resourceful- ter Jacques Rancière and others, …let’s all run very slowly! It vividly anticipates and materi- politan cities sponsoring many ness with its own enthusiasm, generate dissensus rather than re- — Milan Kundera, The Joke alizes cultural projections with cultural adjacencies, minor ag- while also associating the desire sistance. Jacques Rancière’s, The tools used in many forms of per- gressions, and circumstantial de- for cleaner air with hapless self- Politics of Aesthetics or Nicholas In Domination and the Arts of suasion. The utopian and vision- sires to distract from violence. deprecation rather than rigid pie- Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics Resistance, James C. Scott draws ary can sometimes bring with When placed in crisis, the serial ty and belt-tightening. both return evidence of aesthetic attention to a portion of Milan them the deadening reconcilia- arrangement of a high-rise sky- practices with political power. Kundera’s The Joke in which the tion of consensus. The less reso- scraper like the World Trade Cent- Misdirection/ Distraction These practices do not exist in a prisoners in the story are chal- lute but rumored news might be er exhibited a very different dis- nominative or symbolic register, lenged to a relay race against the more contagious as part of a con- position from that of the Penta- Mes enfants, you mustn’t go at nor are they confined within a camp guards. The prisoners decide fidence game to popularize and gon, a building with multiple, things head-on, you are too fixed framework of meaning or to run very slowly against the capitalize change. parallel points of entry as well as weak; take it from me and take it connoisseurship. They reside in sprinting guards, while wildly overlap between networks of on an angle…Play dead, play the an active, relational register. cheering each other on. Their Disposition practices and operations. These sleeping dog. Their power relies on complex compliance brings them together The disposition stored in the often-invisible attributes them- — Balzac, Les Paysans cocktails of affective and subtex- in an act of defiance that does not logic, arrangement, and chemis- selves constitute a relational poli- tual messages. diminish or tax their energies try of global spaces and networks ty and might be deployed to Activism cast as resistance typ- In this realm of dissensus one with competition and fighting. can be manipulated for activist douse aggressions or intensify ically goes toe to toe with an op- finds an extended repertoire of Exaggerated compliance can dis- motives. For instance, we easily dissensus. pressing power, identifying itself PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Škart and 3 embroiderers Mirjana Boksan) Brigita Međo, Zelenović, (Lenka action] [street As it is — My Cooks Škart and 3 embroiderers Mirjana Boksan) Brigita Međo, Zelenović, (Lenka action] [street As it is — My Cooks Keller Easterling operation:city 2008 The wrong story The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 21

and pointing to an overlooked Related to the notion of misdi- tarian regime embraces the mes- productivity in moral terms—on struction industry) are also po- truth. Yet the success of circui- rection might be that of meaning- sages of tourist fantasies, retail a determination of what is good— tentially under the purview of an tous and indirect action is a long- lessness and irrationality. The scripts, or spiritualized golf com- but on whether it has released activist architect who understanding tactic of conflict and other gardener that might be con- munities, the powers of meaning- and enriched the flow of informa- stands their power of these com- war from Sun Tzu to Machiavelli. sidered in this cast of potential lessness are at work. Nonsense lution or broken the bonds of the ponent populations to alter local- In Empire, Hardt and Negri discuss models is Chauncey Gardiner bricates situations that might information lockdown that con- ized or globally disseminated en- a number of techniques of politi- from Jerzy Kosinski’s Being There. otherwise be alert to divisive stitutes destructive control. vironments. New objects of prac- cal craft, including the refusal of He is at once comedian, confi- points of view or adherence to tice and entrepreneurialism, re- characters like Herman Melville’s dence man and beautiful soul the orthodoxies that have created Unreasonable Innovation defined in a relational register, re- Bartelby or J. M. Coetzee’s whose meaningless statements conflict. This common fuzziness Perhaps one of the most suc- flect the network’s ability to am- Michael K., paying particular at- about the growth of the garden or in control organizations are po- cessful techniques of the pirate is plify structural shifts or smaller tention to Michael K. as a garden- the inevitability of the seasons al- tentially the soft and fertile terri- innovation. Inventors and entre- moves. er whose constant movement is low him to circulate with the US tory of activism. preneurs are often considered to Architecture may contribute mimetic of the vines he wishes to president and other leaders of na- be unreasonable, just as practical many wrong stories and untheo- be tending. This serpentine dispo- tional prominence. Meaningless- Piracy and theoretical are often consid- rized events to relieve default sition eases the dangerous stakes ness and a deliberate lack of asso- ered to be opposing concepts. The forms of oppositional activism embodied in defiant refusal and ciation with the recognized dog- The intellectual as buccaneer – entrepreneur will be most suc- and extend a field of operation be- enhances his chances of success.05 ma of political camps generates not a bad dream. cessful if his innovations theorize yond the sanctioned (and even Perhaps Melville’s Confidence Man political instrumentality. John W. —Peter Sloterdijk: Critique of a different more practical solu- sheltering) political territory of replaces Bartelby in this discus- Meyer’s studies of organizations Cynical Reason tion—if they renovate what is borders, battlegrounds, and barri- sion, offering multiple stories and join those of Bateson, Goffman, considered to be practical. They cades. If icons of piety, collusion, laundered identities to garner Bourriaud, and Rancière in ex- Self-serving desires typically are so practical that they under- or competition often escalate ten- power and confuse authority. The ploring affective behaviors and motivate piracy, whether the pi- stand and anticipate the successes sions, might alternative design architect and urbanist often at- actorhood in culture. Organiza- rate is a common criminal or an of untheorized events—the sto- ingenuities distract from them? tempt to go directly to the source tions of every kind determine col- adjunct agent of the state. Piracy ries that are not supposed to hap- Might we look past the symmet- of an urban problem and cure it. lective protocols that attempt to can support the control of self- pen. They often find fertile terri- rical face-offs of resistance with The practice is suffused with lan- predictably profit, govern, or oth- referential organizations, and it tory in an inversion. Social entre- their classic political pedigree to a guage about “mending” and erwise maintain power. Typically can itself operate with self-refer- preneurs like Muhammad Yunus, dissensus that is less self-congrat- bridging with shape, arrange- these organizations find rational- ential control. Yet piracy is also founder of Grameen Bank and in- ulatory, less automatically oppo- ment, and geometry as if these izing formulas galvanizing, but often the organization that finds ventor of micro-credit, ironically sitional, but more effective (and things yielded primary effects on they must also develop tech- some selfish percentage in operat- expanded capital by means of sneakier)? Indeed having long ab- the complex circumstances of ur- niques for overlooking evidence ing between organizations, play- poverty. Despite their proximity sented itself from official political banity. The discipline is under-re- that contradicts these formula- ing with the mismatch of their to large investments that deter- channels as a way to avoid respon- hearsed in remote interventions tions. They must find ways of “de- respective logics. Productive pira- mine the political and environ- sibility, architecture, as extr- and indirect or systemic effects coupling” errant events from con- cy might then constitute those mental disposition of global astatecraft, finds itself in an un- that potentially provide powerful trolling logics. Attempting to re- moves that release and mix more space, architects are often not expectedly consequential posi- inversions if understood in a rela- main isometric and intact, these information than they hoard or trained to organize their practice tion, manipulating codes of pas- tional register. When London rationalizing formulas can also deny. Perhaps there is a bit of pi- entrepreneurially, with more sage and points of leverage in the makes a simple choice to contain engender nonsensical beliefs to racy in the misdirection and power to leverage their own thickening back channels of spa- development within a bounded which the group is blindly obedi- trickery necessary to persuade a projects towards their own politi- tial infrastructures around the area, it generates a number of in- ent. For instance, irrational aspi- company like Wal-Mart to pro- cal goals. world. ■ direct and ramifying effects. In rations and fictions routinely mote green policies. For instance, any of the architect’s multiple ne- drive the advent of infrastructure Wal-Mart has decided that day- Contagions gotiations, correlative thinking networks as carriers of symbolic lighting more effectively sells Entrepreneurs understand the on programmatic, cultural, finan- capital for nations and industries. products or that selling compact power of multipliers—how to cial systems potentially generates The US highway system, designed fluorescent light bulbs will put play market networks with the indirect adjustments or lures the around false logics of traffic vol- them on the right side of risk viral dissemination of both ob- project down paths that are moti- ume and speed, can maintain an management predictions con- jects and aesthetic regimes. More 01 Scott Shane, “Inside a 9/11 06 vated by alternative political irrational hold on transportation cerning global warming. The pi- than just a customer base for sales Mastermind’s Interrogation,” New goals. Characterized in terms of spending. Most of the world’s rate knows how to cheat the or a management style, multipli- York Times, June 22, 2008, A1. disposition, misdirection or dis- space-making organizations opti- cheater; for selfish reasons, they ers build the network environ- 02 James C. Scott, Domination and the traction, like comedy, is often mize formulas, programs, and motivate others to do things for ment within which companies Arts of Resistance: Hidden Tran- precisely the thing that breaks temporal occupations in this way, selfish reasons. Far from being de- reside and the global populations scripts (New Haven: Yale University the deadlock of symmetrical face- while also quantifying shifting feated or agitated by the behe- with which they communicate. A Press, 1990),139-40; Milan Kundera, offs and downshifts towards a desires in an experience economy. moth, the pirate is figuring how multiplier is a contagion or germ The Joke (New York: Harper, 1992), more reciprocal, open architec- If the rationalized structure is his moves will be amplified by the in the market that compounds 94–97. ture of relationship. the best vessel for irrational con- size of the company just as the exponentially. The arts now more 03 www.plot.dk; www.big.dk tent, there is significant political classic pirate of the nineteenth readily experiment with net- Meaninglessness/ 04 http://www.new-territories.com/ro- instrumentality in nonsensical century determined how many worked practices, performance, che2002bis.htm Irrationality messages and sentiments. Many men would like to drink rum dur- and relational aesthetics rather seemingly monolithic and impen- ing an embargo. Whatever the than exclusively tutoring an ap- 05 Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio. Global society is a rationalized etrable organizations trade on motives, sneaky and enterprising preciation of the singularly-au- Empire (Cambridge: Harvard Univer- sity Press, 2000), 203-–204. world, but not exactly what one ephemeral desire. When a totali- bargains may not measure their thored object. Architecture is could call a rational one. composed of repeatable compo- 06 Among the many references to this — John W. Meyer: Gili S. Drori, nents and recipes; the profession revelation: http://www.ci.seattle.wa. us/light/conserve/sustainability/stu- and Hokyu Hwang, Globaliza- is structured to support singular Resistance is often left marching against an dies/cv5_ss.htm; http://www.savet- tion and Organization: World “ illusive or non-existent enemy and curing its creations as enclosures or plans. hebulbs.org/retail.html; http://www. Society and Organizational Assemblies usually organized by majorskylights.com/school/walmart. Change failures with another purification ritual others (for example, the con- php PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Škart and 3 embroiderers Mirjana Boksan) Brigita Međo, Zelenović, (Lenka action] [street As it is — My Cooks Škart and 3 embroiderers Mirjana Boksan) Brigita Međo, Zelenović, (Lenka action] [street As it is — My Cooks operation:city 2008 Ines Weizman The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies The destruction of participation 22 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. … and of housing in Leipzig-Grünau The destruction of participation … and of housing in Leipzig-Grünau

being extended and no new ten- But all hope was not lost with today some ugly weeds have 7.000 flats have to be demolished. ancy agreements were allowed. the publishing of the demolition begun to grow. Because according to the progno- Residents were looking for hints announcement. Residents, retail- This time, 3500 signatures sis, in the favourable case-scenar- about the vague future of the ers, service providers and the were collected and submitted to io, in 2020 only 40,000 inhabit- building in every new measure, staff of the medical centre organ- the planning department of the ants will have remained, while in every new service personnel, gar- ised the collection of signatures mayor of the city of Leipzig. In the unfavourable case only deners, unrecognized visitors, es- against the demolition plans. The addition, post-cards of protest 32,000 will be living here. A bit- pecially men in suits. Following action, called: ‘Stadtumbau. So were sent to the Ministry of Inte- terly amused and angry murmur the fate of other buildings in the Nicht!’ (City regeneration. Not rior of Saxony and the Sächsische in the audience signaled the pub- neighbourhood, it dawns on them like This!) demanded the revision Aufbaubank, a bank which pro- lic mistrust in these demographic with disbelief that their homes of the state policy that awarded vided the mortgage deal to the prophecies. Rather, people sus- might be the next to be removed. subsidies for housing demolition. housing association. In response, pected that housing associations For the residents this eventuality They also called for revisions to in February 2007, the municipal in collaboration with the city was described as implausible as the 2000 “City Development Plan officials of the city of Leipzig, in- planning offices followed a partic-

s these buildings were in fully for large-scale housing estates cluding the mayor responsible for ular planning strategy that aimed functioning condition and apart- (Großsiedlungen)”02 based on the city regeneration and develop- to encourage people to move out ments in Leipzig-Grünau were ‘Pakt der Vernunft’ (the pact of ment, invited the public to a dis- so that they would be forced to still in demand especially the reason), which allowed the six cussion about an updated plan- move into the newly refurbished 2-bedroom types, and especially largest housing companies to ning strategy, the so-called Ent- 19th century houses near the city

W ei zm an in the area around Seffnerstreet “consolidate” the housing market wicklungsstrategie 2020. centre (which also stand empty, I ne which is so close to the lake. in Leipzig, by removing 8,000 but despite the renovated condi- Neighbouring housing associa- flats from the market, most of Engaging the public tion cannot offer the same con- tions even have waiting lists for them in Grünau.03 In principle, The meeting room in the lei- veniences as Grünau). Individual new tenants. Not only the resi- the signatories demanded at least sure centre Völkerfreundschaft in voices of anger were rising, espe- dents but also the many shop- the right to know which homes Leipzig-Grünau was over-crowd- cially when a power-point pres- owners of the block and the staff would be destroyed and when. ed. Residents were curious to entation threw the new strategic of the medical centre caught the It was not the first time that hear more details about the Ent- map on the wall. Now, projected fear spreading like a contagious residents collected signatures to wicklungsstrategie 2020, which at this scale, the low resolution of disease. Will they have enough stop the demolitions. In 2003, held information about the fu- the lines, the rushed red shadings customers to function? The fu- 2500 people protested against the ture of their homes. The well- marking the demolition of build- ture seems insecure and the ques- demolition of the 11-floor slab dressed hosts began the meeting ings and mistakes in the annota- tion of whether it would be Brackestreet 36 – 46 (Fig. 1), locat- with a question that is a standard tion of the plan were revealed to a ‘worth’ investing in oneself, one’s ed parallel to the block on Seffner- animation technique in children public which knew every stone family and one’s business has its street. Because of the convenient theatres: “Who here is from and every flowerbed in this area. impact on people’s everyday deci- service and shopping facilities on Grünau?” Angry “boo” from the Some houses were even wrongly sion making. Flats were emptying the ground floor residents had audience. The presenters tried to marked ‘already demolished’, or out simply out of the fear of considered the building as a cen- gain ground. They began to la- ‘to be demolished’. The apologies demolition. tral place for their neighbour- ment the general process of de- of the hosts were swallowed in hood. This was also the reason mographic decline in Leipzig- the tumult in the auditorium. Announcements why the city development plan in Grünau, where according to their The evening ended with the In October 2006, speculations 2000 had specifically advised on statistics – contrary to the whole presentation of a series of red and fears became facts. The hous- upgrading this urban centre. But of Leipzig – the demand was con- lines encircling the area around ing association Baugenossenschaft despite the plan, the numerous tinuously decreasing. Prompt the houses Seffnerstreet 1 to 19, Leipzig announced the impending protests and a last-minute offer to questions about how the dia- Brackestrasse 24-34, 41-55 and Kän- demolition of the housing slab buy from another housing associ- grams of a further declining pop- dlerstrasse 2-14, marking the dem- Seffnerstreet 1 to 19. The owner ar- ation, the state subsidy that sup- ulation are calculated or about olition of almost 1.000 apart- gued that since 45 percent of the ports the demolition of empty the difference between the term ments.04 Within this sea of im- flats were standing empty the buildings with 70 Euros per Stadtumbau (urban regeneration) pending devastation the history housing block was economically square metre of apartment de- that the municipality is continu- of the large estate in Leipzig- nonviable. What follows is a trag- stroyed could not be beaten. In ously using, and the probably Grünau would be recreated. Rumours ic and seemingly inescapable rou- 2005 the building was evacuated more truthful term ‘demolition’ eipzig-Grünau, Spring tine. Grünau, once one of the big- and cranes and bulldozers re- unsettled the presenters. Accord- *** 2006. In the housing gest and most successful (in terms moved its parts, creating a large ing to the new plan in housing In the post World War II peri- slab Seffnerstreet 1 to 19, of demand and quality of life) empty plot of earth on which complex 7 and 8, they continued, od, most major European and rumours were spreading housing projects of the German North American cities experi- that their homes were Democratic Republic (GDR) and a For the GDR as much as for the rest of the mented with the idea of new earmarkedL for demolition. For a privileged site of living for almost towns – modernist satellite cities while already, services of clean- 90.000 inhabitants has since the “ Eastern Block, the new cities, and large-scale mostly built of rows of housing ing and general maintenance of mid 1990s entered a continuous city extensions of the mid 1970s were no longer blocks. The reasons varied from the building had become irregu- process of demographic decline: massive housing shortage, to the lar, tenancies for the 544 apart- today only 47.000 inhabitants directly the products of necessity but also offered a strategic requirements of a popu- ments in this building were not have remained.01 chance to fulfil an ideological promise. lation dispersal that has become Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. Ines Weizman operation:city 2008 The destruction of participation The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies … and of housing in Leipzig-Grünau zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 23 part of the security doctrine of made up this green environment. vide. In the evenings, at week- Grünau, once one of the biggest and most the emerging nuclear age. For the When the project began, the ends and on collective work as- GDR as much as for the rest of the WBS-70 prefabricated panel series signment days – so-called subot- “ successful housing projects of the German Eastern Block, the new cities, and which formed its structural basis niks (Russian for Saturday) – resi- Democratic Republic and a privileged site of living large-scale city extensions of the had been in use for only four dents laboured to ‘complete’ their mid 1970s were no longer directly years. This posed a considerable new homes (Fig. 3). This process for almost 90.000 inhabitants has since the mid the products of necessity but also challenge for the architects who was of course extremely labour- 1990s entered a continuous process of demographic offered a chance to fulfil an ideo- were attempting to construct an extensive and slow. For years, in- decline: today only 47.000 inhabitants have logical promise. Far from the ba- entire ‘city’ almost exclusively habitants lived in the middle of a nal, grey and depressing stigma from prefabricated elements. construction site. Walking remained attached to them at present, some Nearby, a whole factory was built around the newly–built housing of these housing projects, partic- with the sole purpose of supply- estates was only possible with about, meant often no more than tenance and upgrading of their ularly the one for Leipzig-Grünau ing construction materials to the rubber boots. However, despite an improvised method of com- immediate neighbourhood, have represented one of the most en- huge estate. As stipulated by the the hardships, people acquiring pleting the work,, or beautifica- lost both the cultural-political thusiastic experiments to realize urban building ‘kit’ developed for flats in Leipzig-Grünau felt privi- tion of a plan, whose general prin- and the physical ‘territory’ in societal utopias. And they were the WBS-70 series, all prefabricat- leged to have been given such ciples were dictated by party offi- which their contribution would largely received this way in the ed building elements were manu- comfortable flats with heating, cials from the top-down. (Some of make sense. They have become eyes of the public that sought and factured for particular functions, hot water and modern conven- the protagonists of novels by the unwilling victims of the sometimes even competed to such as supermarkets, services, iences, and the expectation that Brigitte Reimann, or Irmtraud housing demolitions. inhabit them. shops, schools, youth clubs, kin- their neighbourhood would one Morgner come to mind.) Indeed, In the mid 1990s, the inner dergartens and gyms. The apart- day be situated in the midst of ‘persons in charge’ of a ‘house state migration between the cit- The history of Leipzig- ment blocks themselves consist- greenery and gardens reinforced community’, mostly allied to the ies of the east where work was Grünau ed of a limited variety of 5, 8 and people’s sense of identification Volkssolidarität (official welfare precarious and the more econom- At the VIII Party Congress in 11 storey, mid-size tenements, as with the new environment. Resi- society) had frequently to ‘en- ically solid cities of the west, be- July 1971, the government of the well as 16-storey tower blocks of dents ‘customising’ their neigh- courage’ residents who for rea- came visible in increasingly aban- GDR decreed that the housing the ‘Erfurt’ type (PH 16). The lo- bourhoods by arranging the vege- sons of laziness, ideological refus- doned buildings. In 2004, accord- shortage was the core concern of gistics and the pace of construc- tation, playgrounds, street furni- al, or simple snobbery of any- ing to the latest study, every fifth the state’s social policies and that tion were determined by the ture, or loggias as they wished, thing that smacked of ‘collective flat in Leipzig-Grünau stood emp- every household should be pro- building technology. There were described a form of participation action’ refrained from participat- ty.08 Hence, the city-allied hous- vided with a well-equipped mod- about seven assembly lines (Takt- that fostered public and private ing in the subotniks, In socialist ing association that owned most ern apartment before 1990. This strassen) for housing construction sentiments. Inhabitants both im- societies as in other political sys- of the housing stock in Leipzig- decree also gave the impetus for and a further two for public and proved their private spaces and tems, this raises the problem of Grünau opted for a major demoli- the gigantic housing estate of education buildings, manned by since the work necessitated col- free choice in the call for ‘partici- tion scheme, focusing primarily Grünau, located on the western almost 5,000 workers. About laborative effort it bonded those pation’, which probably always on tower blocks. Out of Leipzig- edge of the city of Leipzig. In June 12,400 housing units were com- residents participating in the pro- relates to some form of hardship, Grünau’s twenty blocks, only five 1976, three years after the compe- pleted between 1976 and 1980, gram, fostering feelings of local peoples’ spare time and personal remained by the end of 2004.09 tition for it was launched, and a but between 1981 and 1985, with pride and encouraged residents to investment. This situation be- The housing association argued long phase of detailed planning, improved technologies and in- care for their communities.06 comes even more precarious in that they suffered from mainte- the foundation stone for over creased pressures from the Party However, before mistakenly the recent discussion by sociolo- nance and management prob- 35,000 apartments was laid. To to keep to the targets of the five- drawing an ideal, or nostalgic im- gist and urban critic, Christine lems. It is true that the basic ar- help organise the logistics of the year plan, the number of new age of the practice of ‘public in- Hannemann who recently chitectural form of a tower has an construction process, and to help flats ready for occupancy almost volvement’, it is important here warned about the neo-liberal cal- inherent weakness and depends impose a coherence and identity doubled to about 21,400.05 to differentiate the concept of culation in the use of the concept for its success on high-density, on this massive housing scheme, In November 1977, just a year participation meant here from of ‘social capital’ (of which the balanced occupancy in a relative- the project was initially subdivid- after construction began, the first the rather ‘conventional’ mean- concept of public participation ly small area. We understand here ed into eight so-called ‘housing families moved into their new ing of participation as a form of and volunteer engagement is a how sensitive an urban balance is complexes’ that were connected homes. About 60% of the flats hands-on practice that is com- part), as a remedy for urban de- and how apparently small trans- by three pedestrian boulevards were offered to workers’ families, bined with people’s emotional at- velopment. “The concept of ‘social formations can produce dramatic stretching from north to south. while the majority of the remain- tachment to a project, or home. capital”, she writes: “is thus mis- effects. It only takes a few fami- In these ‘inner’ structures, archi- der were shared between families In the context of ‘real-existing’ used as a way of anchoring a new lies to move out of a tower block tects and planners sought to cre- with several children and young state-socialism, the term ‘partici- notion of society and managing the or apartment block and the whole ate intimate, quiet and rather couples. The need for housing was pation’ relates also to rather am- social costs effected by it. Many crit- system of unpaid housekeepers, small-scale spaces (Fig. 2). This en- so urgent that moving vans ar- biguous realities. On the one ical studies have shown that state voluntary social workers, rou- abled education and recreation rived literally as construction ve- hand, residents participated in assistance programs tend to destroy tines of neighbourly exchange, centres to be built amidst lawns hicles departed. When people the completion of the construc- rather than build up local civic net- collective work assignments and and green spaces. Space was de- moved in, neither the interior tion work because they were works because of their principally human communication comes marcated in such a way that fenc- decoration of their homes nor driven by what could now be un- top-down structure.” 07 As it will be crashing down. Once the sense of es, walls and other physical their surroundings had been derstood as conservative perhaps shown in the following, in Leip- belonging is undermined, the es- boundaries were rendered unnec- properly completed. Wherever even (petit) bourgeois ideals of zig-Grünau, the dilemma of this tate can be fatally damaged. The essary. Instead, boundaries were the industrial assembly tracks privacy, in a way where each situation is even more complicat- demolition of these towers are defined by the position and form and cranes could not reach, or cared for their own ‘back-yard’ – ed: because residents who are still more than regrettable as they of each architectural object in reconstruction budgets were sud- obviously, a concept which com- living in this estate, and who have would have been ideal for resi- lation to its neighbour. This style denly cut, people were asked to munist ideology officially detest- already a stake in the success and dences for senior or disabled per- of urban development made the step in to provide what the ed. On the other hand, individual development of their estates sons, because of their interior area particularly attractive to planned economy could not pro- participation in the finishing up would be willing, to some degree, plan, the fact that there were lifts young families whose children of state projects, much like the to participate and invest them- and because of their location. had most to gain from the traffic- forced participation in party cere- selves (possibly in similar social Currently (in 2007) the majority free network of schools, kinder- Stadtumbau. monies and parades, which many networks to those instigated at of buildings in Leipzig-Grünau gartens and playgrounds that “ So nicht! liked to avoid but felt guilty the time of the GDR) in the main- are being costly renovated to Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. operation:city 2008 Ines Weizman The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies The destruction of participation 24 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. … and of housing in Leipzig-Grünau adapt to the new groups of inter- What has been lost here is thus not only an which in turn helped to dilute the 01 In 2005 about 1,3 million apartments est for such flats. residents’ sense of pride, privilege were standing empty in East Germa- This development appears in- “ idea of community participation, but the and identity. It seems almost as ny. deed very odd in view of the in- very idea of political citizenship – a promise raised though population ‘shrinking’ 02 The ‘Stadtentwicklungsplan Woh- vestments made for upgrading was part of a plan to re-appropri- nungsbau und Stadterneuerung – Teil- and renovating buildings and by the reunification and democratisation, a promise ate the city by erasing the ‘unfa- plan Großsiedlungen: Zielplan Grünau’ green spaces in Leipzig-Grünau, broken. miliar’ fabric of a competing ide- was developed in the year 2000 with a short-term perspective of three particularly in the late 1990s. Be- ology. Therefore, in order to make years. tween 1997 and 1999, with the What in the old state was consid- the problem which originate in a critique operative, it is impor- Planspiel Leipzig-Grünau, the gov- ered a simple matter of account- the state subsidy programs noted tant here to study how this proc- 03 The ‘pact of reason’ was a complica- ernment had funded a larger initi- ing, the urban sociologist Matthi- above. ess is played out, what form it ted agreement made in 2000 between the city development office in ative that aimed at bringing resi- as Bernt explains, became a huge Since 1993 with the Old Debts takes and how the configuration the municipality of Leipzig, the dents and urban planners togeth- problem when the Staatsbank Assistance Acts, the government and coherence of the urban fabric housing association as well as their 10 er in a variety of projects and ac- was privatised. The housing as- attempted to avoid the collapse of is affected by a complicated se- respective banks on the buildings tivities. In hundreds of public sociations had not only to start housing associations by taking quence of chain reactions which that will be demolished in Leipzig in meetings, workshops, photo com- their ‘business’ with gigantic over some of the costs which, be- degrade the attractiveness of the the near future. The idea was to petitions and children’s projects, debts, but also private business cause of the vacancies, had no area to such a degree that the create the process of demolition and renovation as reflected and just as managed by the Forum Leipzig- chance of being recovered. This banks, most of them directed by demolition appears as the only possible. Grünau, residents showed their western financiers, now owned subsidy proved to be ‘a bottom- possible solution. It is all too ob- interest in participating in the fu- lending-agreements which al- less pit’ around which several vious that the support of seem- 04 Ironically, as a response to the collec- ture of the estate. In 1999, a small lowed them to have a role in the practices of abuse and misuse de- ingly invisible ‘all powerful and tion of signatures the city had prepa- red a (demolition-) plan for the next publication documented the ac- management of the housing com- veloped. In 2001 the law was unavoidable’ economic processes two years, while the initial promise tivities of the forum. Yet before panies and hence in their com- amended again to allow debts to makes residents’ participation in of the plan, that is a vision for the the brochure was ready to be col- mitment to ‘urban planning’. Ac- be reduced if housing was taken determining the fate of their ur- year 2020, remains still in question. lected, the public had already re- cording to Bernt’s analysis, it is off the market. Additionally ban environment seem futile and 05 1986: 271 alised that real decisions were be- often international credit institu- about 70 Euros per demolished redundant. The political and eco- ing made elsewhere and people tions that assess the viability of square meter of apartment was nomic storm unleashed by this 06 FLIERL 1984: 190-196 lost confidence in the existence mortgage agreements for banks. promised. The devastating impact process frustrates the political 07 HANNEMANN. 2006: 486 of a reliable urban plan for the fu- Having housing stocks in East of this law, ignorant of democrat- agency of the citizen. What has ture of Grünau. Still today a few Germany in the portfolio (espe- ic planning and free-market strat- been lost here is thus not only an 08 2005: 4 hundred copies of this documen- cially in view of the news about egies, cannot yet be estimated. idea of community participation, 09 Commenting on the destruction of tation are available to the public the vacancies and demolitions) This government subsidy saved but the very idea of political citi- the tower blocks at the northern ent- for free. For no apparent reason, does not give a good image of the many housing estates from bank- zenship – a promise raised by the rance to Leipzig-Grünau, Hans-Diet- problem housing blocks were left banks’ financial credibility and li- ruptcy and even allowed others reunification and democratisa- rich Wellner, once leading architect 11 and planner of Leipzig-Grünau, be- standing, while others, in a good ability for their mortgages. an ‘extra income’, but the ‘market tion, a promise broken. moans the demolition of the towers location and state of repair, were Therefore credit institutions aim distortion’ caused by the subsidy thus: ‘I ask myself who is doing the city suddenly demolished (Fig. 4). The to withdraw from their credit ar- made the work of urban planners Afterword planning? Good, functional housing truth was that although a great rangements with the highly in- seeking to involve the public in In June 2007, the department complexes are blown up. This is devasta- deal of money had been invested debted housing companies. In consultations largely for city development in Leipzig ting in my view. This has nothing to do (often in the wrong place, in ret- view of this situation, residents superfluous.12 invited Grünau-residents for a with planning. This area has been inten- tionally ignored.’ , my transcription rospect), the municipal authori- and engaged planners perceive second meeting to present the re- and translation, Hans-Dietrich Well- ties (responsible for an urban projects that call for image cam- Conclusion vision of the Entwicklungsstrate- ner, in interview, July 2004 planning strategy), the housing paigns and creative ideas for liv- Population migration is a com- gie 2020. Again, the meeting start- companies that owned buildings ing in ‘those’ estates, such as the plex social process: hiding behind ed with an affront to public par- 10 BERNT, 2006:592-596 in Grünau and their respective generously funded ‘Shrinking Cit- the ‘invisible hand of the market’ ticipation. No handouts or maps 11 Ibid. credit institutions could not ies’ project (2004) as problematic, are the all too visible influences were made available before the 12 Ibid. agree on a common plan for the if not misplaced. of cultural politics and issues re- meeting, so that guests could on- future. The reason for this finan- There exist of course a few rare lated to identity and meaning, ly follow the new plans through cial calculation has its origin in and notable examples of archi- which all have an impact on ur- the projected power-point pres- REFERENCES the GDR, or more precisely in the tects’ creativity in dealing with ban form. However, as I have tried entation. It took two more weeks 1986, Architektur der DDR (periodical), Nr.5 contract for the reunification of these buildings. The architecture to show, the ’abandonment’ of after the meeting before the plan 2000, Stadtentwicklungsplan Germany. office of Lacaton Vasalle in France Leipzig-Grünau cannot be blamed went online and became available Wohnungsbau und Stadterneuerung – proposed a radical scheme, based solely on the economic collapse to the public. Again, the second Teilplan Großsiedlungen: Zielplan Old debts on the wrapping of a whole tower of the former East Germany, nor draft reconfirmed the demolition Grünau’ The housing companies in bloc with generous cantilevered on the accentuation of social of the housing blocks Seffnerstreet 2005, Publication of the UFZ- Leipzig Grünau, as in most of the decks of outside space. The office structures and divisions which 1 to 19, Brackestrasse 24-34, 41-55 Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig- Halle GmbH ‘Grünau gargantuan housing projects of Zimmermann+Partner Architekten encouraged migration to the and Kändlerstrasse 2-14 by 2008. 2004, Einwohnerbefragung im Rahmen der the GDR built since the 1970s, are transformed in Cottbus 11-story western half of Germany or to The plan has still to be finalized in Intervallstudie „Wohnen und Leben in burdened with ‘old debts’. Accord- blocks built in the WBS 70 system suburbia. To a large degree, it was the municipality. However, it is Leipzig-Grünau’, Stadt Leipzig ing to the contract of the reunifi- into so-called ‘Town Villas’ of on- also the fault of the new authori- most likely that the residents of Bernt M., Fictitious Values, Imaginary cation in 1990, the individual ly 2 or 3 floors. Muck Petzet’s of- ties together with the financial the affected buildings, the retail- Markets: The Housing market in housing associations, which were fice also achieved an exemplary institutions, that were unwilling ers and staff of the medical centre Eastern Germany, in 2006, Shrinking formerly subordinated to the city planning in Leinefelde com- or unable to understand the con- will not wait for the final version, Cities, Volume 2 Interventions, Hatje Cantz GDR planning economy and its bining demolition with conver- cepts and values which character- but will find it wiser to move to Hannemann Ch. 2006, Can social capital budgeting, inherited their former sions for new uses. These achieve- ised the organisation of the urban another part of town. The hous- save shrinking cities?, in 2006, ‘debts’ from the Staatsbank of the ments are of course well intend- and the architectural fabric. The ing companies already provide an Shrinking Cities, Volume 2 GDR which had once offered ed, and architecturally interest- often random and short-sighted excellent service to help in Interventions, Hatje Cantz ‘long-term loans’ for the con- ing, but do not, and most likely demolitions undermined the moving homes. ■ Flierl B. 1984, Architektur und Kunst, Texte struction of housing estates. could not address the real cause of housing estates’ cohesiveness, 1964-1983, Dresden: Verlag der Kunst Fig. 4 Fig. Doina Petrescu operation:city 2008 How to reclaim the common? The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 25

housing estate. The public budget How to reclaim the common? was maigre and continued to be abused and badly managed by the different governments. The destruction of public notions like that of ‘citizen’ or was the only space one felt social- In a country where frustration property ‘civic rights’ were empty of ly and psychologically safe.03 This has been accumulated over years, ities in Eastern Europe meaning. They were abstract no- micro scaled community was a acquisition, possession and con- faced spectacular trans- tions in the Party discourse but community of resilience and sur- sumption became the new imper- formations during the not in reality. vival. atives. Everybody’s dream is to- last decade. We have It is in this context that the de- day to have a prosperous house- witnessed there, more struction of public property has The destruction of the city hold, to posses a flat in a private

SCU Cthan in other parts of the world, a been accomplished with the po- In addition,and unlike other development or an individual dramatic devaluation of the idea litical changes and the transition socialist countries, in Romania house in a city healthy suburb. of ‘common’ and ‘public’ and a vi- to market economy. After 1990, the sense of publicness and com- The sense of ownership has be- olent destruction of the existing important parts of public proper- munity has been consciously and came exclusively private. public property. If during the so- ty including the main economic programmatically destroyed by cialist regime, the social crisis agencies (ie. factories, land, re- Ceausescu’s dictatorial regime. Reclaiming a new collective was mainly related to the lack of sources, transport, energy and Parts of cities, including historic subjectivity individual freedom, during the communication infrastructure) centres and important monu- What will happen with the transition period01 the crisis is were privatised.02 Numerous pub- ments, were erased to leave place derelict neighbourhoods made more that of the public, the col- lic properties were retroceeded to megalomaniac constructions out of prefabricated units that lective and the common. by low to the former private own- or mass housing estates (ie. it was were never renovated since their In Romania, the devaluation of ers that were dispossessed of in the case with Bucharest) and vil- construction? What will happen the notion of ‘public’ has started the first years of the communist lages were destroyed by ‘system- with their poor inhabitants who during the years of the commu- regime: buildings, lands, forests, atic planning’. In Ceausescu’s to- have acquired their flats for sym- nist regime. During this regime, etc… talitarian regime, the top down bolic amounts and became now public property was continually Parallely, most of the social decision making in the planning unemployed and without means violated and abused and ordinary housing estates that were public- process emanated directly from to renovate and maintain them? citizens have lost trust in a state ly own were sold for symbolic the Conducator himself, which What are the rights of these governed by a corrupted unique amounts to their occupants in or- made very difficult any type of ‘property owners’? How do they DO INA PETRE party. That state was not anymore der to release public responsibili- contest.04 In the socialist regimes, face the future – the economic a guarantor of their public rights.; ty over buildings in bad condi- there was no veritable tradition crisis, the energy restrictions, the for the party apparatchiks, public tions. In 18 years time, 70 per- of civic disobedience. The passive, shortage of resources, the climate property meant a property they cents of the state economy was obedient position was part of the change? How these atomised city can dispose of at their wish by privatised in Romania, from normality. dwellers could ever become en- means of power and without ac- which only 18% involved the With few exceptions, most of gaged citizen? How could they be- counts to give; for ordinary citi- transfer of shares in companies to the Romanians became used dur- come interested in defending col- zen, public property did not mean citizens, as part of the so called ing the communist totalitarian lective and common property if anymore ‘common property’ ‘the Mass Privatisation. These shares regime with being careless about there is none left? How could property of all’ (as stated by the were quickly sold further by the their cities, with the abuse of civ- they still do something about a Marxist doctrine), but ‘nobody’s poor citizen who needed survival ic rights and the non respect of city which was never taken care property’. In the socialist Roma- money. They became neither pub- low. They internalised the fact of? How will these cities look like nia, everyone was used to subvert lic nor private owners anymore. that the city has no value and no when the privatization process is or steal from the public property: memory to preserve. The violent completed? workers were steeling goods and The destruction of process of privatisation of the What will happen with the technical equipment from the community common property during the green space in the city which is factories, peasants were stealing The destruction of public prop- transition period of the 1990s constantly under threat to be pri- products from the state own agro- erty has been paralleled by the went almost without reaction vatised and transformed into industrial complexes or the agri- destruction of the idea of com- and was encouraged by all differ- shopping Malls or gated estates? cultural cooperatives, commer- munity, at all levels. In the com- ent governments that were in What will happen with the public cial workers were stealing the munist regime belonging to ‘the power. Parks, rivers, streets were squares which are more and more merchandise they were supposed community’ was compulsory, and privatised as a result of the retro- occupied by private businesses ?05 to sell, intellectuals were stealing for this reason, as a counter reac- ceeding of former private proper- What will happen with the cul- time and cognitive values from tion, the notion of ‘community’ ties to their original owners or tural centres and the youth hous- their institutions, etc… The pub- was implicitly subverted and de- through new spellings and trans- es, which were empty during the lic property was subversively valued. Also, in the last years of actions with the new developers. socialist regime and are now doubled by a stealth property, the communist regime, all forms The transition state and its dif- transformed into bars and night which recycled and traded what of community were alienated by ferent governments did not de- clubs? was subtracted from the public the paranoiac obsession of being velop the city anymore – no pub- How to engage people in a property. In a society whose surveyed and denunciated for the lic building was constructed in struggle they never had? How to rules were opaque end perverted, smallest protest expression or the last 15 years and no social deal with their long term passivi- comment against the regime. If during the socialist regime, the social crisis People were struggling for surviv- The transition state and its different al, and all social and professional “ was mainly related to the lack of individual relations were dominated by this “ governments did not develop the city freedom, during the transition period the crisis is preoccupation. The only form of anymore – no public building was constructed in community which prospered dur- more that of the public, the collective and the ing this period was the family and the last 15 years and no social housing estate common the close circle of friends which PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Nemanja Cvijanović [action/video] Applause! Nemanja Cvijanović [action/video] Applause! operation:city 2008 Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies (Urban Subjects US) 26 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

ty and frustration and how to re- 01 “Transition” is the keyword in tal- ecent works like “We cause of self-management, a place construct their desire and moti- king about the radical transformation Declare”: Spaces of Hous- is sketched between the citizen vation to act? of the political and economic structu- ing, Vancouver, collab- and the citadin, and Yugoslavia is res in the former socialists countries Reclaiming the city should orative projects like today (1986) perhaps one of the of Eastern Europe over the last 18 start with reclaiming a new col- years. This period of post-communist Vancouver Flying Uni- rare countries to be able to pose lective subjectivity. Rversity, or Differentiated Neighbor- the problem of a New Urban.” transition is an experience which is We need to contribute to the neither yet completely defined theo- hoods of New Belgrade engage with In works such as “The Nona- reconstruction of collective sub- retically or politically, nor indeed specific moments and logics of ligned World”, “NEW, Novi Be- jects, initiate cultures of coopera- predictable from a sociological point the global-urban change as they ograd 1948 – 1986 - 2006” and of view. A part of these contries , in- tion and collective use, create take shape in cities, architecture, “Where Neither The Public Nor cluding Romania, managed to accom- moments of collective enuncia- plish two of the major aspects of the neighborhoods and everyday life. The Intimate Find Their Place” we tion… A starting point could be transition: the transition to a market Processes of appropriation and draw upon Henri Lefebvre’s no- the networks of resilience that economy and the transition to Euro- reterritorialisation of public, in- tions of “autogestion”, “Right To were functioning during the compe, basically the inclusion in the Eu- stitutional, or private spaces -- as The City” and his critique of the munist regime: the activation of ropean Union. well as the loss and reclamation state form, to address the seman- friendship relations and neigh- 02 With small differences, this privatisa- of commonly shared spaces -- call tic changes of “self-management” bourhood solidarities, the occupa- tion was encouraged by all political for a critical visual reworking of and “community(neighborhood)” tions of interstices and derelict parties for different reasons: first, the processes which produce in the production of urban space. estates for urban agriculture and this was the condition imposed by space as well as scopic regimes In particular, we became interest- the international institutions for the alternative production, culture and ideologies of representation. ed in the imperatives of self-or- EU integration and second, all politi- H el mu t and education, the collective ren- cal parties which have participated in In Henri Lefèbvre´s words: “The ganisation and self-management ovation of social housing estates, the transition governments were ‘real’ sociological object in this that migrate into neighborhoods the claiming back of the streets composed by recycled former appa- case is the image and - above all - via neoliberalism versus the pos- and squares for parties and dem- ratchiks and representatives of the ideology.” sibilities of forms of self-organisa- onstrations. We need to learn political and economic oligarchy of Within the framework of the tion that emerge “from below”. the socialist times ( ie. government how to be, to think and to do to- project Differentiated Neighbor- Neoliberal policies, regulations, representatives, factory directors, gether in our cities… We need to ministry functionaries, political po- hoods of New Belgrade (2005 - and pressures are pulled down, so reconstruct the common again lice and military leaders,) who were 2008) we came across with a text to speak, by local and national in- (and again), in numerous at- interested in privatisation because from Lefebvre he submitted as stitutions and governments, but tempts, in many ways, in time, in they were at that time in the best po- part of a proposal with French ar- they meet resistance and reshap- movement. sition to privately acquire public chitects Serge Renaudie and ing as they are applied or wedged properties: they were those having As Toni Negri has stated “the Pierre Guilbaud for the Interna- into neighborhoods and urban access to information, having the production of subjectivity is not money and the connections for, etc… tional Competition for the New territories. an act of innovation, or a flash of Belgrade Urban Structure Im- Within this, perhaps a new un- genius, it is an accumulation, a 03 The family as social unit got rein- provement in 1986. In his urban derstanding and mobilization of forced and became the social activa- sedimentation that is, however, tor in the regime of transition. Pri- vision for Novi Beograde Lefebvre “autogestion” (in Lefebvre’s always in movement; it is the vate property was restructured emphasizes the processes and po- terms, a collectively organized construction of the common by around family, and the social and eco- tentials of self-organisation of the mode of self-management) constituting collectivities’06. ■ nomic familial networks were rein- people of any urban territory to actualizes the question of how forced. If there is a type of communi- counter the failed concepts of ur- claims to citizenship and to the ty surviving in the period of transi- ban planning from above. Yet, right to the city produce new tion’, this is one reorganised around family interests and conducting Lefebvre viewed Novi Beograde forms and understandings of the somehow to a regressive type of so- and Yugoslavia as having a partic- relationship of the state and citi- ciality, regulated by and limited to ular position in what he has else- zens and is driving the produc- family relationships. where called “the urban revolution of urban space as the neolib- ■ 04 In the case of the destruction of the tion.” As Lefebvre states, “Be- eral moment begins to weaken. historic center of Bucharest some pro-

tests were organised by the order of Sabine itter & W eber B itter How to engage architects but were very soon si- Lefebvre viewed Novi Beograde and lenced. As students in Bucharest in “ people in a the 80s, we have found our own “ Yugoslavia as having a particular position in struggle they never had? form of protest, documenting loss what he has elsewhere called “the urban and memory of demolished areas, ex- hibiting images of destruction, engag- revolution” ing in different forms of dissidence)

05 For example, in Iasi, a 350000 inhabitants city in the North East of the country, a business center will be developed on the location of a historic park by the owner of the main Mall in the city. In Rm Vilcea, a 100000 inhabitants city, a shoping centre has been built on the location of a central park and a mega store on the civic square.

06 Antonio Negri, Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Anne Querrien, What makes a biopolitical space? A discussion with Toni Negri, in Euro- zine 2008 (http://www.eurozine.com/ articles/2008-01-21-negri-en.html) PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Nemanja Cvijanović [action/video] Applause! Nemanja Cvijanović [action/video] Applause! Thomas Campbell & Dmitry Vorobyev operation:city 2008 Urban planning in contemporary Petersburg: Renovation, population, resistance The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 27 Urban planning in contemporary Petersburg: Renovation, population, resistance

Renovation city’s historic image. The implan- phasis on high-rise construction; programmatic statements cata- quick sketch of contem- tation of high-rise buildings with- and overemphasis on commercial loguing its achievements and de- porary Petersburg rein the city center destroys the uses. In the city’s outlying bed- nying problems. In particular, the veals a strange picture. city’s historic panoramas—its room communities, mega malls authorities have worked hard to The magnificent ex-cap- embankments and boulevards replace historic produce markets create a negative image of the op- ital of the Russian Em- with their long, clear sight lines and the conveniently located position. The city’s budding pro- pire—aA city teeming with palac- (also under UNESCO protection). shops that were the hallmark of test movement is marginalized es, elegant residential buildings, When they pre-sell apartments in late-era Soviet planning. (there are very few protesters; the picturesque embankments, state- these future apartment blocks, majority of citizens support admin- ly squares, and breathtaking pan- realtors peddle the splendid view Population istration policy); stigmatized (pro- oramas; a city celebrated for three of the historic city owners will Many critics consider Peters- testers have been paid off by Mos- hundred years by writers and art- have from their windows. Yet burg’s urban planning practices cow politicians, spinmeisters, and ists; a city whose entire center is a they blithely ignore the fact that catastrophic; they often speak of rival construction companies; their UNESCO World Heritage site—is such high-rises will irreversibly a housing and architectural crisis. demands are meant to destabilize now covered over with bandages erase the city’s historic look. What does this crisis look like? society); and declared a band of in- (façades under “restoration”) and Thus, the conversion of financial We see it in often-hazardous infill competent, mendacious provoca- pockmarks (the foundation pits capital into cultural capital (mag- construction, the destruction of teurs. This propaganda campaign of future building sites). Its in- nificent views) leads to the de- squares, the lowering of environ- ensures that many Petersburgers habitants are forced to scurry struction of “the cultural capital” mental standards, the collapse of believe that the administration is through a network of makeshift (Petersburg) and thus the defla- social infrastructure (lack of pursuing the right policies, and sidewalks along building site tion of this selfsame, highly lev- schools, kindergartens, public that they view personal involve- fences, and more often than not eraged cultural capital. clinics, and recreation areas), ment in urban politics as both their gaze is greeted not by archi- The city’s public spaces—its gridlocked roads, and the disap- senseless and dirty. D m itry tectural splendor, but by demol- squares, gardens, and parks—are pearance of the city’s historic ished buildings. being rabidly privatized. Over the views. Resistance What is happening in Peters- past ten years, many historic If the situation is catastrophic, Urban social movements are burg? Why is Petersburg—per- parks have been ringed and dot- why is the city’s population of the most massive, rooted move- haps the only megalopolis in Eu- ted with so-called elite housing five million people so passive? ments in the world today. In Pe- rope whose entire historic center projects. Thus, municipal lands The population’s “escapist” tersburg, however, these move- has been preserved, an enormous that were once the common prop- stance has to do with the fact that ments are represented by several “zoo” where specimens from the erty of Petersburg’s citizens are it has no experience of life in a hundred activists, many of them entire history of European archi- privatized by a tiny group of ex- more humane urban environ- from short-lived NIMBY protest tecture roam freely—now being tremely wealthy individuals. In ment: it doesn’t notice the chaos, groups. A few environmental subjected to ruination, castration, the jargon of the city administra- pollution, and visual impoverish- groups have made urban planning and “renovation”? How is it that tion, this is known as “adaptation ment engendered by current poli- part of their agenda: their work billions of dollars are invested in to contemporary uses.” City au- cies; moreover, it has no sense of includes the defense of squares large-scale projects at the same thorities are united in their pro- what alternative development and parks, as well as policy and time that the city has visibly be- motion of the thesis that trajectories society and state legislative lobbying. Oppositional come more polluted and unliva- “progress” is necessary, that the might pursue together. This pas- micro-parties and other political ble? city must be transformed via sive population becomes the ob- movements have also made the This is not the only paradox. large-scale projects in which, in ject of official state “care”: the au- defense of the city a significant The city promotes itself as a place many cases, they themselves or thorities construct an urban ma- part of their programs. whose primary cultural capital is their associates have substantial trix meant to incubate a stunted The rhetoric of these activists its magnificent past; since the financial stakes. The administra- civil society—semi-law-abiding has four aspects. It is prohibitory Yeltsin era it has been called Rus- tion’s urban planning motto says and poorly informed, but ulti- (Stop infill construction! Save our sia’s “cultural capital,” and this it all: “Development through mately passive. buildings!); alarmist (Wake up, peo- semi-official status is based in preservation, preservation To squelch social conflict and ple: Our city is being destroyed!); large part on its astounding archi- through development.” “normalize” the situation, the au- political (Governor Matvienko, it is tectural heritage. Nevertheless, In practice, this form of “mod- thorities prefer to hush up prob- time for you to resign!), and declar-

s this glorious past-in-the-present ernization” means that historic lems rather than solve them, and ative (This is our city!). The overall is ignored, replaced by the images buildings and “lacunae” in the they actively pursue a rhetoric- platform of these movements is of future projects—superhigh- city center, as well as “empty heavy populist politics. More im- conservative: they hope to halt ways, bridges, tunnels, skyscrap- spaces” and squares in the outly- portantly, they impede public in- the transformation of the city- ers, and commercial residential ing areas, are rapidly replaced by volvement in decision-making scape and expose the shortcom- developments. Aside from famous new structures. This new con- via new legislation that alters ings of the administration’s brands, the products most adver- struction introduces a host of procedures for public hearings modernization project. tised on the city’s numerous bill- problems: increased density of and limits access to information. Despite the weakness of the boards are new residential com- the built environment; overload- During the last year, signifi- urban movements, urban plan- plexes and skyscrapers. However, ing of infrastructure; disappear- cant resources have been spent to ning has become the hot political these projects contradict “the ance of green spaces; marked “dis- generate a positive media image topic in Petersburg. A tense dia-

T h om a past” because their realization re- sonance” with the historic mi- of urban planning policy. The gov- logue is underway between vari- r o byev m pbell & Vo Ca quires the destruction of the lieu, especially because of the em- ernor’s office has made a series of ous interest groups, and the tone PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Nemanja Cvijanović [action/video] Applause! Nemanja Cvijanović [action/video] Applause! operation:city 2008 Brian Holmes The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies Mega-gentrification 28 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. Limits of an urban paradigm

of this discussion is set by the clash between activists and the Mega-gentrification administration. Social and political movements, as well as the S journalist, architecture, and legal Limits of an urban paradigm communities, have now focused their energies on the debate over the city’s future. Socio-political swelling real-estate bubbles that into bankruptcy and the state existing streets, parks and hous- conflict as such has shifted to the came in its wake have provided comes back in with a vengeance, ing stock, but instead, the razing planning front, and it is along this the most obvious illustration of can contesting social forces re- of entire districts and the con- front that new class fault lines are this primary rule. Behind the ur- claim a right to the city? struction of high-rise, high-rent revealed. It is telling that most ban scenes, the transnationaliza- Such sweeping questions were towers in their place. Yet the old protest actions and media scan- tion of municipal bond offers has not on anyone’s agenda back in notion of an aristocratic “landed dals in recent years have been been widely used to raise capital the late 1960s and early 1970s, gentry” living off the rent of rural linked to issues of new building for the infrastructure of the real- when the word gentrification property has gained new curren- construction. estate boom, opening up lucrative first came to designate the home- cy in all these different cases, as Although the urban move- financial markets and reconfigur- improvement efforts of a few hip lucky owners around the world ments are short on alternative ing the links between municipal entrepreneurs who could be alter- have been able to sell off their proposals for the city’s develop- and national governance in the natively mocked or flattered by massively inflated homes and ment, and the political context is process. These two major trends connotations of finer lifestyles apartments for handsome retire- complicated, there are positive have both been subordinate to a and a vague aura of “Merry Olde ments, or better yet, refinance processes as well. For example, third phenomenon, the grand England.” But the neoliberal ver- their mortgages on the fly, so as activists are now engaged in the prize of neoliberal urbanism: the sion of urban renewal no longer to generate precious liquidities brian production of their own knowl- H O L M E installation of postmodern pro- matches this quaint image of for- for investment on the surging edge, primarily by supplying al- duction facilities, whether the ty years ago. With his analysis of stock-markets. The masters of the ternative professional expertise big league of global corporate three distinct phases in the gen- regenerated inner city are indeed and statistical information. In the headquarters and associated serv- trification process, the geogra- a new gentry, flush with the re- last two or three years, the move- ices, or the smaller but still highly pher Neil Smith has clearly dem- turns on their exclusive titles to ments have begun the process of profitable gemstones of credit- onstrated the successive increases nobility: the ownership deeds professionalization. Local activ- based luxury consumption (shop- in scale, to the point where today, granting them a stake in the glo- ists are learning how to use GIS ping centers, tourist districts, in the phase of “generalized gen- bal boom of urban centrality. (geographic information sys- franchised boutiques). In a trification,” the installation of What then of the city as a col- tems). They have begun to map breathtaking press toward total major cultural facilities designed lective project, which alone changes in the cityscape, mobi- makeover, the face of cities across as investment magnets is carried makes this kind of individual lize dozens of volunteers to mon- the world has been changed since out under integrated municipal jackpot possible? Jason Hack- itor the urban environment, com- the early 1980s, not only to fit an and state-government plans for worth has shown how cities in mission impact statements on aesthetic norm, as is widely con- the valorization of urban proper- the USA, then increasingly new building projects, and study jectured, but above all in accord- ty on world markets.01 Commer- around the world, have had re- law codes and legislation. They ance with an underlying toolkit, a cial investment in such “regener- course to only three bond-rating have thus begun to participate as unified set of productive and reg- ated” zones is inevitably domi- agencies in order to make their near-equals in the formation of ulatory procedures. The result of nated by transnational franchises municipal bonds attractive as a planning policy and upset the the three interrelated transfor- with the ability to raise initial secure, blue-chip investment for state’s monopoly on the produc- mations can be termed mega-gen- capital, apply precut manage- pension funds and other large tion of objective statistics and trification: an entirely new, glo- ment schemes, provide flawless portfolio administrators.02 The analysis. They are now able not bally connected urban realm re- logistical support and unveil in- key transformation of the 1980s only to dispute official view- sponding to the needs and desires stantly recognizable brand-name and 1990s, in Hackworth’s analy- points, but also to speak the same of increasingly homogeneous decors. In European cities former- sis of the American data, is the language as the administration world elites. ly marked by a specific national or relative eclipse of local banks as and appeal to a shared legislative This pattern is increasingly regional character, the appear- major buyers on the bond mar- framework. well known, and I will sketch out ance of fully standardized con- kets and the corresponding rise of Our prognosis is that if the its features in more concrete de- sumption environments in the institutional investors without state’s monopoly on information The right to the city is far more tail below. What has not yet been 1990s came as something of a any detailed knowledge of the ur- production is really threatened, than the individual liberty to formulated is the question that shock, underscoring the new sta- ban environment. Under these then there is a chance that deci- access urban resources: it is a appears on the horizon of the cur- tus of real-estate speculation as a conditions, the role of the nation- sions on urban planning in Peters- right to change ourselves by rent credit crisis and the pro- prime terrain of both private and ally Recognized Statistical Rating burg will be opened up to public changing the city. longed recession or depression public finance. Elsewhere, how- Organizations – Moody’s, Stand- participation. If the movements — David Harvey that is almost sure to follow. Yet ever, the very word gentrification ard & Poor’s and Fitch – is to pro- can show that their interpreta- this question is the only thing seems to collapse beneath the vide authoritative guarantees of tion of what has happened to the hat is the city for? that really matters today, it is the magnitude of urban renewal pro- future profitability, absolving city in recent years is correct, and The response of neo- crux of our present moment. Is grams: in countries like China, for fund managers from any possible then take the next step—the for- liberal urbanism has neoliberal urbanism a destiny? Or example, what is typically at accusation of undue risk-taking. mulation of an alternative, hu- been extraordinarily can a combination of local inhab- stake is not the beautification of Indeed, binding regulation pro- mane development plan present- coherent: the city is itants’ movements, national regu- ed in a professional language and aW living and breathing machine lation and a broad transnational buttressed by statistics, maps, and for maximizing the return on in- analysis of prevailing trends act What is the city for? The response of real-life projects—then state and vestment. The frenetic gentrifica- together to counter the most “ neoliberal urbanism has been extraordinarily society will be forced to assimi- tion of attractive city neighbor- damaging processes that are cur- late this new vision. But if this hoods over the course of the last rently at work? While entire sec- coherent: the city is a living and breathing machine professionalization falters and decade and the dramatically tors of the corporate elites slide for maximizing the return on investment. the public becomes even less involved in grassroots activism, the administration will be left to go it alone in its “care” of the population, doing this the only way it knows how: by serving the interests of capital, not the interests of its citizens. ■ PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Lina Rica [action] the Future from Greetings Lina Rica [action] the Future from Greetings PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Brian Holmes operation:city 2008 Mega-gentrification The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies Limits of an urban paradigm zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 29

hibits many pension funds from the city for a new kind of cosmo- its Gold Medal not to an individu- Can a combination of local inhabitants’ Mega-gentrification acquiring any but the highest- politan citizen, fantastically al but to the entire metropolis of ranked securities. The advantages wealthy, exceedingly well in- Barcelona; while at the same “ movements, national regulation and a broad for distant institutional investors formed and uniquely demanding time, an Urban Task Force under transnational analysis of prevailing trends act Limits of an urban paradigm of such close surveillance of ur- in matters of infrastructure, en- the leadership of Sir Richard Rog- ban development projects were tertainment and security. The ter- ers drafted plans for what would together to counter the most damaging processes irresistible. With the volume of ritory of this new “landed gen- essentially be the “Barceloniza- that are currently at work? investment rising globally and try” is vigilantly guarded by men tion” of ten British cities.05 Today capital pouring into municipal in corporate uniforms with night- the architects and planners of the bond markets from sources as far sticks and radios and guns, yet it Catalan capital are able to sell the fighting the gentrification of As David Harvey notes, the right away as Saudi Arabia or China, the cannot be reduced to the su- city’s collectively generated ur- their neighborhoods, or the in- to the city is “a common rather rating agencies came to reign su- premely valuable urban districts ban expertise far beyond its bor- stallation of cultural and con- than an individual right, since preme over infrastructural plan- in which the owners physically ders or ring roads. When crum- sumption facilities whose first ef- this transformation inevitably ning, not only in the US but live – for through freeways, heli- bling capitals like Budapest or fect will be to erase their culture depends upon the exercise of a throughout the world. To facili- ports, airlines, fiber-optic cables Buenos Aires suddenly find them- and displace their consumption to collective power to reshape the tate the management of budgets, and satellite communications sys- selves graced with beautifully re- big-box wastelands, this sudden processes of urbanization.”06 As projects are often spun off into tems, their territory extends to stored historical districts and en- halt to the speculative boom will such it demands common efforts, specially chartered “districts” the mega-scale of the global net- tire streets filled with brand-new come as a relief, or even as a sav- across local, national and even (airport district, sewage district, work. theme restaurants – along with ing grace. But for everyone with a continental boundaries. And etc.) which may also be config- Interestingly, it is among the bond-issues in the works for ex- long-term interest in ecologically though every significant struggle ured as private-public partner- lesser wannabes of global city- clusive infrastructures, an incon- sustainable development, in the happens in one single place, with ships. In addition to the standard- dom that we find the single most gruous “lifestyle” rhetoric on the sharing of urban centrality with one single constellation of forces, ized development pattern that influential model for everyday lips of city officials and grand as- the periphery, in the production still it is high time to establish this process imposes, what results gentrification in Europe, namely pirations for hosting cultural of participatory culture rather links from city to ity, from coun- above all is a loss of democratic Barcelona, which does not even events – the influence of the Bar- than paying entertainment, and try to country, from region to re- oversight as increasingly large figure on the list of sixty leading celona model is never very dis- in the democratically chosen gion – and to begin building a tracts of urban land are managed cities recently compiled by the tant. Through strategic profes- transformation of lifestyles in common grassroots paradigm of according to the dictates of the American magazine Foreign Poli- sional networking the “mega” full respect of those who would alternative urbanism, where is- ratings agencies, and in some cas- cy.04 Nonetheless, the global scale is attained among the minor rather stay the same – in short, sues of spatial justice are always es handed over to quasi-non-gov- reach of the Catalan metropolis leagues, by extension rather than for everyone vitally interested in granted their full weight, whatev- ernmental organizations, or has been prodigious. Flagship ur- concentration. the grassroots exercise of the er the scales of decision. ■ “quangos” as they are called in ban development projects such as The outstanding question, right to the city – the current cri- Great Britain. The double nega- the Olympics, or more recently, however, concerns the future of sis opens other possibilities and tion of “quasi” and “non” says a the Universal Forum of Cultures, both these speculatively driven poses other, perhaps thornier lot about how much can be hid- lavish provision of tourist facili- models, at a time when the major questions. 01 Neil Smith, “New Globalism, New Ur- den in this process. The juridical ties and conference centers, care- attribute of the global city – fi- How to find anything but banism: Gentrification as Global Ur- basis of public space falls into the ful attention to the restoration or nance capital – and the major a respite in a global construction ban Strategy,” in Antipode 34/3 (July legal gap between public and pri- redesign of streets, façades and source of funding for the gentrifi- downswing which could easily be 2002). For a detailed treatment of vate. urban furnishings, deliberate en- cation of second-rank provincial as transient as those of innumera- municipal, state and corporate colla- What drives cities toward this couragement of the tertiary sec- cities – abundant credit from out- ble recessions past? How to begin boration on urban development pro- opaque but highly orchestrated tors of the urban economy and side – have both run straight into undoing the reflexes and refor- jects, see Erik Swyngedouw et. al., “Neoliberal Urbanization in Europe: process of total makeover? The last but not least, liberal spending their fundamental contradiction: mulating the expertise accumu- Large-Scale Urban Development Pro- big prize, as Saskia Sassen pointed on local cultural events, has namely, the inability of exploited lated over three decades of neo- jects and the New Urban Policy,” in out almost two decades ago, is the served to create civic pride, politi- workers and overstretched con- liberal management? How to the same special issue of Antipode. status of “global city,” or com- cal consensus, skyrocketing real- sumers to go on holding the spin- spread an awareness of the subtle 02 Jason Hackworth, The Neoliberal City: mand and control center of the estate values and multiple incite- ning ball of golden dreams up in iniquities of neoliberal urbanism, Governance, Ideology and Development 03 world economy. The key at- ments to spending and invest- the air. Today we face the largest at a time when far more pressing in American Urbanism (Ithaca: Cornell tributes here are full integration ment from the outside. Using this financial crisis in a century, al- issues and varieties of political University Press, 2007). ready well on its way to becoming rhetoric are likely to come to the to global financial flows, top-qual- integrated approach, Barcelona 03 Saskia Sassen, The Global City: New ity information and transporta- has not only refreshed and refur- a crisis of the real economy in the fore? How to insure that public York, London, Tokyo (Princeton Uni- tion infrastructure, and “world bished its decaying neighbor- realms of industry and trade, but works projects, if they are carried versity Press, 1991). class” real-estate markets and cul- hoods – and driven away much of also a political crisis on the out, do not merely reiterate the 04 A.T. Kearney, Inc. and The Chicago tural amenities making the city the exotic urban fauna that gave streets and in the voting booths same illusory priorities as the Council on Global Affairs,“The 2008 attractive for the most qualified it a literary reputation in the where the pressure of rapidly ris- credit-sponsored projects which Global Cities Index,” in Foreign Policy corporate personnel. While it is 1930s-60s – but it has also become ing unemployment is making it- preceded them? And above all, (November-December 2008). Barce- obvious that only a few cities can a veritable model, a full-fledged self powerfully evident. Mega- how to continue resisting the im- lona does, however, figure in a speci- ever obtain this position (Sassen European equivalent to San Fran- gentrification has at last met its position of municipally mandated fically cultural category at the bot- herself focused only on New cisco as seen by the American limits, and a sophisticated urban real-estate schemes which, like tom of the ranking established by P.J. Taylor, “Leading World Cities: Empi- York, London and Tokyo), still “creative-city” booster Richard development paradigm built up everything in society, do not ever rical Evaluations of Urban Nodes in enormous sums are spent by com- Florida. In 1999, in an unprece- over the course of three decades really die but instead go into a Multiple Networks,” in Urban Studies peting metropolises all over the dented gesture, the Royal Insti- now stands on the verge of col- kind of living paralysis, an auto- 42/9 (2005). world in hopes of moving up the tute of British Architects awarded lapse. For community groups mated repetition whose only 05 Mari Paz Balibrea, “Urbanism, culture ranks of global integration. In the guarantee of continuity is the re- and the post-industrial city: challen- historically dominant financial fusal of any input from the out- ging the ‘Barcelona Model,’” in Tim capitals and among the serious Mega-gentrification has at last met its limits, side world? These and many other Marshall, ed., Transforming Barcelona new contenders such as Shanghai, “ and a sophisticated urban development issues arising from the current (London: Routledge, 2004). crisis are far more than any single Sydney, Sao Paulo, Brussels or Is- paradigm built up over the course of three decades 06 David Harvey, “The Right to the Ci- tanbul, what one witnesses is the local group or social movement ty,” in New Left Review 53 (Septem- wholesale retooling of parts of now stands on the verge of collapse. could ever resolve on their own. ber-October 2008). PHOTO BY Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Emina Višnjić BY PHOTO Lina Rica [action] the Future from Greetings Lina Rica [action] the Future from Greetings operation:city 2008 Who is who The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies 30 zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008.

Jochen Becker works as critic, project Thomas Campbell is a translator, re- (1998) and completed postgraduate Berlin/ Amsterdam). She is cu- teacher and cultural producer. He searcher, and writer living in Saint studies at the Berlage Institute, rrently engaged by the Prishtina is founding member of BüroBert, Petersburg. He is also a member of Amsterdam/Rotterdam (2000). Mayor in a capacity of his Advisor co-editor of Copyshop – Kunstpraxis the Chto Delat workgroup plat- Marc (1970, Heerlen, The Nether- for Urban Development and Mana- & politische Öffentlichkeit (Edition form (www.chtodelat.org) and a lands) graduated from the Faculty gement. ID-Archiv, 1993), geld.beat.synthe- founding member of the Peters- of Architecture, Delft University tik – Abwerten (bio)technologischer burg Video Archive (PVA). of Technology (1997). Srdjan Jovanović Weiss teaches geo- Annahmen (Edition ID-Archiv, political seminars and architectu- 1996) Baustop.randstadt,- #1 (Hg. Teodor Celakoski is program coordi- Keller Easterling is an architect, urba- ral design at the University of Pe- NGBK Berlin, 1999) and published nator of the Multimedia Institute nist, and writer. She’s Associate nnsylvania and is a PhD candidate BIGNES? on recent urban develop- in Zagreb, Croatia. He initiated nu- Professor of Architecture at the Ya- in architectural research at Gold- ment as well as Metropolen (2001), merous projects and several pro- le University School of Architectu- smiths College in London with a Space//Troubles (2003), Hier Entste- gram-based culture cooperation re. Her latest book, Enduring Inno- dissertation on Balkanization as a ht (2004), Self Service City: Istanbul platforms such Clubture (Croatian cence: Global Architecture and Its Poli- contemporary spatial practice. He (2004), City of COOP: Buenos Aires/ network of independent cultural tical Masquerades (2005), resear- is the founder of the NAO (Normal Rio de Janeiro (2004), Kabul/Tehe- organizations) or Zagreb – Cultural ches familiar spatial products that Architecture Office) as well as a co- ran 1979ff (2006), Architektur auf Kapital of Europe 3000. He is cur- have landed in difficult or hyperbo- founder of the School of Missing Zeit (2006) and Verhandlungssache rently leading the citizen initiative lic political situations around the Studies and co-initiator of Lost Hi- Mexiko Stadt (2008) together with “The Right to the City” established world. She has recently completed ghway Expedition. Weiss recent Stephan Lanz. 2008 establishing of with the goal to contest devasta- two research installations on the book “Almost Architecture”, pu- the metroZones/media book series tions of public spaces, disposses- Web: “Wildcards: A Game of Or- blished by Merz&Solitude Stutt- with upcoming titles Made in Nol- sion of citizens and failed urban gman” and “Highline: Plotting gart explores the roles of architec- lywood, EuroMaps and Roaming development policies in Zagreb. NYC.” Her work has been exhibited ture vis-à-vis democratic proce- Around. at the Queens Museum, the Archi- sses, abrupt political changes and Daniel Chavez is a Uruguayan anthro- tectural League, the Municipal Arts disappearance of Communist ideo- Dafne Berc / Luciano Basauri work pologist specialising in Latin Ame- Society, and the Wexner Center. logy. He lives and works in NY and together since 2001. In 2007 they rican politics and urban social and Basel. co-founded Analog, an internation- political movements. He joined Miran Gajšek is Slovenian urban plan- al architectural network dealing TNI in 2001 as co-ordinator of the ner. Former head of Department of Emil Jurcan received in 2007 his de- with design, research and academ- Energy Project, looking at demo- Urban Planning of the City of Celje gree in architecture from the Fac- ic activities, aiming to depict cross- cratic and participatory alternati- and currently head of Department ulty of Architecture in Ljubljana. overs between design and urban ves to electricity privatisation in of Urban Planning of the City of He took part in the work of Temp matters. Luciano received M Arch. the Global South. Before moving to Ljubljana. collective, which in 2005 and 2006 from the Berlage Institute in Rot- Europe he had worked for almost a undertook several reclamation ac- terdam and Architect degree from decade for the United Federation Jason Hackworth is an associate pro- tions of abandoned spaces in the Faculty of Architecture, Uni- of Mutual-Aid Housing Cooperati- fessor of geography and urban pla- Ljubljana. He participated in the versidad Central de Chile in Santia- ves (FUCVAM). Daniel currently nning at the University of Toronto. symposium on Self-organization go, where he held a two-year As- co-ordinates the New TNI Politics He writes about the various ways within the BITEF festival in Bel- sistant Professorship. Worked as a Programme, in co-operation with that neoliberal ideas shape policy grade in 2006. Since 2006 he’s a project controller for Plava Laguna Hilary Wainwright. He has autho- and development outcomes in member of “Pula Group” and coor- Hotel Holding, Poreč and as a de- red and edited a number of books, North American cities. This has in- dinator of “Katarina” initiative, wh o i s signer with several architectural including most recently The New cluded work on urban form, social which is dealing with the transfor- practices in Zagreb, Amsterdam Latin American Left: Utopia Reborn?, housing, municipal finance, and mation of abandoned military sites and Santiago. Dafne is a PhD candi- with Patrick Barrett and Cesar Ro- gentrification. His recent book, The in Pula. The initiative resulted in date at the Universitat Politécnica driguez Garavito (Grupo Editorial Neoliberal City (Ithaca, 2007), is a an architectural workshop, publi- de Catalunya in Barcelona. Re- Norma, 2005) and The Left in the Ci- thoroughgoing analysis of neolibe- cation and exhibition. He lectured ceived M Arch. from the Berlage In- ty: Participatory Local Governments ral mechanisms in urban develo- at architectural schools in Zagreb, stitute in Rotterdam and Architect in Latin America with Benjamin pment and governance. He is cu- Ljubljana, Instanbul and San Sebas- degree from the Faculty of Archi- Goldfrank (LAB, 2001). He holds a rrently writing a book on the role tian. With the Pula Group he took tecture, University of Zagreb, Phd in the Politics of Development played by the Religious Right in part in the Biennal of Young Artist where she taught urban planning from the Institute of Social Studies promoting neoliberalism in the from Europe and Mediterranean in studio and lectured for four years. (ISS, The Hague). United States. 2008 in Bari. In 2006 he coautho Worked as designer for Atelier red the exhibition “Italian Modern Hržić in Zagreb and Urban XPRNZ Branka Čurčić is a member of kuda. Brian Holmes is a theorist, writer and Achitecture in Pula, 1930-1940” in Amsterdam and as researcher/ org, New Media Center from Novi translator. He’s a regular contribu- and in 2008 he authored the exhi- designer for Project for Public Sad (www.kuda.org). She is one of tor to Nettime, Springerin, Bruma- bition “Planning Pula”. Spaces, Inc. in NY. its program editors, focusing on ria and Multitudes, and is the aut- critical approaches towards new hor of the books Hieroglyphs of the Gal Kirn completed his PhD at ZRC Sabine Bitter / Helmut Weber (Urban media culture, new technologies, Future (Zagreb, 2002) and Unleas- SAZU (Comparative studies of ide- Subjects US) – since 1993 Vienna new cultural relations, contempo- hing the Collective Phantoms (New as and cultures) in Ljubljana, he is and Vancouver based artists Sabine rary artistic practices and social re- York, 2008). In recent years, currently researcher at the Jan van Bitter and Helmut Weber have wor- alm. She also collaborates with the Holmes has been co-organizing a Eyck Academy, member of the ked on projects addressing cities, transform project of the European series of seminars with the New Workers’ Punk University, political architecture, and the politics of re- Institute of Progresive Cultural Po- York based collective 16 Beaver activist and Editor-in-chief of presentation and of space. Since licies (EIPCP) in Vienna. Group under the title Continental journal Agregat. 2004 member of the cultural Drift, working on the issues of geo- collective Urban Subjects US Ana Džokić / Marc Neelen [STEALTH. politics and geopoetics. The next Blaž Križnik – after obtaining a Bach- (Bitter/ Derksen/ Weber). unlimited] – STEALTH.unlimited installment of the seminar will ta- elor’s Degree in Architecture from More at: www.lot.at. (set up in 2000 by Ana and Marc) is ke place on November 27-30 in the University of Ljubljana, he con- a practice based between Rotter- Zagreb. tinued his studies at the Academy Boris Buden studied philosophy in Za- dam and Belgrade in which over of Architecture in Rotterdam, greb and cultural studies at HU the years we have collaborated Florina Jerliu is a lecturer at the Uni- where he spent two years as a re- Berlin. In the 90s he was editor in with Milica Topalovic, Ivan Kucina versity of Prishtina and has proven searcher. He has finished his PhD the magazine Arkzin, Zagreb. His and Mario Campanella. STEALTH her skills and commitment in the degree in sociology of everyday life essays and articles cover topics of often uses participatory or knowl- process of post-war urban develo- at the Faculty of Social Sciences, philosophy, politics, cultural and edge creation mode based on the pment of Kosovo towns. She was University of Ljubljana. He has col- art criticism. Among his translati- shifting perspectives of crossovers engaged in drafting development laborated with the Institute of Ad- ons into Croatian are two books of fields – visual culture, urban re- strategies, socio-economic pros- vanced Architecture of Catalonia, Sigmund Freud. Buden is the aut- search, spatial intervention, cul- pects, and was lately managing the Korea Foundation and Seoul De- hor of Barikade, (Zagreb, tural activism. Ana (1970, Bel- studies on urban qualification/ille- velopment Institute. Blaž is one of 1996/1997), Kaptolski Kolodvor grade, Serbia, formerly Yugoslavia) gal buildings trend in the post-war the founders of the Ljubljana- (Beograd, 2001), and Der Schacht graduated from the Faculty of Ar- Prishtina, a project of the Archis based Institute for Policies of Space von Babel (Berlin, 2004). chitecture, University of Belgrade Intervention Network (Prishtina/ [www.ipop.si]. PHOTO BY Ruta BY PHOTO Ruta BY PHOTO Who is who operation:city 2008 The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies zagreb, 04. 12. → 07. 12. 2008. 31

Ivan Kucina is an architect, assistant better integrate the natural lands- for culture, urban planning and Edi Rama is a painter and sculptor, pu- Worker and as a Lecturer in Social professor at the Faculty of Archi- cape and local culture into a con- tourism. Lives and works in Split. blicist and politician. He’s former Work in the UK, with a particular tecture, University of Belgrade, tent witnessing accelerated pre- Albanian Minister of Culture and focus on Child Care Politics and member of the Board of the Associ- ssure by global economic forces. Doina Petrescu is architect, resear- present Mayor of Tirana and the Practice, Anti-Racist Social Work, ation of Belgrade Architects, mem- He led the curatorial team for the cher and activist, reader in archi- President of the Albanian Socialist and Community Development. ber of the School of Missing Stud- International Architecture Bienna- tecture at the University of Sheffi- Party. Recently he was awarded Since 1993, his main research, con- ies network, initiator of many re- le Rotterdam 2007. eld and founder member of atelier the World Mayor of 2004 in an in- sultancy, and activism has concen- search projects, exhibitions and d’architecture autogérée, Paris. She ternational internet competition trated on the post-Yugoslav coun- workshops dedicated to informal Maroje Mrduljaš is an architect and has edited Altering Practices: Femi- organized by the CityMayors think tries, with publications on Social processes od transforming Belgra critic based in Zagreb. He extensi- nist Politics and Poetics of Space (Ro- tank. Policy and Social Development; de urban system and formal proc- vely writes about architecture, pro- utledge, 2007) and co-edited Urban Children’s Rights; Peace Building; esses reforming existing institu- duct and graphic desing and visual Act: a user guide for alternative prac- Gerald Raunig is philosopher and art Civil Society; and Computer-medi- tions. arts, and has edited various publiac- tice (aaa-peprav, 2007) and Architec- theoretician, living in Vienna; wor- ated Communication. His most re- tions related to fields of architectu- ture and Participation (Routledge, ks at the eipcp (European Institute cent work looks at the role of In- Artemy Magun lives in Saint-Peters- re and design. His major publicati- 2006). for Progressive Cultural Policies), ternational Non-State Actors and burg, teaches political philosophy on to date is the book Contempo- Vienna; co-ordinator of the tran- Transnational Advice Regimes in at the European University at rary Croatian Architecture – Testing Mirko Petrić is a Lecturer in the De- snational research projects republi- the Making of Social Policy. Saint-Petersburg and Smolny Insti- Reality. He is managing editor of partment of Visual Communicati- cart (http://republicart.net) and tute of Arts and Sciences. He is an Oris magazine and has curated and on Design, Arts Academy, Universi- transform (http://transform.eipcp. Ana Vaseva is Bulgarian theatre direc- active member of the group “Chto designed several exhibitions. He ty of Split. His research is in the fi- net); university lecturer at the In- tor, playwright and theorist. She is Delat,” co-editor and regular con- has lectured in Croatia and interna- elds of semiotics and media theory. stitute for Philosophy, University also publishing widely and collabo- tributor of the homonymous tionally. He works at the Faculty of of Klagenfurt/A; (co-)editor of two rates with the TV cultural maga- newspaper. His main work is dedi- Architecture, University of Zagreb Armina Pilav (Sarajevo/Venice) gradu- series of books at Turia+Kant, Vie- zine “The Library”. Her last per- cated to a philosophical analysis of and is independent expert of the ated in architecture. Last few years nna: “republicart. Kunst und Öf- formance “Svidirgailov”, based on non-classical political concepts EU Mies van der Rohe Prize. she’s been doing a research related fentlichkeit” and “es kommt dara- Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punish- (revolution and empire). He also to abandoned spaces in Sarajevo, re- uf an. Texte zur Theorie der politis- ment” premiered in November authored many articles on Russian Stefan Nowotny is a philosopher who lations they can create, different chen Praxis”; member of the edito- 2008 at SFUMATO theatre, Sofia. and international politics, on con- lives in Vienna: since 2005 he has images of the city or possible futu- rial board of the multilingual Her recent video “Points of calm- temporary Russian poetry, and been mainly working within the re transformations in social, archi- webjournal transversal (http:// ness” (2008) deals with the trans- other matters. framework of the eipcp – European tectural and urban contexts. She transversal.eipcp.net/) and the Au- formation of urban space. Institute for Progressive Cultural participated in several architectu- strian journal for radical democra- Boyan Manchev is philosopher and Policies (projects transform & tran- ral/art workshops and projects, in- tic cultural politics, Kulturrisse Dmitry Vorobyev is a sociologist at cultural theorist, living in Paris slate); 2004/05 lecturer at the Uni- cluding: research project “Decolo- (http://www.igkultur.at/kulturri- the Centre for Independent Social and Sofia. As Director of program versity of Lüneburg (Kulturwi- nising Architecture” in West Bank, sse). Recent books: Art and Revolu- Research, Saint Petersburg. He is and Vice-President of the Collège ssenschaften); 2001–2003 Visiting directed by London/Bethlehem Ar- tion. Transversal Activism in the also an activist in the Living City international de philosophie in Fellow at the University of Louva- chitectural Studio Sandi Hilal, Ales- Long Twentieth Century movement (www.save-spb.ru) and Paris and Associate Professor at the in-la-Neuve (Centre de philosophie sandro Petti, Eyal Weizman; co-cu- (Semiotext(e)/MIT Press, 2007); other grassroots urban ecology New University of Bulgaria, he is du droit). He has published nume- ration of the Workshop Immagino Art and Contemporary Critical Prac- groups. working in the field of aesthetics rous essays on philosophical and for conversion of “Ex Factory of tice. Reinventing Institutional Cri- and political philosophy. His work political topics, co-edited several Gravel” in Savona; curation of on- tique, Ed., with Gene Ray (mayfl- Kai Vöckler is an urbanist and publi- is often in dialogue or collabora- anthologies, and translated a num- going Sarajevo-based project UN- ybooks, 2008); A Thousand Mac- cist based in Berlin. He has pub- tion with contemporary artists. ber of texts from both French and DER RE:CYCLING, working to hines (Semiotext(e)/MIT Press lished widely on urban topic, has Manchev has lectured and pub- English into German; recent publi- open abandoned spaces for actions 2009). been guest curator at European lished widely in Bulgarian, French, cations: Instituierende Praxen. Bruc- or experiments created by different cultural insititutions over the past English, German, Italian and Rus- hlinien der Institutionskritik, w/ Ge- local groups: NGOs and individuals. Dubravka Sekulić is an architect with several years, and worked on sian. Some of his books and essays rald Raunig; (Vienna, 2008), Über- specific interest in informal archi- projects with architects and urban include: The Unimaginable: Essays setzung: Das Versprechen eines Begri- Andrej Prelovšek is Ljubljana based tecture and the transformation of planners. Vöckler is co-founder of in philosophy of the Image (NBU, ffs, w/ Boris Buden; (Vienna, 2008). architect, urban planner and publi- public domain in processes of tran- Archis Interventions, a non-gov- 2003) ; “Der Totale Körper der cist. Along with running his own sition. She was a volunteer teac- ernmental organization that has Lust”, in Boris Groys, Anne von der Arjen Oosterman is editor in chief of practice Panprostor, throughout hing assistant at the Faculty of Arc- worked together with local initia- Heiden, Peter Weibel, eds. Zurück VOLUME magazine. As architec- the years he has worked on draf- hitecture, Belgrade University tives since 2005 to solve urban de- aus der Zukunft (Suhrkamp Verlag, tural historian and critic he writes ting urban development policies (2003-2008) and assistant to the velopment problems in post-con- 2005); The Body-Metamorphosis (Al- articles, edits books, contributes to and regulations, and has participa- curator of Serbian pavilion on the flict areas. Archis Interventions is tera, 2007), “NOISE: l’organologie exhibitions, gives lectures and ted in the work of governmental 11th Venice Biennale. In 2004 she currently active in Prishtina, Mos- désorganisée”, Multitudes, 28, teaches at several schools of archi- and independent professional bo- was one of the founders of the tar, Kabul and Beirut. Vöckler is 2007; “Résistance de la danse”, En- tecture. He was a jury member of dies. In 2005 he initiated Ljubljana temporary cultural centre “smar- programme manager for South tretien avec Gérard Mayen, Mouve- design competitions and awards Urban Planning Council and Mari- tcity” in the defunct printing fac- Eastern Europe and is currently as- ment, 47, april-juin 2008; La méta- and contributed to a television bor Urban Planning Council – inde- tory “Bigz”. With Ivan Kucina she semblying a network of urban ini- morphose et l’instant (forthcoming, documentary on Dudok. pendent expert bodies monitoring works on a long term project of ar- tiatives in collaboration with Srd- La Phocide, 2008). irregularities in urban planning chiving Belgrade informal archi- jan Jovanović Weiss. Zoran Pantelić is an artist, producer, and advising local authorities. Sin- tecture. As a fellow of the Akade- Vedran Mimica is Director of Berlage educator and researcher. He is a co- ce 2007 he’s been member of the mie Schloss Solitude she is cu- Ines Weizman is an architect and crit- Institute. Educated as an architect, founder of the new media group Council for Urban Development rrently working on a book about ic. She is directing the MA Cities, he was a lecturer at the Faculty of kuda.org, based in Novi Sad. He re- and Renovation of the City of Lju- department stores in former Design and Urban Cultures at Lon- Architecture at the University of ceived his MA in sculpture from bljana and member of Urban Plan- Yugoslavia. don Metropolitan University. She Zagreb and a postgraduate resear- the Academy of Art in Novi Sad. In ning Council of Škofja loka. He has lectured at the Architectural Asso- cher at the Delft University of Te- 1993 with three others, he foun- contributed to professional perio- Neil Smith is professor of anthropolo- ciation, Berlage Institute and Gold- chnology prior to joining the Berla- ded apsolutno association which dicals and since 2008 runs his own gy and geography at the Graduate smiths university. After a long pe- ge Institute. An active writer on ar- focused on interdisciplinary art blog Urblogos (www.panprostor.si/ Center, City University of New riod of study of Soviet style urban- chitecture and architectural educa- and social projects. urblogos). York. His interests in social theory ism in the former Eastern Bloc, she tion, in 2007 he coauthored Con- include political economy and is currently researching architect temporary Croatian Architecture: Te- Dinko Peračić received MA from the Tanja Rajić is member of EXPEDITIO, marxism and lie behind his theore- dissidents during the last decades sting Reality and contributed to the Institute of Advanced Architecture a non-government and non-profit tical work on uneven development of the Cold War. volume Project Zagreb: Transition as of Catalonia (IAAC) and Architec- association from Kotor/Montene- and politics of public space. From Condition, Strategy, Practice. He is ture and urban planning degree gro which mission is encouraging the global to the local scales, he also the author of Notes on Chil- from the Faculty of Architecture, sustainable space developmant as argues, our spatial worlds are con- dren, Environment and Architecture. University of Zagreb. He’s found- well as enhancing urban and rural structed and reconstructed as He recently completed Croatian ing member of Platforma 9,81 and areas in Montenegro and region, expressions of social relations and Archipelago New Lighthouses. Fo- partner in ARP architectural stu- through activity in the fields of ar- especially as expressions of capita- cusing on the future of tourism de- dio. He’s active in the Split Archi- chitecture, urban planning, town list social relations. velopment along the Croatian co- tects’ Association, where he’s vice- planning, environmental protec- astline, this two-year research pro- president, and Croatian Architects’ tion, and public advocacy. Paul Stubbs [Institute of Economics, ject investigated processes to Association. Focused on projects [www.expeditio.org] Zagreb] has worked as a Social PHOTO BY Ruta BY PHOTO Ruta BY PHOTO Operation:City2008 The Neoliberal Frontline: Urban Struggles in Post-Socialist Societies [ZAGREB, 04. 12. - 07. 12. 2008.] conference newsletter