This book discusses the status of urban design as a disciplinary field and as a practice under the current and pervasive neoliberal regime.
The main argument is that urban design has been wholly reshaped by neoliberalism. In this transformation, it has become a discipline that has neglected its original ethos – designing good cities – aligning its theory and practice with the sole profit-oriented objectives typical of advanced capitalist societies. The book draws on Marxism-inspired scholars for a conceptual analysis of how neoliberalism influenced the emergence of urbanism and urban design. It looks specifically at how, in urbanism's everyday dimensions, it is possible to find examples of resistance and emancipation. Based on empirical evidence, archival resources, and immersion in the socio-spatial reality of Santiago de Chile, the book illustrates the way neoliberalism compromises urban designers’ ethics and practices, and therefore how its theories become instrumental to the neoliberal transformation of urban society represented in contemporary urbanisms.
It will be a valuable resource for academics and students in the fields of architecture, urban studies, sociology and geography.
1 Introduction
2 Discussing urban design and neoliberalism in Santiago
3 Spatial dialectics of Santiagos urban land
4 Neoliberal transformation of urban space in Santiago
5 The practice of urban design in a neoliberal Santiago
6 Towards a theory of urban design under neoliberalism design
Francisco Vergara Perucich is an urbanist at Universidad Central de Chile and Doctor in Development and Planning at University College London. Currently, he is Associate Professor at the Universidad de Las Américas, Chile, where he conducts research on neoliberal urbanisms and informal settlements in Latin America.
Lisainfo e-raamatute kohta