1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910814334403321

Autore

Weaver Timothy P. R.

Titolo

Blazing the neoliberal trail : urban political development in the United States and the United Kingdom / / Timothy P. R. Weaver

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : , : University of Pennsylvania Press, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

0-8122-9222-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (360 p.)

Disciplina

361.973

Soggetti

Neoliberalism - United States - History - 20th century

Neoliberalism - Great Britain - History - 20th century

Neoliberalism - Pennsylvania - Philadelphia - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Losing the Battle but Winning the War: The Story of the Federal Enterprise Zone Program That Never Was: 1980–1992 -- Chapter 2. Dealing with Those Inner Cities: The Neoliberal Turn in British Urban Policy -- Chapter 3. Blair and Clinton: A Third Way? -- Chapter 4. Neoliberalism in the Trenches: Philadelphia 1951–1991 -- Chapter 5. ‘‘America’s Mayor’’ Comes to Power in Philadelphia: The Consolidation of the Corporate City Under Ed Rendell -- Chapter 6. Neoliberalism by Design: Poverty and Plenty in London’s Docklands -- Conclusion. The Neoliberal Persuasion -- Appendix -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

In Blazing the Neoliberal Trail, Timothy Weaver asks how and why urban policy and politics have become dominated, over the past three decades, by pro-market thinking. He argues that politicians such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher targeted urban areas as part of their far broader effort to remake the relationship between markets, states, and citizens. But while neoliberal policies were enacted in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Weaver shows that there was significant variation in the ways in which neoliberal ideas were brought to bear on institutional frameworks and organized interests. Moreover, these developments were not limited to a 1980's right-wing



effort but were also advanced by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, whose own agendas ultimately reinforced neoliberal ideas and practices, though often by default rather than design. The enduring impact of these shifts is evidenced today by the reintroduction of enterprise zones in the United Kingdom by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and by President Obama's announcement of Promise Zones, which, despite appearances, are cast in the neoliberal mold. By highlighting the bipartisan nature of the neoliberal turn, Weaver challenges the dominant narrative that the revival of promarket policies was primarily driven by the American GOP and the United Kingdom's Conservative Party. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with key political actors, Weaver examines national-level policies, such as enterprise zones—place-based articulations of neoliberal ideas—in case studies of Philadelphia and London. Through an investigation of national urban policy and local city politics, Blazing the Neoliberal Trail shows how elites became persuaded by neoliberal ideas and remade political institutions in their image.