This paper explores neoliberalisation and its counter-currents through a six-case study of austerity urbanism in Spain and the UK. Applying Urban Regime Theory it highlights the role of urban politics in driving, variegating and containing neoliberalism since the 2008 crash. Variegated austerity...

Between Realism and Revolt explores urban governance in the “age of austerity”, focusing on the period between the global economic crisis of 2008-9 and the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019. It considers urban governance from the perspective of governability. How...

The chapter first explores the rise of the ‘network orthodoxy’. It proceeds to develop a critique of the regime-theoretical conception of the ruling class, building on my earlier work (Davies, 2002) and arguing that the Marxist conception is both stronger and, in the context of a theory of...

Drawing from neo-Gramscian theory, the paper explores how urban austerity governance mediates crises of neoliberal hegemony. Focusing on the decade after the Global Economic Crisis of 2008–2009, it compares four European cities disclosing five intersecting characteristics of urban political...