BOOK REVIEW
Amsterdam neoliberal city?
6 January 2008 - Are Moroccan youth in Slotervaart
torching cars because this is the only way for them to express themselves
in a depoliticised, neoliberal city, in which even citizen participation
has been outsourced? A new book calls for a return to ‘truly
democratic urban politics’.
Amsterdam is investing hundreds of millions of euros in the Zuidas,
the new business district south of the city (corporations will also
invest in the project, but if it fails, their losses will be compensated
with taxpayers’ money). Despite the scale of the project,
there has been almost no public debate. Decision-making is an opaque
process dominated by government officials, banks and other potential
investors.
The Zuidas project is cited in the new book ‘Urban Politics
Now’ as an example of the a-political way in which cities
are pursuing a neoliberal agenda. Dissent and political conflict
have been replaced with consensus over vague concepts such as ‘the
creative city, the inclusive city, the global city, the sustainable
city’.
Creating consensus is helped by conjuring up the threat of urban
decline, symbolised by the poor neighbourhood and its - often immigrant
- residents. “The poor neighbourhood is neoliberalism’s
Other”, Guy Baeten argues in his contribution to the book.
“In an urban society tired of welfare, solidarity and egalitarianism
- concepts that sound odd in times of neoliberal individualism -
poverty and poor neighbourhoods are a source not of concern but
of irritation”, he adds.
Meanwhile, political choices are being obscured by presenting neoliberal
solutions as the only possible answer to urban decay. Public services
are privatised and affordable houses are demolished. Localised repression
is applied to get rid of unwanted residents, for example by systematically
raiding bars frequented by immigrants. While the poor are given
a treatment of zero tolerance, businesses are attracted
by suspending regulations and handing out tax exemptions.
Some of the contributors to Urban Politics Now (Slavoj iek,
Erik Swyngedouw) hold that the rioting youth in the French banlieues
are a product of the depoliticised urban project. In contrast to
the protestors of May 1968, they have no ideological agenda, nor
even concrete demands: they only demand recognition. Their ‘irrational
violence’ would be a result of the lack of political channels
to express their discontent.
NICOLAS SARKOZY
The neoliberal agenda as described in Urban Politics Now has some
characteristics in common with the shock treatment described by
Naomi Klein in her new book ‘The Shock Doctrine’ - in
fact, shock treatment can perhaps be seen as a radical version of
the neoliberal project. Klein argues that crises and disasters are
often used to push through an agenda of privatisation, deregulation
and social spending cuts; channelling public money into the hands
of a small elite of entrepreneurs with close ties to the government.
Examples include post-1973 Chile, post-1991 Russia, post-911 Iraq
and post-Katrina New Orleans. The flooding of New Orleans, for example,
was recognised as an opportunity not to rebuild the houses and restore
services, but to ‘clean up public housing’ and privatise
public schools and hospitals.
One might argue that the current French president Nicolas Sarkozy
has in a similar way used the ‘disturbances’ in the
banlieues to push through reforms that the French under different
circumstances would never have accepted. Still, Sarkozy has to accept
‘piecemeal changes rather than total conversion’, Klein
argues. Real shock therapy can only be administered by authoritarian
regimes, or under specific circumstances such as war, hyperinflation,
natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
Amsterdam did experience something of a crisis after the murder
of Theo van Gogh in 2004, but it would be an exaggeration to claim
that Amsterdammers have been subjected to a veritable shock treatment
as Klein understands the term. Still, one might ask whether Amsterdam
has become a neoliberal city as understood in Urban Politics Now.
DEMOLITION BONUS
Notwithstanding Amsterdam’s tolerant image, there is no doubt
that the city has become more repressive during the past years.
In 2002, it launched Spirit, an ongoing series of large-scale police
raids to round up undocumented immigrants. More recently, Amsterdam
introduced stop and search operations in Zuidoost and the inner
city. Whereas police have been instructed to search anyone they
encounter during such actions, it has been alleged that only black
people are being searched.
Police also routinely fine homeless people and drug addicts for
offences such as ‘sitting on a monument’, as a way to
remove these people from certain parts of the inner city.
In 2002, Amsterdam set up the Megabanenmarkt (Mega Jobs Market),
which was the first experiment to systematically use intimidation
as a means to reduce the number of social assistance recipients.
This principle has now been adopted by welfare agencies across the
country.
In Amsterdam West, privatised housing corporations are carrying
out one of the largest urban renewal operations in Europe, needlessly
demolishing thousands of affordable houses (with the CEOs receiving
bonuses in proportion to the number of houses they demolish). As
part of this operation, even citizen participation has been outsourced,
Merijn Oudenampsen observes in his contribution to Urban Politics
Now. In fact, street safety has been partly outsourced in West as
well (to a Group 4 Securicor subsidiary).
WAR IN IRAQ
Still, in some respects Amsterdam does not conform to the neoliberal
agenda. For example, it has successfully opposed the privatisation
of Schiphol Airport and it has put the privatisation of local public
transport on hold. It also insisted on participating in the creation
of a fibre-optic network, in an attempt to guarantee open access
to the network, despite corporate pressure to leave this entirely
to the market. And it will probably switch to open source software,
in order to reduce its dependency on corporations such as Microsoft.
A topic that does not receive much attention in Urban Politics
Now is the role of sustainability policies. Cities try to market
themselves as ‘sustainable cities’, sporting innovations
such as the cargo tram and the ‘green wave’ for cyclists
in Amsterdam; the congestion charge in London, Stockholm and Milan;
and almost-for-free bicycle schemes in cities such as Barcelona
(Bicing) and Paris (Vélib’).
Interestingly, large corporations often support green initiatives.
For example, the Economic Bureau of the ING Bank published a report
urging Amsterdam to introduce a congestion charge and improve public
transport in order to remain competitive. And the cargo tram will
be operated by a consortium that includes privatised energy company
Nuon, consultancy Boer en Croon (which employs many former city
officials and also operated the Megabanenmarkt) and the Rabobank.
Similarly, large advertising companies such as JCDecaux and Clear
Channel run the almost-for-free bicycle schemes abroad.
Creating the sustainable city seems to be as much a public-private
partnership as the development of the Zuidas. Does this mean that
the interrelatedness of corporations and the government can have
positive outcomes for the city? Or are these merely marketing strategies
designed to make the city and corporations look better, while avoiding
the real choices that need to be made in order to create a sustainable
city (for instance, it has been claimed
that Barcelona’s Bicing is merely a stylised band-aid, and
is operated by a company that supported George W. Bush and the war
in Iraq)?
PSYCHASTHENIA
Urban Politics Now offers an interesting critique of local politics
in Western Europe. Unfortunately, some of the contributions are
written in hermetic prose inspired by psychoanalysis and French
philosophy. Some authors use obscure terms such as heteron
and psychasthenia, as if trying to shut out the non-initiated.
This is somewhat ironic, given the critique of the role of experts
they also offer.
An important question is how to return to a ‘truly democratic
urban politics’, as advocated by Urban Politics Now. Edward
Soja points to successful local trade union campaigns such as the
famous Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
In fact, this campaign is just the tip of the iceberg of the resurgence
of local politics.
In cities such as LA and London, coalitions of trade unions and
community organisations have used demonstrations, voter mobilisation,
lobbying and local progressive think tanks to promote living wages,
affordable housing and better public services. In some cases, such
coalitions have also joined forces with environmental organisations
and immigrant rights organisations.
It has been argued that these local initiatives offer the only
credible chance for a resurrection of progressive politics in America.
An interesting question is whether similar local initiatives could
take root in cities in continental Europe as well.
BAVO (ed), Urban Politics Now: Re-Imagining Democracy in the
Neoliberal City. Rotterdam: Nai Publishers (22.50 euro). Illustration:
construction of the Zuidas (photo Louis Hofman)
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