September 2024
At our foundation’s venue in Karlsruhe/Germany, a two-day symposium about the Neoliberal Agenda was held. It was organized and hosted by the Ideal Spaces Foundation and co-hosted by Allan Siegel, an international artist and filmmaker who exhibited at the Centre Pompidou/Paris and other places.
In what was a thought provoking and highly informational program, speakers from around the world presented in person, online, and via podcasts different perspectives on the neoliberal agenda. Amongst others, we presented exclusive podcasts we made with Wendy Brown/University of Berkeley/USA, and with George Monbiot, columnist at The Guardian Newspaper.
In presenting the neoliberal agenda, the speakers outlined the neoliberal concept on the basis that neoliberalism is a mindset that focuses itself on socioeconomic and political factors. These factors influence and affect everyone’s life, this is not solely an economic question, but a topic that infiltrates every aspect of life. In fact, the neoliberal agenda can be seen as to embody the encompassing ecosystem we live in today. The ideology and practices of neoliberalism impact economic, governmental and social priorities; ‘the fallout from its ideas filters through the social spaces of home and work and undermine dimensions of the public sphere’ (Allan Siegel). It is about a certain human image and out of this, about an ethos that promotes the encompassing privatization not just of economic activities but of public services and public space, neglecting communal aspects of social life and thereby diminishing democratic ideals and the idea of the communal as such.
To address important facets of such an agenda in diverse domains has been the aim of our symposium, to make a sketch of such an ecosystem today. We grouped these facets into topics, each of which can be looked at in episodes. The topics were
- Neoliberalism and the Human Condition
- Authoritarian Urbanism
- Neoliberal Cities
- Spaces and Communities
- Society and Community in Crisis
- Neoliberalism today
The presenters included:
- Dieter Plehwe/Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin/Germany, on the origins and genesis of the neoliberal agenda;
- George Monbiot/The Guardian/UK, on mindsets and dynamics of the neoliberal agenda;
- Wendy Brown/University of Berkeley/USA, on neoliberalism undermining democracy;
- Loveneet Thakur/Punjab High Court Chandigarh/India, on Le Corbusier’s ideal city vs. new urban development;
- John M. Roberts/Brunel University/UK, on the neoliberalization of urban space;
- Judit Bodnar/Central European University Vienna/Austria, on the transformations of public space in neoliberal economy;
- Benda Hofmeyr/University of Pretoria/South Africa, on the creative work class and neoliberal city transformation;
- Aysegul Can/Istanbul Medeniyet University/Turkey, on the destruction of historic city quarters.
- Mike Berry/RMIT University/Australia, on the dynamics of housing in a neoliberal context;
- Michael Janoschka/KIT/Germany, on housing resisting neoliberal conditions;
- Juan Pablo Rodriguez/Catholic University Silva Henriquez/Chile, on an alternative and successful housing project in a neoliberal context;
- Molly Slavin/Clark Atlanta University Georgia/USA, on cathartic crime in neoliberal cities as reflected in contemporaneous literature;