The urban question under illiberalism? Three thematic approaches

Abstract

Advocating the value of an urban lens for researching and understanding illiberalism, we propose a threefold thematic anchoring for emerging inquiry into cities, framed both planetarily and locally, as containers/facilitators/mediators/conduits/nodes of illiberal ideologies, action, processes and outcomes. Our thematic approaches are: (1) that urban density can catalyse illiberalism, from grassroots coalitions (e.g. neighbourhoods) to top-down urban governance (e.g. public/private management coalitions) and the dense ‘thrown-togetherness’ of daily urban life can intensify tension, instability, fear and antagonism; (2) the urban emergency and urban crises , entangled as they are within ongoing neoliberal urbanism, facilitate illiberal responses (e.g. crises as justifications for reactionary/authoritarian policies, laws and outcomes); and (3) the urban offers a speed and virality that fosters illiberalism (e.g. platform-driven urban processes and ‘fast policies’). We suggest that the speeding-up of urban processes, long a facet of industrial capitalism, has now entered a new phase which is simultaneously catalysed by illiberal entities and ideologies (e.g. the platformed-world building of ‘NRx urbanism’), but also lays the groundwork for illiberal responses, new surveillances and authoritarian intrusions into daily life. We weave these thematic windows together with selected examples of global urban happenings and recent episodes, including in the context during and post-COVID-19. We note the proliferation of globally circulating authoritarian tendencies in urban planning, urban governance and crisis management that point to an uncomfortable reality where the urban question may, inherently, be an illiberal one. Nonetheless, we conclude on an optimistic note that illiberal urban futures are still ripe for contestation.