The Neoliberalised City Fantasy: The place of desire and discontent

Neoliberal globalisation is a ubiquitous phenomenon which significantly restructures local mechanisms, including cities, and determines their functions. Neoliberal globalisation contributes to urban discontent, which is often obscured until it erupts as urban conflict such as in the case of Paris in 2006 and the recent conflicts in the Arab spring, Turkey, Brazil and Sweden. This thesis is an attempt within planning theory to conceptualise the globalised city operation and its consequences in late capitalism. As a result of the implementation of market-oriented policies, the homogenisation of urban space and intensification of socio-cultural heterogeneity are identified as two controversial characteristics of the globalised city. This dissertation considers the influences of these trends on the creation of urban discontent and its symptoms, including socio-cultural conflict. Consistent with the arguments of Lefebvre, this thesis contends that the traditional scientific-based approaches in planning are ontologically incapable of grasping the core of urban discontent. In planning, the deployment of alternative approaches, including that of post-structuralism, seems to be necessary in order to generate a better understanding of the globalised city operation and its consequences, in particular the intensification of urban conflict. To investigate urban conflict and its symptoms as an inherent consequence of neoliberal globalisation, this thesis considers Dubai which is known as the neoliberal utopia, at least before the economic crisis of 2008. The deployment of critical notions of ???assemblage??? and ???desire??? by Deleuze, ???normalisation??? by Foucault, and ???lack??? and ???jouissance??? by Lacan, assist in the investigation of the neoliberalised city???s reproduction of desires and normalisation of attitudes, both of which are intensifying the level of resident discontent. Drawing on Deleuze, this investigation reveals that the economic growth of the globalised city largely relies on the constant flows of capital, both human and financial. Through the implementation of city-marketing policies, decision-makers, including planners, largely endeavour to lure these vital flows by generating desires. Furthermore, Foucault???s (and Althusser???s) investigations demonstrate that capital accumulation in the capitalistic city is dependent on the effectiveness of its control apparatus. Thus, the thesis investigates the way in which planning functions as a component of this control apparatus. Nonetheless, the implementation of market-oriented policies also marginalises a large number of a global city???s residents whose pleas are often neglected. The deployment of Lacan???s work assists in exposing the production of urban discontent and its symptoms, such as, the level of socio-cultural conflict in a globalised city whose operation is largely determined by hegemonic neoliberal globalisation.