Contestation and the local trajectories of neoliberal urban governance in Chicago’s Bronzeville and Pilsen

Neoliberal urban governances are now widely recognised as contingently manifest and constantly evolving social and institutional formations. Yet, there remains comparatively little empirical work on the place-specific complexities of urban neoliberalisation, and as variegated formations within the same city. Drawing on Chicago’s Bronzeville and Pilsen neighbourhoods, we reveal the intra-urban contingency character of neoliberal urban governance. Both ‘neighbourhood governances’ in Bronzeville and Pilsen, we suggest, are constituted by similar yet different ensembles of developers, local officials and politically oriented community organisations, and redevelopment strategies. Second, we illuminate one dimension of this intra-urban contingency: the mutually constitutive and differentially unfolding relation between contestation and neoliberal governance. Finally, four inter-related variables are revealed as mediating factors within this relationship that account for why Bronzeville and Pilsen’s governances have evolved in different ways: historical legacy, the dynamics between activist groups and pro-growth agents, economic circumstances and political orientation of contestation.

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