Global economic crisis, austerity and neoliberal urban governance in England

The post-2008 global economic recession has had different spatial impacts as national and subnational economies are affected by and respond to economic downturn in a variety of ways. Drawing on recent research on the two English Core Cities of Bristol and Liverpool this paper develops an integrated and multiscalar analysis to explore the differentiated impacts of the economic crisis on cities and public services. This analysis is located within the local policy contexts through which they are mediated, thus furthering our understanding of variegated neoliberal urban governance and the rescaling of cities to draw out the ‘webs of interlocal and interorganizational relations’ (Peck, J. and Tickell, A. (2002) Neoliberalizing space, Antipode, 380–404) and their manifestation across sites.