NEOLIBERAL_CITI · NEOLIBERAL_CITI: Re-framing urban neoliberalism and neo-liberal citizenship – Enactments of resistance and practices of protest

The widespread proliferation of neoliberal ideology and the application of its central principles to urban development can be portrayed as key aspects that introduced major modifications in the ways urban politics are conceived today. Such transformations do not exclusively apply to the political sphere – neoliberalism has also affected the habits of how people imagine, perceive and appropriate urban spaces in their daily life. Cities play a strategic role in the variegated geographies of neoliberalism, but relatively little research critically assessed conceptually the challenges democracy faces in neoliberal societies. The interdisciplinary research project NEOLIBERAL_CITI will tackle this gap – it investigates the discourses and practices of contest and re-appropriation of urban space, thus providing a novel understanding of how opposition against neoliberal urban development and neo-liberal citizenship is being re-framed after the recent financial and economic crisis. Against the background of the application of innovative qualitative methodologies such as reflexive photography and biography-oriented narrative interviews, the project aims at advancing theoretical debates within citizenship studies and urban geography as well as at producing new empirical insights to the broader implications of urban neoliberalism.The design of the research project responds to the sound embedding the applicant has within areas such as critical urban research, social theory, citizenship studies and human geography. Additionally, he is a recognised expert for the implementation of qualitative empirical research. The development of NEOLIBERAL_CITI gives him the opportunity to constitute an independent research group about neoliberal urbanism and neo-liberal citizenship at his host institution. Such an aim responds both to the position of professional maturity and the long-lasting professional stability he was recently offered.""