Taking Liberties: Gentrification as Neoliberal Urban Policy in Dublin

Abstract

Recent literature on neoliberal urbanism has emphasised the increasingly important role of cities as key sites of accumulation, a central aspect of which has been the accelerating volume and turnover of capital in the built environment and a more rapid transformation of urban space (Brenner and Theodore, 2005; Harvey, 2006; MacLeod and Jones, 2011). At the city scale, the production of gentrification is intrinsic to processes of accumulation and, for many urban authorities, gentrification has become a core goal of urban policy. Behind the architecture of capital investment in inner-city areas described by MacLeod et al. (2003) above, lies a deeper transformation of the social profile of areas, whereby traditional working-class populations can no longer afford to access housing locally, due largely to the increases in land and housing prices that result from influxes in capital investment and the recreation of locales for higher-class consumption. Gentrification and its pursuit is thus a highly conflictual process.

There is little doubt that many city downtowns are currently witnessing a significant revival. On entering the typical city centre, one is invariably dazzled by an imposing array of gleaming towers, which overlook a kaleidoscopic geography of corporate glamour, conspicuous consumerism, café culture and street-life chic, all in close proximity to some elegantly restored town houses and gentrified terraces. In effect, and as Neil Smith surmised several years back, ‘the terrain of the inner city is suddenly valuable again, perversely profitable’ (Smith, 1996, p. 6).

(MacLeod et al., 2003, p. 1660)