The right to the city is a concept that was first proposed by Henri Lefebvre’s book ‘Le Droit à la Ville’ in 1968 and that has been reclaimed more recently by social movements, thinkers and several progressive local authorities alike as a call to action to reclaim the city as a co-created space—a place for life detached from the growing effects that commodification and capitalism have had over social interaction and the rise of spatial inequalities in worldwide cities throughout the last two centuries. Today, the right to the city theory has inspired many social movements in the world, especially in the Middle East (e.g. Arab Spring movements and conquering the public squares of the cities by citizens, the Istanbul movement in Taksim square, the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York). Urban public space is the place where all the collective social movements and collective memory of citizens occur. However, the main question around the neoliberal city of today is how and who will create the public space and for whom will this space be created? The aim of this chapter is to discuss the triple notions of space production, collective use of space and the right to the city in the context of the neoliberal cities of the Middle East. We will use a desktop review and case study approach to explain how, in the neoliberal city of today, the occupation of collective space in favour of private profit upsets and impinges upon the general right to the city. All the while discussing the participation of citizens in the process of space production and the increase in the collective use of public space, hence extending and enlarging the citizenry’s right to the city.
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Neoliberal discourse often conceptualizes nature in relation to its market utility and economic development. This article will address the role of metaphors in shaping neoliberal discourse in business education. The aim of this article is to reveal reasoning patterns about environmental problems and economic development in students of sustainable business minor. The case study described in this article involves business students at The Hague University in The Netherlands. This case study aimed to explore a shift in student understanding of environmental problems and economic development before and after the intervention. The results suggest that critical curriculum can inform students about the alternative conceptions as well as instruct them about potential solutions to the sustainability challenges. The article culminates with the argument that without goal-oriented education for sustainability; neoliberal education may not permit transcendence from unsustainable practices. https://doi.org/10.3390/su6117496 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Boekbespreking. Het neoliberalisme houdt de gemoederen al bezig sinds de jaren tachtig, en niet voor niets. Het is een alomtegenwoordig en tegelijkertijd ongrijpbaar verschijnsel. Goed daarom dat de Foundation Critical Ethics of Care het initiatief heeft genomen om een viertal teksten van de Duitse politicoloog Thomas Biebricher te vertalen. Biebricher onderkent de diversiteit van het neoliberalisme maar weet desondanks toch een waardevolle werkdefinitie te formuleren: het ten dele revitaliseren en ten dele reviseren van de klassieke liberale agenda als reactie op een waargenomen crisis. In geval van een crisis onderzoekt het neoliberalisme met andere woorden vanuit de liberale beginselen wat gehandhaafd en wat aangepast kan worden. Soms wordt dan gekozen voor sociale interventies in de economie, en soms omgekeerd voor economische interventies in de samenleving. Professionals hebben vooral last van dat laatste: het invoeren van marktwerking, vaak met het oog op kostenbeheersing, waar een professionele organisatie van de arbeid zinvoller lijkt. Het boekje is een goede ingang voor wie, naast de vele goede literatuur over marktwerking, zich wil verdiepen in de rol van het neoliberalisme hierbij.
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