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Be B erlin! Governing the City through Freedom
Author(s) -
Lanz Stephan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of urban and regional research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.456
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1468-2427
pISSN - 0309-1317
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01195.x
Subject(s) - governmentality , corporate governance , citizenship , empowerment , sociology , field (mathematics) , government (linguistics) , space (punctuation) , right to the city , order (exchange) , smart city , focus (optics) , public administration , political science , business , economics , law , politics , management , computer science , computer security , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , finance , pure mathematics , operating system , physics , optics , internet of things
In this article, I examine how contemporary B erlin is governed, with a particular focus on the production of urban space. My points of reference are the term ‘government’ (as employed by F oucault) and the field of governmentality studies (where it is applied empirically). Based on a critical discourse and dispositive analysis of the city's current urban development policy, I propose that urban governance in B erlin may be analysed through the lens of three central dispositives: the dispositive of governing through citizenship; the dispositive of the creative city; and the dispositive of the social city. I discuss the characteristics of these dispositives of urban governance, drawing on a number of examples taken from the discipline of urban space production in order to look specifically at the aims and objectives of governance, its subjects and the ways it manifests itself. In conclusion, I suggest that the new forms of governance based on empowerment and cooperation have by no means replaced disciplinary technologies of governance, but are rather embedded within them.