Description
Book SynopsisDouglas Spencer teaches and writes on critical theories of architecture, landscape and urbanism. A regular contributor to
Radical Philosophy, he has also written chapters for collections such as
Architecture Against the Post-Political (2014),
Landscape and Agency (2016) and
This Thing Called Theory (2016). He has published numerous essays in journals such
The Journal of Architecture,
AD,
AA Files,
New Geographies,
Volume and
Praznine. He teaches at the AA's Graduate School of Design at the Architectural Association and at the University of Westminster, London.
Trade ReviewSpencer draws a direct intellectual lineage from neoliberalism’s original thinkers through the unlikely corridors of late-20th-century countercultural and avant-garde thought, all the way into the glistening hallways of today’s most acclaimed contemporary architectural firms. * Los Angeles Review of Books *
This book marks a milestone in architectural criticism, and the questions it addresses could not be more important or urgent ... Its bold, unflinching description of architecture’s complicity with the powers that be makes it an indispensable reference for all those concerned with the social and political meaning of their work, * Journal of Architectural Education *
The Architecture of Neoliberalism is a devastating portrait of contemporary architecture as the phantasmagoria of neoliberal capitalism. Spencer deftly deconstructs the current architectural ideology as a melange of counter-cultural tropes and vitalist celebrations of flexibility, empowerment, spontaneity, and the market as the final arbiter of freedom. The result is a powerful plea for critique in the face of the architectural prophets who proclaim ‘there is no alternative’. * Benjamin Noys, Professor of Critical Theory, University of Chichester, UK *
“Neoliberalism” is commonly used as an epithet today to denounce a late-capitalist architecture in cahoots with the forces of real estate development and the marketplace. Douglas Spencer is the first to provide a detailed history of this term and to analyze its modes of operation, its architectural expressions, and its ideological subterfuges. An absolutely timely, lucid, important critique. * Joan Ockman, Distinguished Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania School of Design, USA *
This book marks a milestone in architectural criticism, and the questions it addresses could not be more important or urgent. * JAE (Journal of Architectural Education) *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Architecture, Neoliberalism and the Game of Truth 1. The Art of Neoliberal Governmentality 2. The Spatial Constitution of the Neoliberal Subject 3. Architecture Theory: From May '68 to the 'Real' of the Market 4. Labour Theory: Architecture, Work and Neoliberalism 5. Festivals of Circulation: Neoliberal Architectures of Culture, Commerce and Eduction 6. Neoliberalism and Effect: Architecture and the Patterning of Experience Conclusion: The Necessity of Critique Bibliography
