Austerity as decline policy in the American rust belt

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There is a long legacy of austerity as a response to urban shrinkage. An immediate question is why?

None of these efforts actually work to improve conditions in the affected neighbourhoods. In most cases they actually accelerate population loss and attendant ills. Such plans are moreover incredibly unpopular and divisive. Those who live in the neighbourhoods slated for removal, downsizing, or deservicing, invariably and understandably view such measures as unfair and arbitrary.

So why is austerity such a common response? One aspect of the answer is that little of what we deem “urban policy” is actually crafted, framed or formulated in cities themselves, particularly in the United States. Narratives about why cities are shrinking and what they should do about it are often crafted elsewhere by officials and ideologues who will not bear any responsibility for their implementation.

This talk is about the larger politics of austerity in the American Rust Belt. Specifically Professor Jason Hackworth argues that the spaces of decline, racial threat, and the Conservative Movement have animated one another to produce and reproduce austerity as a catch-all policy response to urban decline. Each element is both a real process, and an actively constructed idea that cross-fertilizes with the other. None of these forces alone would take their current form without the presence and interaction with the other forces. Together they form an incredibly powerful policy frame which centres the “problem” of cities on their putative profligacy, and the “solution” on austerity.

*This event will be delivered through the medium of English.

Registration - 5.30pm

Event start - 6pm.