Novy, Andreas. 2009. Cities, Regions and Social Cohesion. Regional Studies Association Annual International Conference, Leuven, Belgien, 06.04.-08.04. Invited Talk

RIS

@CONFERENCE{Novy2009,
title = {Cities, Regions and Social Cohesion},
author = {Andreas Novy},
year = {2009},
address = {Leuven},
url = {http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/events/pastevents.asp},
language = {EN},
misc = {Regional Studies Association Annual International Conference},
note = {Y},
abstract = {This presentation aims at a broader understanding of social cohesion in urban and regional development by a scale-sensitive analysis which overcomes current post-democratic and fragmented policy making. Parting from the current world crisis in its financial, economic, ecological and social dimensions, this presentation contextualizes the challenge of cohesive socio-economic development beyond conventional approaches of social and socio-cultural policies. World-wide economic dynamics, which have to be grasped in its profoundly political dimensions, are decisive for all attempts at urban and regional cohesion. Urban research has assumed a global perspective in line with the World-City-approach which has led to a deficient understanding of economic development inclined towards a sole logic of international capital as well as supply-side explanations. Within this framework social cohesion was reduced to a specific problematique of curing the wounds caused by neoliberal modernisation. This has played down social policy to repairing damages caused by a proclaimed eternal socio-economic order ("There is no alternative") based on private property, market economy and competitiveness-oriented policy making. In the city, it was real estate and finance capital - the most advanced and mobile forms of capital- embedded in neoliberal discourse which dictated the rules of a game with often negative effects on social cohesion.},
}