Urban competition and urban crisis: Copenhagen on the move into global society

Abstract

The essay gives a brief summery of Michel Foucault’s 1978-1979 lectures which offers an important point of reference for a deeper understanding of the shift from liberal to neo-liberal ideas. Here he points out that neo-liberalism is an art of government that seeks to enforce competition: ‘it is a historical task for an art of government and not due to the natural order of things’. But Foucault’s lectures have not resulted in any empirical analyses so far. The second part of the essay undertakes what I have just said has been lacking thus far in this context, namely empirical analysis. It offers insight into a major comparative research project led by Jacques Donzelot. The preferred focus of the research project is contemporary European metropolises and the policies involved in ‘rebuilding the city’. This essay deals with the case of Denmark with regard to: a) the nature of the urban crisis, with a specific focus on Copenhagen; b) the neo-liberal inflexion of urban, social and safety policies; and c) the consequences of this neo-liberal inflexion that has been given to citizenship