ABSTRACT

Under the influence of the market-oriented dictates derived from what are ascendant neoliberal policy regimes (deregulation, privatization, liberalization, enhanced fiscal austerity, symbolically oriented tourist economies), the organization and management of contemporary urban spaces has become preoccupied with the reconstitution of ‘spectacular urban space’ (Harvey, 2001: 92) – or more accurately, select parcels of urban space – into multifaceted environments designed for the purpose of encouraging consumption-oriented capital accumulation (Boland, 2010; Judd, 1999; MacLeod, 2002). Not denying the variations in experience in urban spaces – neoliberalism is an incoherent and discursively constituted governance paradigm, an open and active assemblage, that is intertwined with multiple, multidimensional and multi-scalar co-evolving projects, practices, technologies and strategies (McGuirk and Dowling, 2009) – select pockets of contemporary cities have become, are in the process of becoming, or aspire to be what David Harvey (2001) called capital spaces: those spaces that (re)capitalize upon the economic landscapes of their cities through shopping malls, themed restaurants, bars, theme parks, mega-complexes for professional sport franchises, leisure environments, gentrified housing, conference complexes, and, waterfront pleasure domes (e.g. Brenner and Theodore, 2002; Macleod et al., 2003; Wilcox et al., 2003). Building upon scholars (see e.g. Brenner and Theodore, 2002; Harvey, 2001; Hodkinson, 2011; McGuirk and Dowling, 2009; Paton et al., 2012; Peck et al., 2013; Sheller and Urry, 2003; Sigler and Wachsmuth, 2015) who have addressed the careful orchestration of city space as an arena for market-oriented growth and elite consumption practices, within this chapter we are concerned with ongoing processes involved in the constitution of physical culture as they relate to the symbolic reconstitution of cityscapes.