We’re pleased to announce the publication of Getting Political in the Neoliberal City: Planning and Design for Social and Environmental Justice, co-edited by our own Professor Cristina Cerulli alongside Burcu Yiğit Turan and Melissa Cate Christ.
Published by Routledge in 2025, this compelling volume interrogates how planners, architects, designers, and urban citizens can challenge the pervasive inequities of neoliberal urbanism. In a world defined by deepening climate, social, economic, and political crises, the book positions urban spaces as both battlegrounds of injustice and arenas of possibility.
Drawing from critical case studies across continents and disciplines, the collection reframes the intersections of spatial and social justice, examining how space becomes a site of power, exclusion, and potential resistance. The book explores how cities shaped by market forces and neoliberal governance simultaneously serve as sites for insurgent practices, grassroots movements, and alternative imaginaries that resist dominant urbanization modes.
Featuring contributions from scholars and practitioners across architecture, geography, political science, and anthropology, the volume maps tensions between depoliticized scholarly practices and the urgent need for politicized action. With compelling examples from Australia, Brazil, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, the USA, and Sweden, it offers fresh insights into struggles for more equitable, inclusive, and environmentally just cities.
Professor Cerulli’s co-editorship of this volume reflects our research group’s commitment to examining the social and political dimensions of urban living, particularly how design and planning processes can better serve community needs and environmental sustainability.
Getting Political in the Neoliberal City represents an important contribution to debates around urban justice, community engagement, and the role of design in creating more equitable cities. The book will be of interest to urban planners, architects, policymakers, and anyone concerned with creating more just and sustainable urban environments.