Socially Engaged Art and the Neoliberal City

This book explores alternative understandings of socially-engaged art projects in the age of neoliberal urbanism. It does so by questioning the very nature of these environments and the proposing alternative productions of space, moving beyond the reduction of ‘the urban’ as a set of existing and static structures, institutions, and flows. The book adopts a practice-led approach to range of case studies from across Europe and North America, asking how artists reconcile the creation of critically-informed transformative art practice with the increasingly limited constraints placed on public art by the dominance of commercial funding and neoliberal frameworks. The author points to the transcendence of a neoliberal urban through alternative productions of space, drawing upon a Lefebvrian framework of spatial practice and ‘lived space’, using a structuralist method to challenge neoliberal structures.

What are the social functions of art in the age of neoliberal urbanism? This book discusses the potential of artistic practices to question the nature of city environments and the diverse productions of space, moving beyond the reduction of ‘the urban’ as a set of existing and static structures. Adopting a practice-led approach, each chapter discusses case studies from across the world, reflecting on personal experiences as well as the work of other artists. While exposing the increasingly limiting constraints placed on public and socially engaged art by the dominance of commercial funding and neoliberal frameworks, the author stays optimistic about the potential of artistic practices to transcend neoliberal logics through alternative productions of space. Drawing upon a Lefebvrian framework of spatial practice and using a structuralist approach to challenge neoliberal structures, the book draws links between art, resistance, criticism, democracy, and political change.

The book concludes by looking at how we might create a new course for socially engaged art within the neoliberal city. It will be of great interest to researchers in urban studies, urban geography, and architecture, as well as students who want to learn more about place-making, visual culture, performance theory, applied practice, and urban culture.