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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austerity urbanism | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity_urbanism | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:01:23.409249+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Origins == To understand the emergence of austerity urbanism, it is necessary to explore first the notion of austerity and its impacts throughout history as austerity urbanism appears later as a consequence of such a context. The notion of austerity is not new in the history of humankind, but as an explicit concept, it did not start to be until the beginning of the 20th century. The economist John Maynard Keynes was amongst the first ones to use it. In the wake of World War I, he made known his disagreement on the Treaty of Versailles, opining that it was not a good idea to impose an economy of austerity on Germany. He argued that it would also weaken other countries in Europe. The risk was also that the impoverishment of Germany could raise fierce opposition to the treaty in Germany and maybe even a revolution. At that time, Keynes supported a more interventionist economic policy and was therefore against a deliberate austerity build up. In the 1930s, the notion of austerity reappeared with the Great Depression and its consequences, Europe as a whole being in a situation of austerity. This crisis framework appeared again after the Second World War, plunging several European countries into a state of misery, which can be qualified as austerity. At this moment, it was clear that the continent needed to rebuild its devastated lands and cities. This state of austerity gradually faded away during "The Glorious Thirty" but resurfaced quickly in the 1980s with the general awareness of ecological limits and key resource depletion which suggested the rethinking of the socio-economic system. Then, with the subprime crisis in 2007–2008, the notion of austerity came back strongly and explicitly especially in the economic and urban realm. Indeed, the changing economic conditions led to the emergence of the concept of austerity urbanism. In austerity urbanism, cities have to take care of themselves since “municipal governments act as cost-saving business actors that envisage running cities like corporations”. Even if the situation is not uniform across cities, nor completely comparable, the manifestation of austerity became “evident at the urban scale”. Nowadays, there are several ideological undercurrents involved in the austerity narrative. On the one hand, the “economy of means” current suggests that one must stop living beyond one's means. In order to reduce the negative consequences of austerity urbanism, such as the rise of youth unemployment as well as poverty, social exclusion and the increasing debt prevailing in most Western economies for example, it is considered necessary to be cautious regarding public expenses. However, this can result in the mistrust in the institutions and this increasing dissatisfaction leads to the weakening of the aforesaid institutions. On the other hand, when austerity reaches its limits, it can also open up new opportunities and therefore generate great possibilities in the urbanistic field, such as citizen-led initiatives taking place in unusual spaces or forms, in an attempt from the population to counteract the crisis situation and austerity measures. To sum up, there is therefore a crisis-linked austerity situation in opposition to an ideological vision of prudence, which tend to maintain a pressure for unnecessary cost-avoidance. Between these two perspectives, it may be quite difficult to carry out urban planning assignments, as it necessarily implies investments at a time when funds are seemingly lacking. This is the global context in which the notion of austerity urbanism emerged, whose definition was proposed in 2012 by various authors, including Fran Tonkiss and Jamie Peck. The notion of austerity in urban planning is evolving, not being always a negative assertion, but also valuing the opportunities and innovative solutions that are created within the practice of urban planning. The notion of austerity urbanism is in fact more and more linked to that of tactical urbanism and improvisational urbanism, emphasizing in particular the growing importance of citizen solidarity. These connotations complement what has to be considered, altogether, as a progressive vision of urbanism where the game is to take advantage of a crisis to allow for new collective achievements to emerge.
== Practical interventions under conditions of austerity == Planning under austerity can lead to alternative and critical spatial practices, that are described by Kevin Lynch as a strategy for “dealing with the existing city [in] the search for underused space and time, and its readaptation for a desired activity. We can explore the use of streets as play areas, or the possibilities for using roof tops, empty stores, abandoned buildings, waste lots, odd bits of land, or the large areas presently sterilized by such mono-cultures as parking lots, expressways, railroad yards, and airports”. These makeshift, informal and often temporary urban interventions were categorized by Fran Tonkiss in four protocols for planning under austerity, depending on the degree of facilitation by existing policies:
The “Positive model” provides the best conditions for the development of such self-organized interventions as it integrates their informal nature into formal processes, by offering building permits for instance. The “Permissive model” neither facilitates, nor excludes unconventional planning strategies, being based on a tolerant approach regarding them. The “Proscription model” on the other hand leaves almost no space for negotiation and improvisation initiatives by criminalizing or implementing punitive measures against them. The “Abandonment model” positions these interventions as an urbanism of last resort, in response to the complete roll back of the state in terms of territorial governance.