Ordenar la ciudad empresarial: la gestión punitiva de la pobreza y la disidencia

Abstract

The official representation of public space has turned certain streets and urban squares into spaces in which the social practices of their users are understood as needing management. Such spaces are concentrated in the neighborhoods of the city whose profitability is lower than it could be; interventions there are therefore focused on adapting conditions to boost profitability. To this end, suitable uses and users are promoted, while those ways of living in the city which do not fit into the given urban commodification project are displaced. The economic strategy that underlies the entire process is legitimized by a narrative common to a series of policies that, although bureaucratically separated, share the same goals as well as target populations.