TY - JOUR

T1 - Governing through design

T2 - the politics of participation in neoliberal cities

AU - Dore, Mayane

PY - 2022/10/6

Y1 - 2022/10/6

N2 - This article critically analyses an empirical case of how design mediates governing power in situated contexts. Using the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, the article examines the specific role of co-design to enable governance through the strate- gic use of design techniques and artefacts. Drawing on ethno- graphic research undertaken during the participatory urban redevelopment of Waterloo, Sydney, the article unpacks four con- crete mechanism of governance through design: (1) the building of a seemingly coherent, stable and shared visions of Waterloo’s future; (2) the regulation of local knowledge production and poli- tical imagination; (3) the rendering of community technical through calculation techniques, standardisation, and the objectification of subjects; (4) the performance of diversity of choice while smoothing out differences. In conclusion, the article argues that, in Waterloo, the shift from top-down modes of urban governance to decentra- lised multi-stakeholders did not imply the reduction of state power but only supposed the rearrangement of governing power in the face of neoliberal urbanism.

AB - This article critically analyses an empirical case of how design mediates governing power in situated contexts. Using the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, the article examines the specific role of co-design to enable governance through the strate- gic use of design techniques and artefacts. Drawing on ethno- graphic research undertaken during the participatory urban redevelopment of Waterloo, Sydney, the article unpacks four con- crete mechanism of governance through design: (1) the building of a seemingly coherent, stable and shared visions of Waterloo’s future; (2) the regulation of local knowledge production and poli- tical imagination; (3) the rendering of community technical through calculation techniques, standardisation, and the objectification of subjects; (4) the performance of diversity of choice while smoothing out differences. In conclusion, the article argues that, in Waterloo, the shift from top-down modes of urban governance to decentra- lised multi-stakeholders did not imply the reduction of state power but only supposed the rearrangement of governing power in the face of neoliberal urbanism.

U2 - 10.1080/15710882.2022.2129691

DO - 10.1080/15710882.2022.2129691

M3 - Journal article

SP - 1

EP - 16

JO - CoDesign

JF - CoDesign

ER -