The neoliberal city in Brazil according to a Foucauldian perspective

Abstract

The article schematically addresses the rise of neoliberalism in Brazil, and then outlines a proposal for a “typology” of cities that emerged with capitalism - despotic cities, disciplinary cities and cities of control - which allows revealing the penetration and establishment of neoliberalism in everyday life, to this end, we base ourselves mainly, but not only, on the critical analyzes of Foucault’s neoliberalism. The contribution intended by the article in relation to the debate about the neoliberal city in vogue is that neoliberalism is not a radicalization of the classic economic liberalism that through financialization and the “less State” that fragments and segregates the city, but it is a new form of social normalization based on State interventionism at its various levels and, consequently, in the city, through the notion of means and norms.

Keywords: Neoliberal city; Neoliberalism; Foucault; Brazil