Neoliberalism as space fragmentation: A Lefebvrian gaze at post-socialist urban transitions.

Sechi, Guido and Golubchikov, Oleg ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7355-0447 2025. Neoliberalism as space fragmentation: A Lefebvrian gaze at post-socialist urban transitions. Urban Studies 10.1177/00420980251322

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Abstract

Urban studies have recently seen the emergence of perspectives that question the applicability of neoliberalism to the experiences of post-socialist states. This article offers conceptual clarifications in this regard. The work of Henri Lefebvre helps explicate the role of ‘the urban’ in making neoliberalism a ‘hidden ideology’ governing everyday consciousness and subjectivities. This argument is illustrated by a study of residential space fragmentation, empirically addressed through three themes: (a) housing governance fragmentation, (b) enclosure of common spaces and (c) aesthetic differentiation of residential space and the spatialisation of class. The study demonstrates how the integrated system of urban welfare infrastructure built in the Soviet city has been fragmented, enclosed and repurposed in order to be compliant with commodification, privatism and insulative particularism. The spatial fragmentation is argued to be an active practice that helps internalise the neoliberal ‘common sense’ in everyday life.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	Sage
ISSN:	0042-0980
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 April 2025
Date of Acceptance:	31 January 2025
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2025 16:03
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/177388

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