ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that Pandora’s Box by questioning the novelty of neoliberal urbanism and by suggesting that the roots of neoliberal urban thinking go much deeper and can be found in the theories of the Chicago School of Sociology, in particular Ernest Burgess’s concentric zone model and the concepts of succession and infiltration. Neoliberalism shares with classical liberalism a “belief” in the superiority and efficiency of markets, but whereas classical liberals think that the free market comes about naturally, neoliberals think that it can only come about through a concerted political effort and organization. Neoliberalism had to be actively constructed in the urban context and this was done, at least in part, through existing and older institutions, practices and ideas. Twenty-first-century Cleveland and, in particular, New Orleans are oft-cited examples of urban neoliberalism. Neoliberal urbanism does not only have its roots in liberal and neoliberal thinking but also in urban thinking.
