ABSTRACT
Demonstrating the thesis of a neoliberal city and a post-Fordist urban world requires discussion of two sets of ideas: the similarities/differences between markets and the city and the representation or representations of capitalism. Markets work through transactions that reflect balances between supply and demand. An imbalance produces a price variation that applies to all transactions in the sector. The law of flows dominates, because the entire stock reacts to marginal price variations, as exemplified by movements on commodity markets, for instance in oil or agricultural products. A term-by-term comparison of the same descriptors for cities and markets can be helpful in moving the discussion forwards. In democracies, the political institutions of cities are open to all inhabitants and founded in the equation “one citizen, one vote.” The instruments employed also reflect different logics. Market players measure a project’s cost of capital and internal rate of return they make comparisons.
