ABSTRACT
A remarkable focus on participatory and collaborative planning in urbanist debates indicates a characteristic of the current neoliberal conjuncture, where austerity measures and privatization policies become intertwined with calls for active citizenship in dealing with the challenges of urban life. This chapter discusses such an ‘ethopolitics’ (Nikolas Rose) by drawing on empirical research in contemporary Berlin. It illustrates how references to an ethics of community have played an important role in Berlin’s crisis-driven neoliberal restructuring process and helped to legitimize the appropriation of privatized property within a poor neighborhood by urban middle-class dwellers. As a framework to reflect on both the relationship of ethics and politics, and on ethics of community as a mode of marking social distinction, the essay draws on theories of governmentality as well as writings on crisis and conjuncture and combines them with observations on the recent history of Berlin’s urban spatial transformation.
