Neoliberal Suburbanism: Frontier Space

The paper selectively explores American suburbia, real and imagined, with a particular emphasis on the evolution of neoliberal thought and practice. It develops the argument that an inchoate vision of suburbia has been central to popularized versions of Chicago School economics since the 1950s, just as the suburbs have been privileged sites for the rollout of actually existing forms of neoliberal governance. While a distinctive political economy is associated with the American suburbs (suburban governance), in macroregulatory terms, suburbanization has also enabled a centrifugal politics of devolution and decentralization, exclusion, and secession, with wide and deep implications for politics, policy, and practice (urban subgovernance).