Resumen de Neoliberalism, Race and the Redefiningof Urban Redevelopment

Christopher Mele

• Neoliberal urban redevelopment is often represented as consensual, socially-neutral‘local economic development’with a positive effect on both a city’s overall economy andits level of racial and ethnic diversity. The purpose of this article is to focus specificallyon the key ideological premises of color-blind racial discourses that help facilitateand provide necessary legitimacy (and ideological cover) for neoliberal urbanredevelopment in a mid-sized US city. Color-blind racial discourses facilitate the agendaand mandates behind tax abatements, enterprise zones, public–private partnerships andnew forms of urban consumption. Despite efforts to the contrary, neoliberal urbanismdoes not retreat from race — rather, racial dynamics are reconstituted to accommodateprocesses of capital accumulation and uneven urban development in poor and minoritycities. Drawing on the case of Chester, Pennsylvania, this article focuses on howcolor-blind racial discourses influence exclusionary urban redevelopment policies andpractices, facilitate their implementation and legitimize their outcomes.