Against an Architecture of Neoliberal Technocracy traces how the dismantling of Britain's welfare state was enacted through architectural and planning decisions — arguing that technocratic operations in the built environment made neoliberal governance not just possible, but habitual.
About This Book
This is a political history of architecture told from the inside out. Eleni Axioti examines how the dissolution of welfare state architecture in Britain was not simply a matter of policy, but was enabled by specific technocratic processes embedded in the production of the built environment. The book positions architecture as a mechanism of social governance — one that was repurposed to facilitate neoliberal forms of control that operate, as Axioti puts it, as actions at a distance. It is a critique of how exchange value has displaced use value in the built environment, and a call to reclaim architecture's social function. Essential reading for architects, urbanists, and scholars working at the intersection of housing, political economy, and spatial theory.
Key Features
- 120 pages of political and architectural theory examining welfare state urbanism and its neoliberal transformation
- Author: Eleni Axioti
- Published by Vi Per Gallery, ISBN 9788090843363
What You'll Discover
- How technocratic operations within built environment production functioned as the practical instruments of welfare state dismantlement in Britain
- The concept of neoliberal governance as "actions at a distance" — spatial arrangements that direct behaviour without explicit coercion
- A theoretical framework for reassessing architecture's role as a mechanism of social governance rather than a market commodity
- A critique of the prioritisation of exchange value over use value in contemporary architectural practice and policy
About the Author
Eleni Axioti is the author of this critical study situating architecture within the political and economic transitions of post-welfare Britain. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 120
- Dimensions: [Details available upon request]
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9788090843363
- Publisher: Vi Per Gallery
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and urbanists engaged with housing policy, academics working in political economy and spatial theory, and students examining the social history of the built environment in Britain.