Contradictions and 'messiness' in local pathways of neoliberal urban governance: a comparative case study of Beirut and Marseille

I investigate neoliberal policy outcomes in two urban contexts with diverse political traditions: Beirut and Marseille. While both are located outside the 'core' from which critical theories of neoliberalism derive, they differ vastly in their political traditions: state centralism in Marseille versus a 'peripheral' state in Beirut. Local outcomes will be looked at from a contingency and a path-dependency perspective.