Publikationen/Veröffentlichungen der Kollegiat:innen

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The chapter takes a close look at the urban growth machine of a city emerging as a model for capitalist development in a semi-peripheral country such as Romania. Cluj-Napoca is exemplary of a city that made a huge recovery after deindustrialization. The convergence of economic restructuring toward high-value-added service sectors and intense investments in real estate shaped this transformation. I analyze these processes and interrogate the forms of urban governance underlying such “successful” evolutions, benefiting some while negatively impacting many city dwellers by permanently raising housing costs. The local governing structures that unify pluralistic interests in the city under the umbrella of growth politics, as well as the transnational consultants and local or foreign investors, are the main actors. They are also the winners when it comes to the local urban growth machine which transforms the city into a site for exceptional investments. I will describe some examples of the transformation of industrial areas into real estate projects as an illustration of how the local urban growth machine has used regeneration projects to support the interests of business and political elites. The gulf between profit expectations and the quality of life with regard to the affordability of homes is increasing and deepening alongside other immanent contradictions of the urban growth machine.