Property, politics and the neo-liberal revolution in urban Scotland

This paper is written in the context of current debates about the extent to which business coalitions are shaping the political agendas of the contemporary city. With a growing critique of the use of North American frameworks as a basis for the interpretation of business politics in the British city, we make a contribution towards the development of a more theoretically informed account of capitalʹs involvement in local politics in Britain. Our research design takes analysis beyond the confines of what we term a ‘state-centred perspective’ insofar as we focus on the political behaviour of one key fraction of capital, property, in a range of urban areas in one political system, Scotland. Through the first survey to be conducted in Scotland of the political activities of property agents, the paper draws out conclusions about the extent to which new forms of neo-liberal urban governance are serving to construct an environment within which contemporary property politics are being played out. Our results point to a politically engaged fraction of capital but one which is largely oblivious to the changes in governance taking place around them. In an effort to further understanding property politics, we conclude that more attention needs to be given to capital and its trajectories. In calling for an epistemological shift towards a capital-centred perspective, we conclude that an understanding of property politics might profitably draw upon both a rehabilitated version of neo-Marxist frameworks and more recent institutional perspectives.