Silicon slipways and slippery slopes: techno-rationality and the reinvigoration of neoliberal logics in the Dublin Docklands

ABSTRACT

The Dublin Docklands have become a key site for technology-friendly urban development in post-crisis Ireland. Local urban governance institutions have recommitted Dublin to the objective of ‘competitiveness’, enabling an expansion of the technology sector within a newly established Special Development Zone. We argue that this mantra of technology-friendly development is a new phase of neoliberal restructuring of Dublin’s economy. Using interviews, content analysis, and building on the ‘Silicon Docks’ as case site, findings show that, just as neoliberalism was rendered most visible by the crisis, these respective institutions reinvigorated neoliberal logics through an endorsement of the technology sector.

KEYWORDS:

• Silicon Docks
• Dublin Docklands
• neoliberalism
• technology
• Ireland
• techno-rationality

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Nufar Avni, Martin Murray, Matan Singer, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts. They would also like to thank Nicole Scholtz, Matan Singer, and Manish Verma for their help with the maps and the demographics data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Carla Maria Kayanan is a PhD candidate in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan. She studies the nexus between technology and economic development policy under late capitalism and the tools and mechanisms through which growth policy is enacted.

Christian Eichenmüller is a PhD candidate in Geography at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Joseph Chambers is a PhD candidate in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. He studies the surfacing and consequences of digital technologies within urban fabric in cities of the Global South.