Edge city or bust: dismantling a regime of aesthetic governmentality in Oak Brook, Illinois

Abstract

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This article examines the construction and dismantling of a regime of “aesthetic governmentality” in Oak Brook, Illinois. This regime consists not only of policy and law, but more importantly of a way of seeing and evaluating Oak Brook’s idyllic suburban landscape. Drawing on interview and archival data, the case is made that the power of this longstanding regime has begun to decline in recent years, making space for new ways of understanding life in Oak Brook and for new social and political priorities. These changes have shifted the balance of power away from the small, affluent residential population and toward the demands of local business interests (including several multinational corporations). The article concludes with the cautionary argument that the dismantling of this regime may simply displace one kind of exclusion in favor of another.