Neoliberal Spatialities of the Self: Everyday Architectures of Optimization in Digital and Urban Environments

Abstract

This article argues that contemporary urban, domestic, and digital environments function as interconnected micro-architectures of neoliberal self-optimization, shaping everyday practices of self-monitoring and self-governance. Rather than treating space as a passive backdrop, it conceptualizes as an active interface through which neoliberal rationalities are materialized and experienced. Drawing on theoretical insights from governmentality studies and digital geographies, this article examines how practices such as self-tracking, platform-mediated productivity, and data-driven urban management reconfigure everyday spatial experience as a continuous process of evaluation and comparison. Focusing on urban, domestic, and digital spaces as key domains of everyday life, this article demonstrates how these environments normalize responsibilized forms of subjectivity. By developing a spatial perspective on neoliberalism, this article contributes to ongoing debates on the governance of the self and the role of space in shaping contemporary subjectivities.