Often hailed as “the poster child of Europe” for its discipline and compliance in managing
austerity despite the severity of the cuts meted on its population, Dublin presents an interesting
case in austerity governance. This article focuses on the specific mechanisms whereby such
compliance and public acquiescence has been achieved. Drawing on field research conducted
from 2015 to 2017, it identifies three key practices of austerity governance – a collectivisation of
blame and shame; a cutting, shaping and disciplining of civil society; and a reconstruction of the
citizen-subject. It then goes on to uncover a diverse range of public responses to these practices
which, oscillating between resistance and resilience, are playing a key role in rebuilding
solidarity and community across neighbourhoods throughout the city. The findings presented
here respond to recent calls for a re-insertion of the political into contemporary urban research
and highlight the importance of dispersed networks of resistance and resilience in contemporary
urban political struggle and transformation.