Urban Studies

doi: 10.1177/0042098012453858 Urban Stud August 13, 2012 0042098012453858

Supported on the analysis of a case study from Portugal (the Polis Programme), the article analyses the use of legal practices of exception in urban governance to explore the on-going reconfiguration of relationships within the state. A growing number of studies address how practices of exception shape state–society relationships, but little attention has been paid to how they shape the relationships among those governing while eliciting antagonisms from dissenting state actors.