Cities as contested places Flashcards
Why are cities contested?
Various people and companies want different things at the same time. This’s unsolvable (limited availability of space)
Formal power vs. informal power
Formal power: regulations (de jure)
Informal power: not based on anything (de facto), based on social norms
Authority vs. legitimacy
Authority: Who has the power? (local government, governance)
Legitimacy: Justification of the authority (representative, interest group)
Molotch
Different plots in the city are vested with different interests (commercial, political, sentimental)
Coalitions: Groups with the same interests that work together.
Machines are the most important (coalitions of organisations and individuals that believe in growth are a local priority)
What will growth do?
- reduce tax
- increase tax revenu
- retain jobs that will otherwise disappear
- economic multiplier effect
Harvey
Who has the collective right to the city (what will happen with the surplus)?
Accumulation by dispossession: Invest when low economy => more surplus when boom
Control over surplus lies in few hands.
Connection between capitalism and urbanization, because urbanization happens by surplus.
Solutions to struggles between different interests
- community organising
- direct action and sabotage (dealing with NYMBY-ism)
- Empowering (addressing elephant in the room)
- planning ordinances (participatory planning regimes)
- rent control/rent caps
- rebalancing private vs. public interests and rights
- affordable housing policies: intervention and regulation
- public lead real-estate development corporations
- public land trusts/community land trusts
Madanipour
Exclusion is a socio-spatial phenomenon
- economic: inclusion is secured through employment. Economic exclusion can lead to political and cultural exclusion.
- political: political representation
- cultural: represented in the wider society
