URBS 230 FINAL

Origins in 1960s- Ruth glass observed significant changes in inner london where working class quarters were invaded by middle class

Disinvestment
Entry of artists and bohemians- add ‘cultural cachet’ to former industrial sites
‘Middle class’ residents enter
‘Sweet equity’ = lower middle-class residents and artists rehabilitate their housing structures, adding to its property value
Draws interest of media, real estate developers & wealthier residents
Land values rise… rental stock declines —> displacement of low-income residents

Demand-driven and individualized process of gentrification
Also, rise of women professionals
Smaller household/family unites
Cultural preferences and working patterns of “new middle class” professionals: ‘preferences’ for central city living- rise of white collar work

Back to the city movement of ‘capital’, not people
Disinvestment sparked a ‘rent gap’: difference between potential value of inner-city properties and existing land values
supply-driven, larger-scale process that triggers significant changes

previously commercial or industrial space that was refurbished into a residential unit
Would have issues with zoning- former industrial zones referred to as brown ears

new apartments built to resemble hard lofts. Like hard lofts, soft lofts have open-concept ceilings as well. Unlike hard lofts, they don't always have exposed piping and vents

rise of new-build, high-income residential towers/ ‘condo-ization’

Design can inhibit social encounters/ties, esp. for women with children; little basis for common interest

political ideology that emphasizes ‘free’ trade, deregulation and reduction in government spending (‘privatization’)

‘state-led’ gentrification

Governments also target so-called ‘knowledge intensive’, white collar residents or what Richard Florida calls the ‘creative class’

Through amenities and boosterism, also through surveillance

policies to increase the diversity of a neighbourhood by enabling a mixing of occupants (across socio-economic lines) often through redevelopment projects

Generally involves locating those of higher socio-economic status in disadvantaged neighborhoods

City wanted to open it up to musicians and there was specific spots only for them where performers could not go

A lot more musicians so tensions between performers and musicians- and city gives a lot more spot for musicians

1. Stop identifying urbanism with the physical entity of te city or ‘arbitrary city boundary’
A life that extents- not just in cities- a way of life
2. Technological developments in transportation and communication have extended the urban mode of living beyond the confines of the city

1. Population growth
Share of population living in urban areas
Rural-urban migration

2. Transformation of rural and peri-urban lands
Urban sprawl/expansion
Socio-economic, ecological, and cultural process of transformation

Urbanism- a way of life, lifestyle you get living in cities

Urbanization: transformation- life style as well as how you use that space

refers broadly to modes of urban development that rely on expressions of a “global” sense of place, often through grand architectural gestures or by staging spectacular events

They are expressions of both global and regional economic success/power- symbolic
Tied to ‘global city’ aspiration

are large-scale mea cultural events that often appeal to both the national and international audience

Ex: olympic games, pan american games

Positive impacts are the massive infrastructure investments

Negative impacts occur ‘behind the scenes’
The megaevent syndrome: displacement, gentrification. Non-payment of construction workers, misallocation of resources, high debt, redirection of funds for other services, etc

Refers to processes of state-led urbanization that may involve rapid and centralized transformation of large parcels of land and which typically leverage significant amounts of capital, labour and private sector participation in the production of ambitious development projects

spectacular developments ad instant cities are accompanied by place promotion and branding

This occurs through marketing campaigns

The logic of new/instant cites:
1. Symbolic inspiration 2)external investors come and 4)buildings fill up
2. Built it all and they will come

There are several cases where after completion of new cities, buildings are left empty with zero to low occupancy, creating ghost cities

oined by keith hart in 1971, from the study of low-income activities among unskilled migrants from northern Ghana to the capital city, Accra, who could not find wage employment
Internal migrants in Accra were engaged in informal activities that has autonomous capacity for generating incomes

refers to jobs or work without legal and social protection in informal enterprises, formal firms and households’

eg employers in informal enterprises, contributing family workers (in informal and formal enterprises), production for own final use (ie subsistence) production)

eg employees hired without social protection contributions, casual or day laborers, unregistered or undeclared workers etc

Women in informal employment: globalizing and organizing (WEIGO) multi-segmented model of informal employment
Hierarchy of earnings & poverty risk by employment status & sex

the dualist school sees the informal sector as comprising of marginal activities- distinct from and not related to the formal sector- that provide income for the poor and a safety net in times of crisis

1. Imbalances between the growth rates of the population and of modern industrial employment
2. Mismatch between people’s skills and the structure of modern economic opportunities

see the informal economy as subordinated economic units (micro-enterprises) and workers that serve to reduce input and labor costs and, thereby increase the competitiveness of large capitalist firms

The nature of capitalism/capitalist growth drives informality

capitalist/formal firms resort to informality as a reaction to the power of organized labor, state regulation of the economy (notably taxes and social legislation); and to global competition

sees the informal sector as comprised of “plucky” micro-entrepreneurs who operate informally in order to avoid the costs, time and effort of formal registration

Argue that a hostile legal system leads the self employed to operate informally with their own informal extra-long norms

Governments should introduce simplified bureaucratic procedures to encourage informal enterprises to register

focuses on informal entrepreneurs who deliberately seek to avoid regulations and taxation but, unlike the legalist school, does not blame the cumbersome registration procedures

Argue that informal operators choose to operate informally- after weighing the costs AND benefits of informality relative to formality

informal enterprises should be brought under the formal regulatory environment

Rapid urbanization rates are not accompanied by essential services

This has provoked a urban crisis- ex: housing, jobs, water, transport, health, etc

when peasants are dispossessed of rural land by land grabbing, violent conflict, or climate crisis

Only way to survive is to leave

when migrants move to cities in search of better job opportunities and job security

refers to large-scale land acquisitions mainly by private investors but also by public investors and agribusiness that buy farmland or lease it on a long-term basis to produce (non)agricultural commodities

sometimes facilitated as part of a neoliberal development policy agenda to mechanize and modernize production
To establish Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to attract foreign investors, transnational companies, etc

economic colonialism

independent land monitoring initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in decisions over large-scale land acquisitions in low and middle-income countries

his refers to te transformation of urban space without conforming to land use, zoning or building regulations

Also refers to person building their own house one room at a time

refers to the organic or gradual transformation or urban space without prevailing master plan

The by-product outcome of incremental informal housing is referred to as slums or informal settlements

low-income communities/settlements created through micro spatial developments that fall outside of the remit of formal planning regulations (land use and zoning)
Hubs for migrants and refugees’

1. Several western research, videos, and images portray slums in a totalizing, dystopian and apocalyptic way
2. Slums are produced mainly by the poor ir ‘subalterns’
3. Some scholars wrongly use slums and informal settlement interchangeably
slums= low-income, can not afford housing in formal

growing number of high-class/elite informal settlements that do not look anything like slums

connected to enclave urbanism (gated communities)

Laissez-faire approach
Participatory slum upgrading
Evictions, demolitions, and clearances

in the face of threats of disposition and displacement, the urban poor are constantly organizing and building coalitions to fight back and exert a right to the city

developed by Henrri Lefebvre

RTTC aims to question and challenge the dominant systems of dispossession.

SDI- a network of community-based organizations of the urban poor in 33 countries

This was done to have a global platform and transnational network of solidarity and resistance

a new model of resistance, moving away from ‘direct’ confrontation
ex: 1. Vertical and horizontal exchanges or peer exchanges
2. participatory /self-enumerations

Caused by 1. Limited affordable housing 2. Declining incomes 3. Domestic violence etc

Homeless people are living in tents/encampments are sometimes treated violently

involves non-conformist acts of informal settlements in parks, industrial land, abandoned buildings etc

Once organization that advocate (mainly toronto) is Encampment support network (ESN)

In theory: would have a 50;50 mix of social (public and community) and private housing

In practice the social component tends to be much smaller, especially in inner-city, leading to a dispersal of low-income residents, and there is little mixing (segregated buildings)

Self contained areas that accentuate the divide between residents and outsiders

For davis “fortess la” represents: “residential areas with enough clout… able to privatize local public space, partitioning themselves from the rest of the metropolis, even imposing a variant of neighbourhood ‘passport control’ on outsiders”

Emphasis on cultural production that can enhance the ‘look and feel’ of distressed neighbourhoods

And cultural production (ex music, design, architecture, etc) that can form a distinct ‘economic sector’ and promote the city as a ‘culturally rich’ place- to attract the ‘creative class’ (white collar, professionals)

A smart city is a city that “uses information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance its livability, workability and sustainability”

Global economic competition for investment & attracting ‘creative class’

1. Collection: smart sensors gather real-time data
2. analysis - data is analysed to gain insights into city operations
3. Communication: result of analysis communicated to decision makers
4. Actions- action taken to improve operations manage assets and improve the quality of city life for the residents

ICT corporations: Such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, etc

Origins of ICT: alliance of the military & industry during the WWII period to develop to technologies of surveillance

a) instituted in a top-down fashion by ICT and gov officials; limited input and accountability
b) data-driven decision-making can depoliticize urban issues
c) concerns about inequitable distribution of benefits- can exacerbate spatial and socio-economic disparities
d) concerns about who controls the data, and how it is used: commercialization, surveillance

the ways that infrastructure services, including ICT, concentrate in wealthier districts and fragment the experience of the city

Proposed project in waterfront area where alphabet (parent affiliated with google) wanted to build mix-use development- a mini smart city from scratch

Sensors everywhere, everything monitored including residents
To better understand residents and way of life

how urban space and life are increasingly shaped by platform technology corporations

Cities as corporate laboratories?

Idea of creating a city from scratch in some cases, or adapting an existing city

“cities that leverage digitalization and engage stakeholders to improve people's well-being and build more inclusive, sustainable and resilient societies”

“technologically enabled community member who contributes time, labour, and device time to generate data about everyday life”

“privileges the deconstruction and questioning of power structures through the technologies that are implemented…a city that really pluralises and expands what counts as knowledge about urbanism and the city, and that ways of knowing and understanding the city are not limited to numerical values and are not limited to big data sets”

in the dorm of a map with colour-coded zones- were shaping governmental decisions about provisions of maintenance, street lights, transportation quotes & housing assistance in neighborhoods in detroit

Support for community-led initiatives for computer literacy and access to technology
Promote AI Commons
Support citizen-controlled data initiatives- eg Canair.io monitoring air quality in Bogota, Colombia

If you have a lot of data you start to work on tools that respond to the data, rather than respond to the city- the data starts to drive what you think you can do

Need to view data as a tool, rather than an ends: acknowledge data’s incomplete and fragmented nature

Need to recognize decision-making/ urban governance as political- not technological- issues, and the potential uneven access and impacts of data-driven decisions

how the physical and cultural aspects of the practice of the private ownership and use of cars impacts modern life (Meyer, 2016, p. 213)

Giving rise to highways/toll roads (‘splintering urbanism’) as well as parking lots, street curbs, stop lights, etc.

Linked to contemporary notions of independence, privacy, ‘freedom’, status

Environmental

safety

social inequities- in terms of ownership costs & community displacement for road development

quasi-legal forms where the owner-operator of the services lack official sanction or a license

Due to under-provision of public transit infrastructure

motorized collective mode- ie ‘shared taxi’, ‘shared motorcycle’ or ‘mini-bus’ as well as non motorized forms such as biking

informal transport

seen as nuisances or obstacles

Yet, they provide critical livelihood and mobility opportunities

Women are majority of public transport riders

Subway stations and buses, other street infrastructure, often do not accommodate strollers or wheelchairs

Women (often driving smaller cars) disproportionately injured in collisions

Risk of sexual harrasment and violence in bus shelters, public transit or the street for non-binary/women

BIPOC communities subject to gun violence, over-policing and possible immigration crisis

Refers to “the extension of military ideas of tracking, identification and targeting”’ and circulations of urban life in both cities of the west and of the (neo)colonial frontiers

'war on drugs'

Retreat of state-state combat: “the future of warfare lies in the streets, sewers, high-rise buildings, industrial parks and sprawl of houses, shacks, and shelters that form the broken cities of our world”

Global south setting as sites of military ‘experimentations’ for western states, and private military corporations

“If you give the same equipment (military) to local police, by default you create an environment in which the public is perceived as an enemy”

hardening of borders- ‘migration detention centers’ or ‘offshore’ refugee camps

Biometric surveillance

Using technology to identify a person based on an spect of their biology; fingerprints, face recognitions, iris, and DNA

Supposedly objective and reliable, but the ‘training set’ for these machines is often data from white, able, male bodies, leading to misrecognition of women, people of color, and people with disabilities

The security-industry complex as an expanding frontier of 21st century capitalism

Targets: electricity lines; shipping routes, mobile phone system, pipelines, train systems

Devices: airliners, mobile phones, cars, communication grids

How visual culture reinforces the new military urbanism through ‘civilian-military’ crossovers (including ‘smart technologies’)

CCTV cameras used in shopping centres to make shoppers feel secure reorientated as ‘anti-terrorist surveillance device’

GPS and videogames

exaggerated outburst of public concern over the morality and behaviour of a group in society

A crisis in ‘hegemony’ takes place when the authority of the state and the ruling class is challenged; prompts efforts to restore order and authority… rather than address inequalities

linked with 'racial capitalism'

est. in 2010; research agency based at goldsmiths, university of london, investigating human rights violations, including violence committed by states, police forces, miliaries and private corporations

work that is considered necessary to “preserve public safety and health as well as the basic functioning society”

Food delivery, sanitation, healthcare

Temporary work (in service industry): when employees are hired or undefined periods of time

work that is low-wage insecure and unprotected, with little to no benefits

Also coincides with decline of unionization and full-time manufacturing work

replicating the work conditions that are generally associated with outsourcing within global north cities

A range of ex-urban settlements that contain not simply the homogenous suburbanization of housing but also a mix of uses

1. Evolution of traditional residential suburbs
2. New ex-urban centers outside an establish central city or suburb

Towers, lower-income, migrant populations

intensification of existing settlement to address sprawl: encourages mix of building types and uses, diverse housing and transportation options

a coming together of interest that may not be aligned on other issues but is on property developments as a solution to address issues of a particular settlement

Part of urban neoliberalism- state stepping back

Densification supported by developers (profit motive) and by municipalities (tax revenue)... but opposed by adjacent single-family homeowners (image of place)

Ex: “tower neighbourhood renewal” in toronto suburbs… goal: upgrade/ retrofit exiting towers and building new ones

new ex-urban centers out the of the city

Concentration of business, shopping and entertainment outside of an established urban area, in what was once a rural or suburban zone- ex silicone valley

5 million sq ft or more of office space
Over 600,000 sq ft of retail space
More jobs than bedrooms
Perceived by population as a distinct place
Developed within last 30 years

“downtown like qualities without much in the way of pedestrian infrastructure or amenities”

low-density; built around major road intersections…extreme auto dependency

Corporate dominance and lack of ‘planning’ → haphazard development patterns

1. “Developers were putting up houses faster than local governments could respond. Consequently, there were too few classrooms, the roads were congested, parks and playgrounds lagged behind…”

2. Pursuit of growth vs the conservation of environmental and residential amenities

3. The contradictory pressures towards municipal secession and amalgamation
The unequal fiscal capacity of local governments leads to variable landscape of inter-municipal competition and cooperation

urban areas that have higher temps than surrounding areas due to presence of buildings, pavements and other structures that absorb and radiate heat

when the environmental amenities of a neighbourhood contribute to the displacement of lower-income residents

Green spaces most often in higher end neighborhoods
When in lower-income areas it can contribute to higher rents and gentrification

calculates the full life-cycle of GHG emissions for a good or service, and assigns the footprint to the final consumer

those who have disproportionately gained from environmental degradation provide support for those disproportionately burdened

Drastic cuts to carbon emissions through large investments in infrastructure and building upgrades that are linked to well-paying, unionized and accessible jobs

Aims to combat climate change and economic inequality

In late 1880s, water diverted by settlers and intensive ise…drying out of river and loss of source of subsitence/food

After 80 years of litigation, a water settlement reached in 2004

‘right to the city’ is not only a matter of citizens having access to city resources but in how the city is governed- making decisions on how the city is produced

Limits to ‘human rights’ concept for attaining a ‘right to the city’ for all
Viewed as highly individualistic; seeks inclusion rather than transformation of the current urban neoliberal system

Collective rights: labour and social rights


Forging global north and global south alliances, especially as many neoliberal actors are now global

Decolonizing conceptions of land as ‘property’

January 29-February 11 (13 days), over 400 students occupy computer lab on 9th floor Hall building to protest racism against black students

Forcibly evicted after negotiations with administration break down and fire breaks out; 97 arrest

Protest and pedagogy: event from jan 29-feb 11, 2019

Creation of (rural) reserve system under federal legislative jurisdiction

Forbade first nations peoples from expressing identities through governance and culture (some cultural restrictions lifted later)

Amendments required first nations children to attend industrial or residential schools

Pass system restricted movement of first nations peoples off reserves until 1930s/40s

Provincial responsibility for child welfare led to ‘sixties scoop’

indigenous children removed from homes rather than provision of services)

Led to adoption of indigenous children by predominantly non-indigenous, middle-class families; often severing the children’s connection to family and cultural identity

connect people, place, knowledge, and values with decision-making to enhance community well-being

Recognition of inherent indigenous self-determination and unlearning colonial culture of planning

how indigenous people are creating conditions where indigenous urban life flourishes and enacting sovereignty in cities

re-territorialization of space (ie reclaiming ‘materiality’): ‘urban reserves’

parcel of central city land, can be used for commercial and or residential purposes

Community would provide social services (medical, legal, etc) with support from non-indigenous students at a nearby university and establish cultural institutions

Aboriginal housing committee formed for provision of housing, made formal request to purchase an entire block

First experiment at indigenous self-determination

win injunction in court to halt excavation for redevelopment of allan memorial institute and royal victoria hospital

Concerns that indigenous children subjected to medical experiments were buried on the site; and a need for non-damaging archaeological practces