1. Uneven development: island gentrification and environmental conflicts Eric Clark Lund University Department of Human Geography and Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability (LUCID) Advanced course on the analysis of environmental conflicts and justice, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, June 27 – July 10 2010
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7. Gentrification is a process involving change in the population of land-users such that the new users are of a higher socioeconomic status than the previous users, together with an associated change in the built environment through reinvestment in fixed capital. What is gentrification?
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11. What are the necessary relations underlying gentrification? Commodification of space Polarized power relations Dominance of vision over sight, characteristic of ‘ the vagrant sovereign’
12. Commodification of space opens up space for conquest, facilitating ‘highest and best’ land uses to supplant present uses, i.e. “forcing the proper allocation of capital to land” (Harvey 1982, 360). It works in tandem with the seeking of vagrant sovereigns to realize visions through the exploitation of potentials, destroying the actual in the process. The more polarized the power relations, the more forceful the dynamic.
13. Vision over sight (the colonial impulse) “ We came with visions, but not with sight. We did not see or understand where we were or what was there, but destroyed what was there for the sake of what we desired. … And this habit of assigning a higher value to what might be than to what is has stayed with us, so that we continue to sacrifice the health of our land and of our communities” Wendell Berry (1982) The gift of good land
14. To accomplish more, sometimes you need to see less. Go on. Be a Tiger. High performers don’t allow themselves to be distracted.
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16. Gentrification: a form of accumulation by dispossession “ Generation after generation, those who intended to remain and prosper where they were have been dispossessed and driven out … by those who were carrying out some version of the search for El Dorado. Time after time, in place after place, these conquerors have fragmented and demolished traditional communities … They have always said that what they destroyed was out-dated, provincial, and contemptible. And with alarming frequency they have been believed and trusted by their victims, especially when their victims were other white people.” Wendell Berry (1977) The unsettling of America
17. The semiotics of gentrification… Urban renewal Regeneration Revitalization ‘ sanering’ Urban frontier Pioneers Taming the wild wild east … A vocabulary of colonialism
20. What ‘vagrant sovereigns’ (powerful actors) are willing to pay to move in, take over space and realize their visions/projects What present users can afford to stay put and continue with their lives and livelihoods, and realize their visions/projects Building value The rent gap Potential land rent Capitalized land rent 1
21. Do you see opportunities where others don’t? Go on. Be a Tiger. The competitor who is first to spot an opportunity is usually in the best position to capture it. By working to sharpen your vision, we can help you become a high performer.
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23. (2004) (1996) New York, 1990s, 6 – 10 % of all moves displacement (Newman & Wyly 2006)
40. The moral significance of class “ Material conditions such as the spatial segregation of the dominant and the oppressed reduce pressures to work towards more inclusively beneficial forms of social organisation.”
65. The great transformation Market and Nature “ What we call land is an element of nature inextricably interwoven with man’s institutions. To isolate it and form a market for it was perhaps the weirdest of all the undertakings of our ancestors.” “ We might as well imagine his being born without hands and feet as carrying on his life without land.” (1944 [2001])
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69. The invention of capitalism, and the invention of something else The invention of new socioecological relations upon which to build institutions which manage conflicts over land and dampen drivers of conflicts such as excessive inequalities. (2000) The invention of new forms of land management which include the recovery of commons in land.
70. We need to invent new relations that can counter: Commodification of space Polarized power relations Dominance of vision over sight, characteristic of ‘ the vagrant sovereign’
Capital is not picky about where accumulation takes place
Clinical version
On the rim of the Indian Ocean and on islands in the region there is now a scramble among seekers of El Dorado (i.e. accumulation). While the catastrophe has an obvious physical base, the immediate consequences of the waves are very much the product of social history in the coastal areas, and the long term consequences very much the product of the ongoing playing out of space wars: whose visions will prevail, whose projects will come to occupy time-space? There is, it seems, a second wave of risk, when catastrophe for some becomes opportunity for others.
islands seem to provide ideal locations for the placement of dreams, our visions of a happier future. In the very physical logic of time-geography, the realization of any project always excludes the realization of other projects.
Just a brief parenthesis, in relation to the recent events in the Indian Ocean....: serving the visions of who?
many stories... residential change, tourism, second homes, off-shore finance,...
The Penghu archipelago is in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and Mainland China.
The Penghu islanders live largely off of fishing...
... and very small scale agriculture (very windy: walls of coral stone protect the thin topsoil)
Many dwellings abandoned ... depopulation during most of last century
More recently tourism has become a growing sector in the island economy... Primarily domestic Taiwanese tourists. The archipelago boasts the oldest temple in Taiwan.
... But also a bustling commerce, increasingly tourist-oriented, in the main town of Makung (Magong).
Here is a sign letting the Chinese tourists know that a renewal program is underway in a historical quarter of Magong, with mixed commercial and residential land-use.
Euroview, July 2004 Website full of marketing to attract investment capital.... Amazing is primarily out for a killing on the land.
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