Globalization: Urbanization

I. Urbanization
a. Relationship to globalization
i. TF – How transformationalism - and similarities between Held’s concept of transformationalism and how Davis explains the process and consequences of urbanization?
1. Basic definition of transformationalism: change in the identity of the state and the role is provides/ change in identity or state actors (using sovereignty as leverage in negotiations, negotiating policy instead of state actors having complete control over it)
a. Rosenthel – American FP going back to the mid-to late 1970s: Domestic policies are inter-related with foreign policy – a blurring of domestic and foreign policy (interdomestic policy)
i. What’s the blurring for Davis: The blurring of the rural and the urban – which is similar to the blurring of domestic and international (periurban)
1. How can the 3rd world become present in the urban core of countries?
a. Urbanization with de-industrialization (Africa)
b. Low standard of living/sleeping on the streets
2. How can the 1st world become present in the periphery areas of countries?
a. Migration of the rich to the suburbs
b. Land becomes a commodity and there becomes speculation
c. Physical capital moves from the cities to the rural areas where there are resources
2. Davis: the state fails, should protect and provide for its citizens, but the mega slums are an example of where the state might as well not exist and instead the mega slums are regulated within themselves by an organic approach. The traditional identity of the state as providing services no longer applies – in many places it cannot provide them. So in Davis – the role of the state is to (1) form alliance with transnational capital/elite networks and (2) the purpose of the state becomes, to enrich its leaders – this is in mega slum world where there are no longer services provided and instead the state becomes predatory and becomes capital accumulation for the state.
a. Most severe example: of elite forming alliances with transnational capital and forming elite networks – then not paying the police and military who end up extorting money from the citizens – CONGO – this is his example of where the state is so predatory it has abandoned the traditional patronage system with the military.
ii. Polanyi: Markets become disembedded from the society in which they represent
1. Davis makes reference to the elites in the cities becoming disembedded from the economic, social, and political lives of the local communities.
a. If one is coming from the neo-Marxist/skeptic or neo-Marxist transformationalist perspective – this would resonate.
2.
iii. Economic Forces
1. SAP (structural adjustment programs) have exacerbated the mega slums (associated with globalization) – because domestic policies are constrained by international forces;
a. Forcing countries to open up their markets without allowing for protectionism (which is what neoliberalism is requiring) – which is the opposite of what the developed countries did.
i. Related to globalization because: creating networks
ii. How can leaders ignore their people and follow the policy prescriptions of the World Bank
b. Structural development isn’t the decline of the state in Africa –that started much earlier.
i. Neoliberalism – roll back the role of the state
ii. So in states which are required to have structural reforms, like ones that get World Bank money, they are required to roll back the role of the state in all things- including fighting poverty and instead letting NGOs take over.
iv. Political Forces
1. Consolidating companies: Big agri-business taking over subsistence farms: this is related to structural adjustment when regulations have to be loosened and then you end up with big business oligopolies over main exports of first-level agricultural resources.
v.
b.
II. Planet of Slums: His whole book is based on secondary sources/very little primary research
a. Ch 1 – facts and figures
b. Ch 2 – Slum – what is it?
i. Housing market is illegal/underground
ii. No government services – like water and power
iii. Difference between late 19th century definition and today – lack of moral dimension. Late 19th century said the slums were morally degenerate people.
c. Ch 3 – factors responsible for slums
i. Treason of the state – factors responsible for the slums
ii. First ½ of 20th century (pre-independence); why were slums smaller pre-1950s? Because the colonial powers wouldn’t allow the indigenous people to live in the cities, so no slums could form.
1. Racially segregated living that was strictly enforced
iii. What factors account for dramatic increase in slums after 1957
1. Independence and de-colonization
a. People were interested in moving towards the cities because that’s where the government was spending money – jobs, opportunities for education, important ethnic groups, resources – were all in the cities once the segregated barriers came down after independence.
b. Civil war causes people to move to the cities
iv.
d. Ch 4 – self-help/1908s – today
i. Why is he so critical of micro-enterprises?
1. They don’t help enough people.
2. They don’t address the structural causes of poverty, like under-development
3. Originally suggested by left-NGOs along with other reforms – but then they are co-opted by people who think that “individual responsibility” is the best way to go with micro-enterprises
ii. Makes a comment about commuting – people in Nigera commute 3 hours to get to work.
e. Ch 5 – Role of indigenous elites “governmentality”
i. Role of housing: Wide blvds allow for troop movement and good line-of-sights
1. Tear down poor areas and build up rich ones
ii. Beautification
iii. Foucault – people, when they have been out of power and come into power, embrace the norms of those they tried to overthrow
iv. Davis – “governmentality” is when the people in power by into the elite opinion and say that it is perfectly ok to have large amounts of poor people
1. The African elites internalize colonial ideas – the same types of controls and surveillance are used
2. The African elites want to be elites and so don’t see anything wrong with hoarding the resources
f. Other
i. Ecology
1. Biggest threat for death if one lives in a slum – disease (children under 5 – dysentery)
2. Second leading cause of death – Fire (lack of resources to put it out)
3. Very little violence in slums, but lots of crime.
4. Housing built near chemicals and stuff
ii. SAP Third World
1. What is the political dynamic involved in structural adjustment programs?
a. How does it affect middle class and elite in housing?
b. They qualify for subsidies for housing, and people will be hesitant to tax them.
iii. Surplus Humanity
1. What is to be done?
2. TBA
3. Resistance to slums should be studied and the places they have found should be implemented elsewhere
III. Other Aspects of Cities
a. Saski
i. How does her analysis differ from Davis?
ii. She looks at the core rather than the periphery
iii. Cities are more important because that is where all the capital is
iv. Human migration patterns
v. New finance economy is dependent on cities for creation of new products and maintenance of that system
vi. Views of land are more “city to city” and ignore the periphery
1. Shift to real estate becoming a commodity and part of the financial economy
b. Norris – Global governance and cosmopolitan citizens