Is it all coming together? Thoughts on urban studies and the present crisis: (14) Another city is possible? Reports from the frontline

City

Volumn 12, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 402-415

  Catterall, Bob ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 57149123287     PISSN: 13604813     EISSN: 14703629     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13604810802614821     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. Bunting, M., 'Faith. Belief. Trust. This economic orthodoxy was built on superstition', Guardian, 6 October 2008.
2. I build here on work on frontiers in Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers. My debt to as well disagreements with this important edited collection are both occasional text as well as subtext in recent episodes in this series (see also the Editorial to this issue).
3. Thomas Hardy, 'In Tenebris II'.
4. Hutton, W., 'Without real leadership, we face disaster', Observer, 12 October 2008.
5. Sandhu, S. Night haunts: A journey through the London night London: Verso 2008, p. 12.
6. We published three substantial extracts, under the heading 'Aborigenes and unfortunates: Life and labour across nocturnal London' - from what was originally a collaborative project, commissioned by Artangel, on a website, and subsequently became the above book - within a feature 'How Should We Write about London?' in City 19 (2). The extracts were selected by Sandhu from what in the book are the first three chapters entitled: 'An Appetite for Stories: Introduction', 'The Panoptic Sublime: Avian Police', and 'Aborigines and Unfortunates: Cleaners'.
7. This quality was also evident in more critical work by the great Studs Terkel who died on 6 November, 2008.
8. Mason, P. Live Working or Die Fightting: How the Working Class Went Global, London: Harvill Secker, 2007.
9. Walker, C. The Frontline London: Faber and Faber, 2008, pp. 14-15.
10. Paskell, C. with Bailey, D. and Abdullah, A. (forthcoming) Understanding and addressing intergenerational tensions within Camden' Somali's community: A research report. London: London Borough of Camden/One World Solutions (EU) Ltd. Firm figures on crime etc are difficult to gather as 'Somali' is not an ethnic category commonly used, certainly not by police.
11. We take this up in our next issue. In mid November 2008 Somalia has again come into the news but this time because of those involved in a successful piracy business. Less attention is devoted to the social and economic factors that make piracy an attractive proposition (for one account that looks at the larger perspective, see Simon Tisdall, 'Somalia, state of anarchy' in The Guardian 17 November, 2008.
12. Massey, D. World City Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. (reviewed under the heading 'On not taking London for granted' by Andrew Davey in City 12(2), pp. 261-265.
13. Gilbert Gaza, El Paso Border Control, in Juarez, City of Dreams.
14. The film is not in general distribution but can be obtained through alex@angrymanpictures.co.uk The website is www.angrymanpictures.co.uk. Once again I owe my first viewing of this film to the Frontline Club.
15. 'Tijuana streets flow with the blood of rival drug cartels', The Observer 2 Novemeber, 2008.
16. This struggle forms part of the background to Cormac McCarthy's novel and the Coen brothers' film based on it, No Country for Old Men. I discussed the film and the book (and Yael Farber's Molora, referred to below) in 'Is it all coming together? Thoughts on urban studies and the present crisis: (13) No Country for Old Men - or Women?' in City 12(2), pp.266-278.
17. For reasons of space I have left out a discussion of the Brazilian film "Tropa de Elite"/Elite Guard which deals with police corruption and violence. Marcelo Lopes de Souza has dealt with this and a whole set of books/papers/movies/statements/etc. etc. which share a similar "approach"/"spirit" in his book, Fobópole: O medo generalizado e a militarização da questão urbana (the title translates perhaps as "Phobopolis: From the Widespread Fear to the Militarization of the Urban Question"), which was published in Brazil in May this year. We are dicussing with him a paper "Social movements in the face of criminal power: The socio-political fragmentation of space and 'micro-level warlords' as challenges for emancipative urban struggles", in which he deals with 'different kinds of challenges which are an increasing problem - from Mexico City to São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires to Johannesburg (with huge differences in terms of quality and intensity and actors according to the country): 1) police's brutality and corruption (as usual), 2) ordinary criminals (above all drug trafficking) and 3) "paramilitary groups."'
18. Email from Michael Edwards.
19. My thanks to Michael Edwards who featured the poster - and discussed the notion propounded by Richard Sennett), that the current financial rescue packages are forms of 'financial socialism', on his blog, under the heading 'What Next? (for capitalism)', http://michaeledwards.org.uk
20. Shakespeare, to an extent that many may find unbelievable, anticipated Marx, Mauss and Derrida, in Timon - or so I shall argue in the sequel to this episode. I have already argued earlier in the series for his remarkable contemporaneity and his contribution to a tradition of social interpretation that can be seen as a potential ally in the reformation of sociospatial science.
21. See Surborg, B. (2007) 'Reclaim the City! - a review of the special session at the 2007 Association of American Geographers' Annual Meeting' in City 11(3), pp. 422-427.
22. The last three words of the formula, Expose, Propose, Politicise are Peter Marcuse's as set out in his opening address to the conference on The Right to the City: Prospects for Critical Urban Theory and Practice, Berlin, November 6-8. (This was organized by Margit Meyer, Neil Brenner, and Peter Marcuse in cooperation with the Center for Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin. Details can be found on the CMS website www.metropolitanstudies.de. We shall return to aspects of this conference in a forthcoming issue.) I have prefaced Peter Marcuse's three words with one other: Listen. This loses the euphony of the original. Sometimes small sacrifices in aesthetics have to be made in the cause of truth! (In fact, Listen should be preceded by: Get involved. The full implications of this are included, and its relation to Niget Thrift's case for eavesdropping, in a section, From 'Normal' to 'Weird': A methodological interlude (pp.259-262) in 'Is it all coming together? Thoughts on urban studies and the present crisis: (11) From Neoliberalism towards a paradigm for a New International' in City, 11.2, pp.245-272)