Is it all coming together? Thoughts on urban studies and the present crisis: (15) Elite squads: Brazil, Prague, Gaza and beyond

City

Volumn 13, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 159-171

  Catterall, Bob ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 62749142995     PISSN: 13604813     EISSN: 14703629     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13604810902826796     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. David Rieff, 'Should we believe in Barack?' Sunday Times, 15 February 2009.
2. Available as an Optimum Home Entertainment dvd.
3. Sight and Sound, 18(9), September, 2008.
4. Vanek was played by a different actor in each of the plays. This Havel season (including two other plays and a seminar on Havel: Playwright and Politician) was presented at the enterprising Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, Surrey, 19 September - 13 December 2008.
5. I make use here and elsewhere of Carol Rocamora's summary - without claiming that she necessarily shares my conclusions - and translated passages in her Acts of Courage: Vaclav Havel's Life in the Theater, Hanover: Smith and Kraus, 2005. Complete texts of the plays are available in Vaclav Havel, The Garden Party and Other Plays. Grove Press, New York: 1993
6. The cognitive and emotional importance of theatre is a theme that is developed in this series.
7. David Rieff, 'Should we believe in Barack?' Sunday Times, 15 February 2009.
8. Available as an Optimum Home Entertainment dvd.
9. Sight and Sound, 18(9), September, 2008.
10. Vanek was played by a different actor in each of the plays. This Havel season (including two other plays and a seminar on Havel: Playwright and Politician) was presented at the enterprising Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, Surrey, 19 September-13 December 2008.
11. I make use here and elsewhere of Carol Rocamora's summary-without claiming that she necessarily shares my conclusions-and translated passages in her Acts of Courage: Vaclav Havel's Life in the Theater, Hanover: Smith and Kraus, 2005. Complete texts of the plays are available in Vaclav Havel, The Garden Party and Other Plays. Grove Press, New York: 1993.
12. The cognitive and emotional importance of theatre is a theme that is developed in this series.
13. This is a severely abbreviated version of the speech, about a quarter of it as quoted by Rocomora.
14. Hani Zurob, 'Surviving Memories', 2007. My deep gratitude is to the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli for providing me with this and other texts, for introducing me to Shareef Sarhan and his photographs, and for sharing some of her insights.
15. Avi Shlaim, 'How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe', Guardian, 7 January 2009.
16. 'Zones of Conflict: Geographies of Resistance', an AHRC-funded workshop held at University College, London, on 4 January 2009, organized by T.J. Demos (UCL, History of Art) in partnership with Eyal Weizman (Research Architecture, Goldsmiths).
17. 'Boim: Is Palestinian terror caused by a genetic defect?', Haaretz, 24/ 02/04).
18. Born in Gaza in 1976, Sharif Sarhan works as an artist, professional photographer and free-lance designer. He is a founding member of the Windows from Gaza for Contemporary Art group and an active member of the Association of Palestinian Artists. Sarhan has a diploma in arts from the University of ICS in the United States. He had participated in several art training courses and workshops. He was involved in the activities of the September Dara Academy of Jordanian Arts from 2000 to 2003 under the supervision of the German from a Syrian origin artist; Marwan Kassab Bashi. Sarhan had introduced his works in many individual and group exhibitions in Gaza in the Arts and Crafts village, the Port Gallery, and exhibited some of his works in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Amman, Britain, the United States, Spain, Sweden, Sharjah and Cairo.
19. Some of this work, some of it featured in this issue, is summarised in the editorial.
20. Carson, C. (ed.) (1978) The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. London: Abacus, pp. 340-341.
21. I discuss this and other aspects of MLK's work (including its urban strategy)- together with the extreme importance of the 'wisdom, justice and love' of Havel's mentor, the much neglected philosopher, Jan Patocka-in an early episode of this series subtitled: What time is this space? In City, 8(2), August 2004, pp. 307-324.
22. I have concentrated above largely on the militaristic dimension of dominant elites. In the series as a whole I have sought periodically to explore the civil and economic dimensions of such elites, of counter-elites, and of grassroots leaders/organic intellectuals. What follows is a brief update of one representative each from these three categories. Lawrence Summers, now head of the White House's National Economic Council for President Obama has featured from time to time as a characteristic member of the dominant elite both in the attitude to what he considered acceptable knowledge as President of Harvard and in his political role as what I now refer to as a member of a/the elite squad. Professor Joseph Stiglitz has featured as, in a sense, a member of counter-elite with an intellectual perspective that recognizes the need for deep-seated socioeconomic change and grass-roots agency. A recent account of their relative merits is set out in a Newsweek Web Exclusive by Michael Hirsch, 'Chasing Stiglitz: Obama's economic team is missing the one guy who's been right all along' (updated December 6, 2008.
23. URL: http//www.newsweek.com/id/ 172092; accessed 26/02/2009).
24. A particularly strong statement of Stiglitz's position was given as long ago as October, 2001 by Greg Palast who asked: 'How would you help developing nations? 'How would you help developing nations? Stiglitz proposed radical land reform, an attack at the heart of 'landlordism,' on the usurious rents by the propertied oligarchies worldwide, typically 50% of a tenant's crops. So I had to ask the professor: As you were top economist at the World Bank, why didn't the bank follow your advice? "If you challenge [land ownership], that would be a change in the power of elites. That's not high on their agenda."' (http://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizerwho- came-in-from-the-cold/; accessed 26/02/2009) The third figure whose work and that of his colleagues in the Kings Cross Railwaylands Community group has long been inspirational is Phil Jeffries. His work and character as a grassroots leader, organic intellectual and exemplary human being is well summed up in a memorial (he died late last year) by, among others, Paul Convery (who refers below to Phil's partner, Diana Shelley). Phil was 'one of the least self-interested people I have ever known helping groups with the special skills ... a forensic understanding of the law, public policy and the often arcane procedures which institutions try and use to obfuscate and confuse (in one of Diana's fine phrases) "us peasants". Phil could cut through all of that and he provided this skill repeatedly to whoever needed it. Not surprisingly for a good chess player, Phil was always thinking many steps ahead. I would often have conversations with him where it suddenly became obvious that he was calculating options and eventualities that I hadn't thought about and he would then patiently explain these to me.'
25. (See http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2008/12/ phil-jeffries-well-known-localcampaigner- passes-away.html accessed 27/02/2009) Were President Obama to involve and give credence to figures in the second and third categories I have exemplified here, he would be, contrary to David Rieff's expectations, challenging the elite squads.