Sam Lyon
Harvey - Right to the City
Harvey cites several examples of a process he calls “accumulation by dispossession”. Harvey has argued by this point that capitalists can succeed and prosper only by continually reinvesting their surplus product. Thus capitalists take measures to ensure that there is a market for that surplus product to be invested in. One such means is the redevelopment of the city, what Harvey calls “urban restructuring” (33). Harvey argues that this process occurs at the expense of the urban poor and working class, who occupy land that, otherwise developed, would be of greater value to capitalists as locations of development and the creation of surplus absorption areas.
Harvey cites the slums in Mumbai as an example of this process. He write that in Mumbai one of the slums, Dharavi, has a speculative value for developers estimated to be 2 billion dollars. Harvey writes that this value brings daily mounting “pressure” for capitalists and the state to “capture” that land and develop it (35). From Harvey’s previous argument, it seems clear that the area would indeed have benefit to developers seeking profit or future investment locales. However, what exactly does Harvey mean by “pressure”? Do the “financial powers” Harvey speaks of see personal incentive in taking the land? The word pressure seems to imply an external force compelling the financial powers to take the land and continue their capital expansion.
If Harvey means pressure as an external force that the capitalist invest/reinvest cycle demands of financials at risk of losing their source of income, then his suggestions later in the paper for greater democratization of surplus control do not really address the main issue, which is that this cycle necessitates dispossession by virtue of its very function. If, instead, by pressure he means that individuals are more likely to act to secure these investment sites the more valuable they are, it would seem democratization of the surplus sources would inhibit the implementation of that urge and prevent dispossession.
1 comment:
Sam:
This is an excellent, thoughtful response. I just want to let you, and anyone else considering using Harvey in their paper, know more about this point regarding "accumulation by dispossession."
This concept refers to the nature of capitalism. If capitalism requires people to make a profit, and then continuously reinvest those profits, how does that cycle start? Where do the materials come from that people use to make their profits?
Harvey says it happens through dispossession, literally by taking natural resources [i.e. mining/logging], or from other people. In this case he's arguing that the "pressure" is indeed external: the pressure to produce profits leads capitalist land developers to take land from the urban poor and redevelop it. And unfortunately this happens often, including in the U.S.
Again fabulous job.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accumulation_by_dispossession
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