Wild Dragons in the City: Urban Political Economy, Affordable Housing Development and the Performative World-making of Economic Models

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Christophers
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Economic Models ◽  
Housing Development ◽  
Urban Political Economy ◽  
The City

scholarly journals Un-homing with words: economic discourse and displacement as alienation

2020 ◽  
pp. 147447402097025
Author(s):  
Sara Westin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare Loss ◽  
Regulation System ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Economic Discourse ◽  
Classical Economic ◽  
The City

This paper is an investigation into the psychological aspects of displacement, where displacement is understood as a form of un-homing that severs the connection between people and place. Extending the human-geographical discussion begun by Mark Davidson and Rowland Atkinson on the possibility of being displaced while staying put, I argue that words and narratives – here exemplified by the Swedish (neo-classical) economic discourse on market rents – can displace people, and that this particular kind of un-homing is best understood as alienation. A theoretical underpinning is psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe’s work on identity and language and on the effects of neoliberal political economy on our psychological well-being. I analyze texts by and interviews with economists arguing for the abolishment of the ‘rent regulation system’ and find that their use of the terms ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ frames (current) tenants as undeserving and in the way. Economists encourage displacement (of people who lack the means to pay market rents), they gentrify with their words. By being told they are a ‘welfare loss’, tenants with affordable housing in attractive parts of the city are pushed to become critical on-lookers onto themselves, thereby dis-placed from the spontaneous act of dwelling and alienated from their original insideness. A larger conclusion is that the famous economist Milton Friedman was right: neo-classical economic theory, and homo neoliberalismus, in particular, does not respect geography. This disrespect, I explain, should be interpreted as a philosophical negligence towards human situatedness in place, and as an ethical carelessness towards people’s need for home.

Review Article: North Urban Political Economy, Urban Theory and British Research

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALAN HARDING
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
City Government ◽  
Growth Machine ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Urban Regime ◽  
Urban Political Economy ◽  
Urban Regimes ◽  
The Us ◽  
The City

In 1976, when European debates within urban theory were dominated by neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian approaches to cities as sites for the provision of social and welfare services, the very different notion of ‘the city as growth machine’ slipped into the US urban studies lexicon with the publication of Harvey Molotch's article of the same name. In 1983, the year in which Castells brought the radical phase of European urban studies to a halt with a famous warning against ‘the useless construction of abstract grand theory’, the concept of an urban regime had a similarly unobtrusive birth when the phrase was used by Fainstein and Fainstein to describe ‘the circle of powerful elected officials and top administrators’ in US city government. Had the story ended there it is unlikely that the world – especially outside North America – would have heard much more of urban regimes and growth machines. As it has turned out, though, from the late 1980s onwards urban scholars have hardly seemed able to hear enough about these two approaches within US urban political economy.

Circular economy and the city: an urban political economy agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Kębłowski ◽  
Deborah Lambert ◽  
David Bassens
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Urban Political Economy ◽  
The City

Atmospheric Noise: The Indefinite Urbanism of Los Angeles

Public ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (63) ◽  
pp. 134-135
Author(s):  
Andrew Merrill
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Urban Political Economy ◽  
Atmospheric Noise ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecology And Environment ◽  
The City

This article reviews Mariana Peterson’s Atmospheric Noise, which draws jarring, cacophonous resonances between the science and engineering of acoustics, urban political economy, governmentality, the metaphysics of sound and the social construction of ecology and environment in the city of Los Angeles.

The Political Economy of Debt

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Menz
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Models ◽  
The Political ◽  
Private Debt ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The explosive rise in not just public, but also private debt has recently attracted more scholarly attention. This is a novel development and might expose politico-economic models of governance to instability from an angle previously underappreciated. The liberalization of credit access in the Anglo-American countries, and, somewhat later, beyond those, might be seen as liberating for some, but they also create the potential for entrapment in debt. The term ‘privatized Keynesianism’ has been proposed to suggest a systematic agenda behind the facilitated access to lending. In this chapter, the broader access to investment vehicles is also being scrutinized, although upon closer inspection any claims of mass ownership of shares turn out not to be tenable.

Defect characterisations in the Malaysian affordable housing

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
AbdulLateef Olanrewaju ◽  
Yien Yen Tan ◽  
See Ning Soh
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Housing Development ◽  
Median Income ◽  
Repair Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Remedial Actions ◽  
Bad Weather ◽  
Strongly Agree ◽  
Systemic Decision Making

PurposeThe successive Malaysian government aims to provide housing to households earning the median income and below. However, there has been continuous criticism and complaints from the media and literature on the magnitude of the defects in affordable housing. Therefore, this research has investigated the defects in affordable housing for the users’/occupants' perspectives.Design/methodology/approachWith a response rate of 69%, the research developed a questionnaire instrument that included twenty-one defects in buildings based on literature and observation. These were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from very common to least common. Twelve causes of defects measured on a five-point scale were included in the survey. Thirteen additional items that had to do with remedial actions to reduce defects were included. These were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to least agree. The survey forms were administered to all the 152 home occupants in a Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) housing estate through hand delivery in a northern state in Malaysia.FindingsThe data revealed that broken doors, damaged roofs, damp walls and broken tiles in rooms were the most common defects in the housing development. It was found that defects in the buildings were caused by poor workmanship, defective materials, poor designs and bad weather. Additionally, to rectify the defects, adequate supervision is required during maintenance, the repairs must be conducted on time and there is a need to have competent maintenance organisations. Through factor analysis, the 21 defects were structured into six factors, the 12 causes were grouped into 5 factors and the 13 remedial actions were grouped into 6 factors.Practical implicationsThe information on the nature, degree and kinds of defects from the users' perspectives will dictate when repair work is to be undertaken and allow future work to be programmed and financed as part of a maintenance rolling programme.Originality/valueThis research focused specifically on “Program Perumahan Rakyat” housing development. Furthermore, none of the previous research on defects conducted attempted to categorise the defects in the buildings. The categorisation is very important for systemic decision-making because there are continuous interactions amongst the defects, causes and remedial actions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document