The optics of dispossession: urban precarity as political art

How are conditions of urban dispossession sustained and perpetuated by the way peoples on the margins of the world economy are imagined and brought to public visibility? With a focus on the works of European artists, this article explores the image-making projects whereby ghettos, shanty communities and favelas are represented as iconic lifeworlds of the poor. Competing representations of urban poverty are manufactured for public attention by aesthetic, symbolic and affective means, ranging from a romance of despair or humanitarian compassion to a nostalgic longing for premodern signs of a deprived but simpler life. In contrast to the racialised human form, which is central to iconographies of the North American Black ghetto, the shanty-town inhabitants and city builders of the Global South are typically rendered visually absent: a tropology of people’s disempowerment and dispossession. Although often encoded by a critique of intensifying inequalities, the globalised traffic in urban poverty-art relies on an image-making process that is grounded in a detachment from social life. The representations of urban dispossession tend to produce a repertoire of free-floating emblems and signs that can be variously deployed, assembled, appropriated and discarded. Such visual templates are globally consumed as works of art that can alter urban imaginaries, encourage tourism and local economic development as much as neoliberal subjectification. After analysing a range of such artistic endeavours, this article concludes by focusing attention on how an image-maker’s commitment to humanising optics of urban dispossession can transform non-representational art to become a practice of truth.

O olhar do terapeuta ocupacional para as infâncias: reflexões a partir de uma experiência em uma escola pública/The ocupational herapist's view of childhood: reflections from an experience in a public school

Introdução: A unificação do conceito de infância é uma produção sócio-histórica, que se reverbera até os dias atuais, gerando desigualdades por não ser coerente a todas as realidades. No campo da saúde, ainda se produz cuidado pautado em um paradigma dominante: branco, burguês e higienista, refletindo em intervenções que não consideram o contexto de escassez de recursos vivenciado por muitas crianças brasileiras. Objetivo: Este estudo tem o objetivo de problematizar o olhar unificado da infância nas intervenções da Terapia Ocupacional, no campo da saúde e sua interface com a educação, a partir da experiência com crianças moradoras de um complexo de favelas no município do Rio de Janeiro/RJ. Método: Trata-se de um estudo, de caráter exploratório, de base qualitativa, que adotou a observação direta e notas em um diário de campo como ferramentas metodológicas no decurso da pesquisa. Resultado/Discussão: As crianças acompanhadas nesta pesquisa apresentaram o encargo do cuidado da casa e de crianças menores e, aparente, normalização da violência como modo de viver a constante negação de direitos básicos. Os profissionais da escola relatam os responsáveis como desinteressados e ausentes quanto à vida escolar dos alunos, contudo, na narrativa trazida pelas crianças, essa ausência se justifica pelas longas jornadas de trabalho enfrentadas pelos responsáveis. Conclusão: Sugere-se que mais literaturas abordando esse tema sejam produzidas e discutidas para que a prática da Terapia Ocupacional se alinhe cada vez mais aos contextos reais tão diversos vividos pelas pessoas. Palavras-chave: Infâncias. Vulnerabilidade. Saúde. Favela. EscolaAbstractIntroduction: The unification of the concept of childhood is a socio-historical production that reverberates to the present day, generating inequalities because it isn’t coherent to all realities. In the field of health care we still produce a practice based on a dominant paradigm: white, bourgeois and hygienist, reflecting on interventions that do not consider the context of scarcity of resources experienced by many Brazilian children. Objective: This study aims to problematize the unified view of childhood in occupational therapy interventions in the field of health care and its interface with education, based on the experience with children living in a slum complex in the city of Rio de Janeiro / RJ. Method: This is an exploratory, qualitative study that adopted direct observation and notes in a field diary as methodological tools in the course of the research. Result/Discussion: The children monitored in this research presented the burden of caring for the home and younger children and apparent normalization of violence as a way of living the constant denial of basic rights. The school professionals report the guardians as disinterested and absent as to the students' school life, however in the narrative brought by the children, this absence is justified by the long working hours faced by the guardians. Conclusion: It is suggested that more literature addressing this theme be produced and discussed so that the practice of Occupational Therapy is more and more aligned with these contexts so real and so diverse experienced by these people.Keywords: Childhood. Vulnerability. Health. Slum. Shanty town. School. ResumenIntroducción: La unificación del concepto de infancia es una producción socio histórica que repercute hasta la actualidad, ocasionando desigualdades por no ser coherente con todas las realidades. En el campo de la salud se sigue produciendo a partir de un paradigma dominante: blanco, burgués e higienista, reflejando sobre intervenciones que no consideran el contexto de escasez de recursos que viven muchos niños brasileños. Objetivo: Este estudio tiene como objetivo problematizar la visión unificada de la infancia en las intervenciones de terapia ocupacional en el campo de la salud y su interfaz con la educación, a partir de la experiencia con niños que viven en un complejo de tugurios en la ciudad de Rio de Janeiro/RJ. Método: Se trata de un estudio exploratorio, cualitativo que adoptó la observación directa y las anotaciones en un diario de campo como herramientas metodológicas en el curso de la investigación. Resultado/Discusión: Los niños monitoreados en esta investigación presentaron la carga de cuidar de los niños más pequeños y la aparente normalización de la violencia como una forma de vivir la constante negación de los derechos básicos. Los profesionales de la escuela relatan que los padres, estos niños, son desinteresados y ausentes en cuanto a la vida escolar de los alumnos, sin embargo, en la narrativa que traen los niños esta ausencia se justifica por las largas jornadas laborales que enfrentan los padres y madres. Conclusión: Se sugiere producir y discutir más literatura que aborde este tema para que la práctica de la Terapia Ocupacional esté cada vez más alineada con los contextos reales tan diversos vividos por las personas.Palabras clave: Infancia. Vulnerabilidad. Salud. Tugurios. Escuela.

Life on the fence line. Early 20th-century life in Ross Acreage

Despite widespread attention to the recent past as an archaeological topic, few archaeologists have attended to the particular social and ecological stakes of one of the most defining material features of contemporary life: the long-term effects of toxic industrial waste. Identifying the present era as the high Capitalocene, this article highlights the contemporary as a period caught between the boom-and-bust cycles of capitalist production and the persistence of industrial waste. Drawing on an archaeological case study from Edmonton, Alberta, we outline how the working-class shanty town community of Ross Acreage (occupied 1900–1950) was formed in relation to the industrial waste that suffused its landscape. Drawing on data from both archaeological excavation and environmental testing, this article argues that the community of Ross Acreage was defined materially by its long-term relationship with industrial waste, what we term a ‘fence-line community’.

Dejects and Cannibals

Ana Lily Amirpour’s 2017 film The Bad Batch is a nightmare of postmodern abjection. Set in a desert wasteland in Texas, the film depicts a quasi-futuristic society that starkly reveals the dark underside of contemporary society, here portrayed in two realms, both exhibiting the height of abjection: the cannibal town called the Bridge and the shanty town of Comfort, where a lone perverse patriarch impregnates all the women while doling out steady doses of LSD to contain the masses. Borrowing from Julia Kristeva’s description of the ‘deject’ in her work Powers of Horror, this analysis focuses on those characters who ultimately choose neither of these options. Having confronted and internalized the abject, these characters become eternal exiles, achieving a measure of liberation by assuming and embodying their partiality and by embracing ‘a weight of meaninglessness, about which there is nothing insignificant’ (Kristeva, J., 1982: 2).

La urbanización marginal durante el franquismo: el chabolismo madrileño (1950-1960) = The informal urbanization during the Franco’s regime: The slums crisis in Madrid (1950-1960)

Resumen: En este artículo se aborda el surgimiento del chabolismo en la ciudad de Madrid durante la década de 1950, así como la intervención y gestión sobre esta realidad por parte de las autoridades de la dictadura franquista. A través del caso del Pozo del Tío Raimundo, barrio chabolista del sur de la ciudad, se pretende demostrar que las construcciones irregulares que se levantaban en la periferia de Madrid no eran meros asentamientos espontáneos, sino que respondieron a un modelo de urbanización marginal. El acercamiento a un espacio concreto permite analizar las características dadas por el contexto de la dictadura franquista al modelo de urbanización marginal en Madrid, atendiendo no solo a la normativa promulgada por la dictadura sino también a la actuación desplegada en un núcleo concreto.Palabras clave: Urbanización marginal, barrios marginales, chabolismo, franquismo, Pozo del Tío Raimundo, Madrid.Abstract: Our study covers the emergence of “chabolismo” in the city of Madrid in the 50’s decade, as well as the intervention and management of the authorities on this reality during the Francoist dictatorship. Through the study of the case of Pozo del Tío Raimundo, a shanty town in the south of the city, we aim to show that the irregular constructions built around the outskirts of the city were not spontaneous settlements but were part of a model of informal urbanisation. The approach to a concrete space lets us link the characteristics provided by the context of the Francoist dictatorship to the model of informal urbanisation in Madrid, considering not only the dictatorship’s laws, but also the actions taken on a specific district.Keywords: Informal urbanization, slums, chabolismo, Francoism, Pozo del Tío Raimundo, Madrid.

The Smell of Others: Olfactory claims and the public sphere

Smell is typically considered the least of the senses, the lowest in a hierarchy privileging sight since the Enlightenment. The experience of olfaction is highly emotion-laden and tightly bound to memory and personal history, and Western smell vocabularies are notoriously poor: scentful experience seems poorly suited as a basis to enroll others in political projects, especially in contexts that privilege rational public debate. But smells can also spur us to immediate action. When do they prompt us to enroll others in that action, and how do we turn individual sensory experiences into convincing arguments? How does olfaction leave the realm of individual experience and generate consequential social change? This article shows how social processes of olfaction can be used to prompt social action. With an analysis of the complaints that legitimated the 2015 destruction of a shanty town in southern Sweden and a historical inquiry into the shared beliefs that allowed those complaints to make sense, I show how olfactory claims – claims based on personal experiences of smell – can leverage broadly shared norms, values, and meanings to demand social action. Despite the personal, emotional, and fleeting nature of olfactory experience (or perhaps thanks to those features, which disallow independent confirmation) it can easily be weaponized as a political tool. This article asks how individual sensory experience can have social impact, and shows how a fit between local olfactory cosmologies and the particular features of olfactory claims can allow them to be used to demand action.

Economic Integration versus Social Avoidance: Assessing Neighborhood Relationships Between the Shanty Town of Calabar and its Surrounding Upper-class Gated Communities | Integração econômica vs evitamento social: analisando relações de bairro entre a favela de Calabar e os condomínios de elite circundantes

This research assesses the impact of neighborhood effects on the well-being of thirty inhabitants in Calabar, a shanty-town set within an upper-class area of Salvador (Brazil). We adopted a threefold methodological framework in order to explore the material, social and symbolic dimensions of the neighborhood effects based on a set of interviews. With regard to the material dimension, cross-class interactions via the employment nexus are fostered through geographic proximity; however social segmentation regarding access to schools, hospitals and leisure activities have reinforced the social hierarchies. In the social dimension, a high degree of cohesion and solidarity has entailed positive implications for the job search processes, access to resources and a strengthening of territorial identity. With the symbolic dimension, statistical discrimination has entailed deleterious effects on economic integration. In conclusion, the hypothesis of an opportunity-enriching environment should be subjected to careful scrutiny since the economic integration of the inhabitants neither bridges the social distances nor impedes place-based discrimination.