Dispossession as depotentiation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4475355
AutoresMatthew Wilhelm-Solomon (0000-0001-9946-5817, University of the Witwatersrand, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen39
Número6
Páginas976-993
Fecha de publicación2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/02637758211036467
OpenAlexW3188686072
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas35

This paper proposes a theory of urban dispossession as depotentiation. 'Depotentiation', as I employ the term, indicates the diminishment of imminent capacities, affects and potentialities. I propose this formulation to both complement and critique Harvey's dominant notion of accumulation by dispossession as the commodification of the urban commons and to contribute to conceptual developments on the stratified and affective dimensions of eviction. The evictions in my study operate in liminal urban spaces where there are no 'commons', but rather incomplete and fragile processes of 'commoning' and high levels of mobility and precarity. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2019 in inner-city Johannesburg in unlawful and other informal occupations, frequently termed 'bad buildings', 'hijacked buildings' or 'dark buildings' and other low-income accommodation. These are sites of extreme precarity and liminality, endurance and potentiality, where tens of thousands of inner-city residents, South African and foreign-national, live without essential services and subject to the constant threat of eviction or deportation. Dispossession of their residents operates not only through the commodification of an urban commons but also through the diminishment of urban potentiality

Commodification · Commons · Criminology · Deportation · Economics · Economy · Eviction · Liminality · Political science · Precarity · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Urban Planning and Governance · Water Governance and Infrastructure