This paper uses the theoretical and analytical resources of critical theory to explore the proces... more This paper uses the theoretical and analytical resources of critical theory to explore the processes and conflicts over efforts to present tragic events as spectacles, focusing on a case study of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent government response have intensified uncertainty and unpredictability, disclose a new insecurity in US cities, and showed how a predicted disaster could wreck havoc within the US economy and political system. I first examine the ways in which the logic of spectacle and entertainment permeate a major disaster like Katrina. Next, I investigate how media coverage and political commentary on Katrina insinuates its own immanent critique of racial and class divisions in urban America. Finally, I draw attention to how critical tendencies are immanent to the commodification process itself, in the form of disaster tourism and the production of Katrina souvenirs that embrace spectacle to criticize federal policy and build global awareness of New Orleans's plight. Overall, my goal is to show how the category of immanent critique can play an important role in drawing out the implications of disaster-as-spectacle, illustrating the intersection of race and class in US cities, and highlighting the multidimensional, conflictual and contradictory character of spectacles.
Recent debate over the federal HOPE VI program has focused primarily on whether local application... more Recent debate over the federal HOPE VI program has focused primarily on whether local applications have met administrative pledges to provide adequate affordable housing to displaced residents of newly demolished public housing developments. In this research we take a different direction, examining local processes of political mobilization and strategic framing around a specific type of HOPE VI redevelopment-one that includes construction of a big-box superstore as part of proposed urban renewal. We argue that the HOPE VI program's formal alignment with New Urbanism created a political opportunity for competing actors to adopt and espouse selective new urbanist themes and imagery to construct and advance divergent visions what urban space ought to be. Through these framing strategies and struggles, the developer, displaced residents, and opposition groups produced "the City" as a rhetorical object that each then used to advocate specific redevelopment proposals while delegitimating competing claims.
DeFilippis, J. (2004) Unmaking Goliath: Community Control in the Face of Global Capital. New York... more DeFilippis, J. (2004) Unmaking Goliath: Community Control in the Face of Global Capital. New York: Routledge. Harvey, D. (1972) Society, the City and the Space-Economy of Urbanism. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers. Marcuse, P. (1978) Housing ...
Recent urban scholarship on the rise of the tourism industry, place marketing and the transformat... more Recent urban scholarship on the rise of the tourism industry, place marketing and the transformation of cities into entertainment destinations has been dominated by four major themes: the primacy of 'consumption' over 'production'; the eclipse of exchange-value by sign-value; the idea of autoreferential culture; and, the ascendancy of textual deconstruction and discursive analyses over political economy critiques of capitalism. This paper critically assesses the merits of these four themes using a case study of the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. The analytical tools and categories of political economy are used to examine the rise and dominance of tourism in New Orleans, explore the consequences of this economic shift and identify the key actors and organised interests involved in marketing Mardi Gras. 'Marketing' is the use of sophisticated advertising techniques aimed at promoting fantasy, manipulating consumer needs, producing desirable tourist experiences and simulating images of place to attract capital and consumers. The paper points to the limitations of the 'cultural turn' and the 'linguistic turn' in urban studies and uses the concepts of commodi cation and spectacle as a theoretical basis for understanding the marketing of cities, the globalisation of local celebrations and the political economy of tourism.
We examine the HOPE VI and Section 8 housing programs in New Orleans, LA, to address whether they... more We examine the HOPE VI and Section 8 housing programs in New Orleans, LA, to address whether they can be effective anti-poverty strategies. We conceptualize the housing system as a system of social stratification, arguing that recent policy shifts reinforce market dynamics and do not increase access to affordable housing. Our analysis suggests market-centered programs, together with sizeable cuts in federal assistance, are shifting many low-income housing residents to the private market, resulting in economic distress for these families. We maintain that lack of access to affordable housing is fundamentally a public policy issue. We see the combination of lower levels of housing funding and increased private sector control as likely to reduce the long-standing federal commitment to housing, while exacerbating inequalities. Addressing the contradictions inherent in current housing policy could be the first step toward genuine anti-poverty policy reform and progressive change.
While many scholars assert the importance of the narrative mode in historical inquiry, none have ... more While many scholars assert the importance of the narrative mode in historical inquiry, none have demonstrated how it is used specifically to analyze historical events and social action in processual, action-oriented ways. In this essay, we examine recent research on capitalstate relations and urban development to demonstrate how political sociologists and urban sociologists are using narrative mode to examine the interconnectedness of human agency and social structure and the temporality of historical events in processual ways. We find that this newest research is utilizing narrative to generate new meanings of causality and to redefine the role of theory and explanation. We conclude by considering the implications of these developments for the future of sociology.
relation to Melbourne. Gotham's central concern is to develop a critical theory of urban spectacl... more relation to Melbourne. Gotham's central concern is to develop a critical theory of urban spectacles, using the ideas of Guy Debord and Henri Lefebvre, to highlight the conflicts and struggles over meanings of local celebrations, highlight the irrationalities and contradictions of converting cities into tourist spectacles, and wider concerns about the relationship between tourism and local culture. Rather than seeing this spectacularisation of local cultures as simply negative or positive, Gotham discusses how tourism is a conflictual and contradictory process that simultaneously disempowers localities and creates new pressures for local autonomy and resistance. Detailed ethnographic material is used to show how local festivals have become 'battlefields of contention', with different groups and interests attempting to produce them for their own ends. In the face of globalised forms of cultural production and consumption that limit creativity, we hear voices from local actors who use urban spectacles to sow seeds of dissent, create breeding grounds for reflexive action and launch radical critiques of inequality.
Based on our analysis of New Urbanist frames, we suggest that HOPE VI provides both structural an... more Based on our analysis of New Urbanist frames, we suggest that HOPE VI provides both structural and interpretive political opportunities to actors competing to frame the transformation of public housing. As a structural opportunity, HOPE VI alters public-housing debates by enhancing the possibilities for political action by economic elites in competition with other actors. As an interpretive opportunity, HOPE VI's explicit embrace of New Urbanism supplies a novel and strategic vocabulary that actors can attempt to use to influence policy, alter political alignments, and raise the public profile and salience of particular issues. Although each of the participants we discuss wielded the linguistic tools of New Urbanism, the developer (HRI) was able to selectively deploy such themes most effectively to create and magnify critical local issues. Principals in the Urban Conservancy suggest that these claims and subsequent related analyses require more nuanced consideration along a number of important lines. Here, we take the opportunity to detail and respond to four questions we see as raised by Melendez and Coats.
In recent years scholars have identified racial disparities in wealth and home ownership as cruci... more In recent years scholars have identified racial disparities in wealth and home ownership as crucial factors underlying patterns of racial inequality and residential segregation in American metropolitan housing markets. While numerous federal housing policies have been identified as responsible for reinforcing residential segregation and racial inequalities in home ownership, little research has focused on the segregative effects of the Section 235 program. As one component of the 1968 Housing Act, Section 235 was designed to shift the focus of federal housing policy away from dispensing aid to local housing authorities for building public housing to providing direct supply-side subsidies to the private sector to stimulate home ownership for nonwhites and the poor. Archival and census data, government reports and housing analyses, and oral histories and interviews are used to examine the segregative effects of the Section 235 program in Kansas City, Missouri from 1969 through the early 1970s. Findings indicate that while the housing subsidy program allowed a vast majority of participating white families to purchase “new” housing in suburban areas, most participating African American families purchased “existing” homes located in racially transitional neighborhoods in the inner city. These findings corroborate recent research showing how the market-centered focus of federal housing policy has impaired the ability of African Americans to accumulate wealth through home ownership and reinforced racially segregative housing patterns.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2009
AbstractSince the classic work of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey, the ‘secondary circuit of capi... more AbstractSince the classic work of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey, the ‘secondary circuit of capital’ has been a focal point for debate among critical urban scholars. Against the background of contemporary debates on financialization, this article investigates the institutional and political roots of the subprime mortgage crisis. Empirically, the article situates the current turmoil of the US mortgage sector with reference to a series of ad hoc legal and regulatory actions taken since the 1980s to promote the securitization of mortgages and expand the secondary mortgage market. Securitization is a process of converting illiquid assets into transparent securities and is a critical component of the financialization of real estate markets and investment. Specifically, I examine the crucial role played by the US Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in creating the polices and legal-regulatory conditions that have nurtured the growth of a market for securitizing subprime loans. Theoretically, the article examines the subprime mortgage crisis as an illustration of the contradictions of capital circulation as expressed in the tendency of capital to annihilate space through time.Since the classic work of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey, the ‘secondary circuit of capital’ has been a focal point for debate among critical urban scholars. Against the background of contemporary debates on financialization, this article investigates the institutional and political roots of the subprime mortgage crisis. Empirically, the article situates the current turmoil of the US mortgage sector with reference to a series of ad hoc legal and regulatory actions taken since the 1980s to promote the securitization of mortgages and expand the secondary mortgage market. Securitization is a process of converting illiquid assets into transparent securities and is a critical component of the financialization of real estate markets and investment. Specifically, I examine the crucial role played by the US Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in creating the polices and legal-regulatory conditions that have nurtured the growth of a market for securitizing subprime loans. Theoretically, the article examines the subprime mortgage crisis as an illustration of the contradictions of capital circulation as expressed in the tendency of capital to annihilate space through time.RésuméDepuis les travaux de référence d’Henri Lefebvre et de David Harvey, le ‘circuit secondaire des capitaux’ a suscité de nombreuses discussions entre spécialistes critiques de la ville. Avec en toile de fond les débats contemporains sur la financiarisation, cet article étudie les racines institutionnelles et politiques de la crise des subprimes. Sur le plan empirique, il situe le bouleversement actuel du secteur américain des prêts hypothécaires par rapport à une série de mesures de Droit et de réglementations spécifiques adoptées depuis les années 1980 pour promouvoir la titrisation et le marché secondaire des crédits hypothécaires. La titrisation, qui permet de convertir des actifs peu liquides en valeurs mobilières transparentes, est une composante essentielle de la financiarisation de l’investissement et des marchés immobiliers. Une attention particulière est accordée au rôle crucial qu’ont joué, aux États-Unis, l’autorité de surveillance des banques relevant du ministère des Finances (OCC), ainsi que le ministère du Logement et de l’Urbanisme (HUD), dans la création des cadres et des conditions juridico-réglementaires qui ont nourri l’essor du marché de la titrisation des prêts hypothécaires à risque. Sur le plan théorique, l’article analyse la crise des subprimes comme une illustration des contractions de la circulation des capitaux, ces derniers tendant à anéantir l’espace par le temps.Depuis les travaux de référence d’Henri Lefebvre et de David Harvey, le ‘circuit secondaire des capitaux’ a suscité de nombreuses discussions entre spécialistes critiques de la ville. Avec en toile de fond les débats contemporains sur la financiarisation, cet article étudie les racines institutionnelles et politiques de la crise des subprimes. Sur le plan empirique, il situe le bouleversement actuel du secteur américain des prêts hypothécaires par rapport à une série de mesures de Droit et de réglementations spécifiques adoptées depuis les années 1980 pour promouvoir la titrisation et le marché secondaire des crédits hypothécaires. La titrisation, qui permet de convertir des actifs peu liquides en valeurs mobilières transparentes, est une composante essentielle de la financiarisation de l’investissement et des marchés immobiliers. Une attention particulière est accordée au rôle crucial qu’ont joué, aux États-Unis, l’autorité de surveillance des banques relevant du ministère des Finances (OCC), ainsi que le ministère du Logement et de l’Urbanisme (HUD), dans la création des cadres et des conditions juridico-réglementaires qui ont nourri l’essor du marché de la titrisation des prêts hypothécaires à risque. Sur le plan théorique, l’article analyse la crise des subprimes comme une illustration des contractions de la circulation des capitaux, ces derniers tendant à anéantir l’espace par le temps.
In recent years, research on poverty and segregation has been organized within a dominant discour... more In recent years, research on poverty and segregation has been organized within a dominant discourse that centers on the relative salience of racial discrimination or macroeconomic change as a determinant of concentrated minority poverty. In contrast, little sociological research has focused on federal housing policies and programs as important factors shaping racial patterns of poverty and residential segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas. Drawing upon census data, public documents, housing reports, and interviews with local residents, I examine how federal and local housing initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s have interacted with the shift to a service-oriented economy to reinforce racial residential segregation and exacerbate urban poverty in Kansas City. I find that persistent racial residential segregation, including minority poverty concentration and the spatial isolation of inner-city neighborhoods, is due to post-1970 changes in the operation of the metropolitan housing market and retrenchment in federal and local housing policy. Rather than viewing racial discrimination and macroeconomic change as disconnected and separate “variables,” I focus on the interconnectedness and mutually reinforcing character of both factors. Such an emphasis moves beyond separate-variables approaches and analyses to identify how concentrated minority poverty is sustained not only by racial discrimination and large-scale macroeconomic and demographic changes, but also by the market-centered orientation of federal housing programs and policies.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2003
The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of empirical research on the spatial aspects of ... more The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of empirical research on the spatial aspects of social life. Several spatial metaphors, including`free spaces' ,`safe spaces' (Collins
This article examines the process of post-disaster recovery and rebuilding in New York City since... more This article examines the process of post-disaster recovery and rebuilding in New York City since 9/11 and in New Orleans since the Hurricane Katrina disaster (8/29). As destabilizing events, 9/11 and 8/29 forced a rethinking of the major categories, concepts and theories that long dominated disaster research. We analyze the form, trajectory and problems of reconstruction in the two cities with special emphasis on the implementation of the Community Development Block Grant program, the Liberty Zone and the Gulf Opportunity Zone, and tax-exempt private activity bonds to finance and promote reinvestment. Drawing on a variety of data sources, we show that New York and New Orleans have become important laboratories for entrepreneurial city and state governments seeking to use post-disaster rebuilding as an opportunity to push through far-reaching neoliberal policy reforms. The emphasis on using market-centered approaches for urban recovery and rebuilding in New York and New Orleans should be seen not as coherent or sustainable responses to urban disaster but rather as deeply contradictory restructuring strategies that are intensifying the problems they seek to remedy.
This article examines racial conflicts over efforts to build low‐income government‐subsidized hou... more This article examines racial conflicts over efforts to build low‐income government‐subsidized housing in Kansas City suburbs from 1970 to 1990. Drawing on public documents, housing reports and analyses, and local newspaper accounts, I examine how suburban residents have reacted to and organized against government attempts to construct housing for low‐income people outside the inner city. I argue that the mobilization of suburban Whites against low‐income housing has been due to the perceived threat state‐led integration efforts have posed to White privileged access to, and control over, suburban housing practices (i.e., single‐family homeownership, racially exclusive neighborhoods, etc.). An analysis of the racial conflicts and struggles over housing integration illustrates the social construction of White racial identity and the constructed identity of the suburban homeowner. In conclusion, I discuss how single‐family homeownership, a fundamental characteristic of American suburbs, imputes distinct social meaning to urban space and serves as a basis of political mobilization along racial lines.
Recent critiques of conventional poverty research have highlighted the need to move beyond the co... more Recent critiques of conventional poverty research have highlighted the need to move beyond the conceptual limitations of "neighborhood effects" models and the use of the tropes of "adaptation" or "resistance" to explain the behaviors and actions of the urban poor. We use ethnographic field observations and interviews with publichousing residents to address these limitations in the poverty literature, assess competing explanations of poor people's agency, and provide insight into the importance of space as a mediating link between macrostructural constraints and locally situated behaviors. We theorize agency and identity as spatial phenomena-with spatial attributes and spatial influences-and examine how different spatial meanings and locations enable or constrain particular forms of social action and behavior. Our ethnographic and interview data depict several strategies by which residents "use space" to provide a measure of security and protection, to designate and avoid areas of criminality and drug activity, and to challenge or support the redevelopment of public housing. From these data we show that urban space is not a residual phenomenon in which social action occurs, but a constitutive dimension of social life that shapes life experiences, social conflict, and action. Notes 1 We use pseudonyms for persons and locations to ensure anonymity.
The author examines the U.S. real estate sector to show how the state shapes global real estate f... more The author examines the U.S. real estate sector to show how the state shapes global real estate flows and networks of activity through the creation and control of liquid resources. The analysis focuses on the role of state laws and regulations in the expansion of the mortgage-backed securities markets and the development of real estate investment trusts (REITs). These institutional developments represent a series of ad hoc state efforts to "delocalize" residential and commercial property, and embed real estate financing within global capital markets. Rather than viewing globalization as weakening the state, the author argues that the U.S. state's capacity to influence the degree and development of liquidity is a powerful mechanism of globalization.
Recent urban scholarship has questioned the validity, methodology, and assumptions of the invasio... more Recent urban scholarship has questioned the validity, methodology, and assumptions of the invasion-succession model of neighborhood racial transition but has yet to elaborate a framework that extends beyond a critique of ecological theory. In this article, I use the theoretical insights of the sociospatial approach and draw on census data, government documents and reports, in-depth interviews, and oral histories to examine the racial transition of southeast Kansas City, Missouri after 1950. I advance understanding of neighborhood transition by identifying the key actors, organized interests, and institutional forces that the invasion-succession model has neglected to incorporate into its explanatory framework. I investigate the critical links between discriminatory school boundary decisions and real estate blockbusting in determining the timing, pace, and magnitude of racial succession. My objective is to fashion an alternative theory of neighborhood racial transition that takes into account the power of events to shape and transform ecological patterns, illuminates the interconnectedness of structural factors and human agency, and highlights the role of powerful actors and organized interests in marketing racial exclusion and reinforcing racially segregated settlement spaces.
This paper uses the theoretical and analytical resources of critical theory to explore the proces... more This paper uses the theoretical and analytical resources of critical theory to explore the processes and conflicts over efforts to present tragic events as spectacles, focusing on a case study of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent government response have intensified uncertainty and unpredictability, disclose a new insecurity in US cities, and showed how a predicted disaster could wreck havoc within the US economy and political system. I first examine the ways in which the logic of spectacle and entertainment permeate a major disaster like Katrina. Next, I investigate how media coverage and political commentary on Katrina insinuates its own immanent critique of racial and class divisions in urban America. Finally, I draw attention to how critical tendencies are immanent to the commodification process itself, in the form of disaster tourism and the production of Katrina souvenirs that embrace spectacle to criticize federal policy and build global awareness of New Orleans's plight. Overall, my goal is to show how the category of immanent critique can play an important role in drawing out the implications of disaster-as-spectacle, illustrating the intersection of race and class in US cities, and highlighting the multidimensional, conflictual and contradictory character of spectacles.
Recent debate over the federal HOPE VI program has focused primarily on whether local application... more Recent debate over the federal HOPE VI program has focused primarily on whether local applications have met administrative pledges to provide adequate affordable housing to displaced residents of newly demolished public housing developments. In this research we take a different direction, examining local processes of political mobilization and strategic framing around a specific type of HOPE VI redevelopment-one that includes construction of a big-box superstore as part of proposed urban renewal. We argue that the HOPE VI program's formal alignment with New Urbanism created a political opportunity for competing actors to adopt and espouse selective new urbanist themes and imagery to construct and advance divergent visions what urban space ought to be. Through these framing strategies and struggles, the developer, displaced residents, and opposition groups produced "the City" as a rhetorical object that each then used to advocate specific redevelopment proposals while delegitimating competing claims.
DeFilippis, J. (2004) Unmaking Goliath: Community Control in the Face of Global Capital. New York... more DeFilippis, J. (2004) Unmaking Goliath: Community Control in the Face of Global Capital. New York: Routledge. Harvey, D. (1972) Society, the City and the Space-Economy of Urbanism. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers. Marcuse, P. (1978) Housing ...
Recent urban scholarship on the rise of the tourism industry, place marketing and the transformat... more Recent urban scholarship on the rise of the tourism industry, place marketing and the transformation of cities into entertainment destinations has been dominated by four major themes: the primacy of 'consumption' over 'production'; the eclipse of exchange-value by sign-value; the idea of autoreferential culture; and, the ascendancy of textual deconstruction and discursive analyses over political economy critiques of capitalism. This paper critically assesses the merits of these four themes using a case study of the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. The analytical tools and categories of political economy are used to examine the rise and dominance of tourism in New Orleans, explore the consequences of this economic shift and identify the key actors and organised interests involved in marketing Mardi Gras. 'Marketing' is the use of sophisticated advertising techniques aimed at promoting fantasy, manipulating consumer needs, producing desirable tourist experiences and simulating images of place to attract capital and consumers. The paper points to the limitations of the 'cultural turn' and the 'linguistic turn' in urban studies and uses the concepts of commodi cation and spectacle as a theoretical basis for understanding the marketing of cities, the globalisation of local celebrations and the political economy of tourism.
We examine the HOPE VI and Section 8 housing programs in New Orleans, LA, to address whether they... more We examine the HOPE VI and Section 8 housing programs in New Orleans, LA, to address whether they can be effective anti-poverty strategies. We conceptualize the housing system as a system of social stratification, arguing that recent policy shifts reinforce market dynamics and do not increase access to affordable housing. Our analysis suggests market-centered programs, together with sizeable cuts in federal assistance, are shifting many low-income housing residents to the private market, resulting in economic distress for these families. We maintain that lack of access to affordable housing is fundamentally a public policy issue. We see the combination of lower levels of housing funding and increased private sector control as likely to reduce the long-standing federal commitment to housing, while exacerbating inequalities. Addressing the contradictions inherent in current housing policy could be the first step toward genuine anti-poverty policy reform and progressive change.
While many scholars assert the importance of the narrative mode in historical inquiry, none have ... more While many scholars assert the importance of the narrative mode in historical inquiry, none have demonstrated how it is used specifically to analyze historical events and social action in processual, action-oriented ways. In this essay, we examine recent research on capitalstate relations and urban development to demonstrate how political sociologists and urban sociologists are using narrative mode to examine the interconnectedness of human agency and social structure and the temporality of historical events in processual ways. We find that this newest research is utilizing narrative to generate new meanings of causality and to redefine the role of theory and explanation. We conclude by considering the implications of these developments for the future of sociology.
relation to Melbourne. Gotham's central concern is to develop a critical theory of urban spectacl... more relation to Melbourne. Gotham's central concern is to develop a critical theory of urban spectacles, using the ideas of Guy Debord and Henri Lefebvre, to highlight the conflicts and struggles over meanings of local celebrations, highlight the irrationalities and contradictions of converting cities into tourist spectacles, and wider concerns about the relationship between tourism and local culture. Rather than seeing this spectacularisation of local cultures as simply negative or positive, Gotham discusses how tourism is a conflictual and contradictory process that simultaneously disempowers localities and creates new pressures for local autonomy and resistance. Detailed ethnographic material is used to show how local festivals have become 'battlefields of contention', with different groups and interests attempting to produce them for their own ends. In the face of globalised forms of cultural production and consumption that limit creativity, we hear voices from local actors who use urban spectacles to sow seeds of dissent, create breeding grounds for reflexive action and launch radical critiques of inequality.
Based on our analysis of New Urbanist frames, we suggest that HOPE VI provides both structural an... more Based on our analysis of New Urbanist frames, we suggest that HOPE VI provides both structural and interpretive political opportunities to actors competing to frame the transformation of public housing. As a structural opportunity, HOPE VI alters public-housing debates by enhancing the possibilities for political action by economic elites in competition with other actors. As an interpretive opportunity, HOPE VI's explicit embrace of New Urbanism supplies a novel and strategic vocabulary that actors can attempt to use to influence policy, alter political alignments, and raise the public profile and salience of particular issues. Although each of the participants we discuss wielded the linguistic tools of New Urbanism, the developer (HRI) was able to selectively deploy such themes most effectively to create and magnify critical local issues. Principals in the Urban Conservancy suggest that these claims and subsequent related analyses require more nuanced consideration along a number of important lines. Here, we take the opportunity to detail and respond to four questions we see as raised by Melendez and Coats.
In recent years scholars have identified racial disparities in wealth and home ownership as cruci... more In recent years scholars have identified racial disparities in wealth and home ownership as crucial factors underlying patterns of racial inequality and residential segregation in American metropolitan housing markets. While numerous federal housing policies have been identified as responsible for reinforcing residential segregation and racial inequalities in home ownership, little research has focused on the segregative effects of the Section 235 program. As one component of the 1968 Housing Act, Section 235 was designed to shift the focus of federal housing policy away from dispensing aid to local housing authorities for building public housing to providing direct supply-side subsidies to the private sector to stimulate home ownership for nonwhites and the poor. Archival and census data, government reports and housing analyses, and oral histories and interviews are used to examine the segregative effects of the Section 235 program in Kansas City, Missouri from 1969 through the early 1970s. Findings indicate that while the housing subsidy program allowed a vast majority of participating white families to purchase “new” housing in suburban areas, most participating African American families purchased “existing” homes located in racially transitional neighborhoods in the inner city. These findings corroborate recent research showing how the market-centered focus of federal housing policy has impaired the ability of African Americans to accumulate wealth through home ownership and reinforced racially segregative housing patterns.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2009
AbstractSince the classic work of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey, the ‘secondary circuit of capi... more AbstractSince the classic work of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey, the ‘secondary circuit of capital’ has been a focal point for debate among critical urban scholars. Against the background of contemporary debates on financialization, this article investigates the institutional and political roots of the subprime mortgage crisis. Empirically, the article situates the current turmoil of the US mortgage sector with reference to a series of ad hoc legal and regulatory actions taken since the 1980s to promote the securitization of mortgages and expand the secondary mortgage market. Securitization is a process of converting illiquid assets into transparent securities and is a critical component of the financialization of real estate markets and investment. Specifically, I examine the crucial role played by the US Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in creating the polices and legal-regulatory conditions that have nurtured the growth of a market for securitizing subprime loans. Theoretically, the article examines the subprime mortgage crisis as an illustration of the contradictions of capital circulation as expressed in the tendency of capital to annihilate space through time.Since the classic work of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey, the ‘secondary circuit of capital’ has been a focal point for debate among critical urban scholars. Against the background of contemporary debates on financialization, this article investigates the institutional and political roots of the subprime mortgage crisis. Empirically, the article situates the current turmoil of the US mortgage sector with reference to a series of ad hoc legal and regulatory actions taken since the 1980s to promote the securitization of mortgages and expand the secondary mortgage market. Securitization is a process of converting illiquid assets into transparent securities and is a critical component of the financialization of real estate markets and investment. Specifically, I examine the crucial role played by the US Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in creating the polices and legal-regulatory conditions that have nurtured the growth of a market for securitizing subprime loans. Theoretically, the article examines the subprime mortgage crisis as an illustration of the contradictions of capital circulation as expressed in the tendency of capital to annihilate space through time.RésuméDepuis les travaux de référence d’Henri Lefebvre et de David Harvey, le ‘circuit secondaire des capitaux’ a suscité de nombreuses discussions entre spécialistes critiques de la ville. Avec en toile de fond les débats contemporains sur la financiarisation, cet article étudie les racines institutionnelles et politiques de la crise des subprimes. Sur le plan empirique, il situe le bouleversement actuel du secteur américain des prêts hypothécaires par rapport à une série de mesures de Droit et de réglementations spécifiques adoptées depuis les années 1980 pour promouvoir la titrisation et le marché secondaire des crédits hypothécaires. La titrisation, qui permet de convertir des actifs peu liquides en valeurs mobilières transparentes, est une composante essentielle de la financiarisation de l’investissement et des marchés immobiliers. Une attention particulière est accordée au rôle crucial qu’ont joué, aux États-Unis, l’autorité de surveillance des banques relevant du ministère des Finances (OCC), ainsi que le ministère du Logement et de l’Urbanisme (HUD), dans la création des cadres et des conditions juridico-réglementaires qui ont nourri l’essor du marché de la titrisation des prêts hypothécaires à risque. Sur le plan théorique, l’article analyse la crise des subprimes comme une illustration des contractions de la circulation des capitaux, ces derniers tendant à anéantir l’espace par le temps.Depuis les travaux de référence d’Henri Lefebvre et de David Harvey, le ‘circuit secondaire des capitaux’ a suscité de nombreuses discussions entre spécialistes critiques de la ville. Avec en toile de fond les débats contemporains sur la financiarisation, cet article étudie les racines institutionnelles et politiques de la crise des subprimes. Sur le plan empirique, il situe le bouleversement actuel du secteur américain des prêts hypothécaires par rapport à une série de mesures de Droit et de réglementations spécifiques adoptées depuis les années 1980 pour promouvoir la titrisation et le marché secondaire des crédits hypothécaires. La titrisation, qui permet de convertir des actifs peu liquides en valeurs mobilières transparentes, est une composante essentielle de la financiarisation de l’investissement et des marchés immobiliers. Une attention particulière est accordée au rôle crucial qu’ont joué, aux États-Unis, l’autorité de surveillance des banques relevant du ministère des Finances (OCC), ainsi que le ministère du Logement et de l’Urbanisme (HUD), dans la création des cadres et des conditions juridico-réglementaires qui ont nourri l’essor du marché de la titrisation des prêts hypothécaires à risque. Sur le plan théorique, l’article analyse la crise des subprimes comme une illustration des contractions de la circulation des capitaux, ces derniers tendant à anéantir l’espace par le temps.
In recent years, research on poverty and segregation has been organized within a dominant discour... more In recent years, research on poverty and segregation has been organized within a dominant discourse that centers on the relative salience of racial discrimination or macroeconomic change as a determinant of concentrated minority poverty. In contrast, little sociological research has focused on federal housing policies and programs as important factors shaping racial patterns of poverty and residential segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas. Drawing upon census data, public documents, housing reports, and interviews with local residents, I examine how federal and local housing initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s have interacted with the shift to a service-oriented economy to reinforce racial residential segregation and exacerbate urban poverty in Kansas City. I find that persistent racial residential segregation, including minority poverty concentration and the spatial isolation of inner-city neighborhoods, is due to post-1970 changes in the operation of the metropolitan housing market and retrenchment in federal and local housing policy. Rather than viewing racial discrimination and macroeconomic change as disconnected and separate “variables,” I focus on the interconnectedness and mutually reinforcing character of both factors. Such an emphasis moves beyond separate-variables approaches and analyses to identify how concentrated minority poverty is sustained not only by racial discrimination and large-scale macroeconomic and demographic changes, but also by the market-centered orientation of federal housing programs and policies.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2003
The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of empirical research on the spatial aspects of ... more The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of empirical research on the spatial aspects of social life. Several spatial metaphors, including`free spaces' ,`safe spaces' (Collins
This article examines the process of post-disaster recovery and rebuilding in New York City since... more This article examines the process of post-disaster recovery and rebuilding in New York City since 9/11 and in New Orleans since the Hurricane Katrina disaster (8/29). As destabilizing events, 9/11 and 8/29 forced a rethinking of the major categories, concepts and theories that long dominated disaster research. We analyze the form, trajectory and problems of reconstruction in the two cities with special emphasis on the implementation of the Community Development Block Grant program, the Liberty Zone and the Gulf Opportunity Zone, and tax-exempt private activity bonds to finance and promote reinvestment. Drawing on a variety of data sources, we show that New York and New Orleans have become important laboratories for entrepreneurial city and state governments seeking to use post-disaster rebuilding as an opportunity to push through far-reaching neoliberal policy reforms. The emphasis on using market-centered approaches for urban recovery and rebuilding in New York and New Orleans should be seen not as coherent or sustainable responses to urban disaster but rather as deeply contradictory restructuring strategies that are intensifying the problems they seek to remedy.
This article examines racial conflicts over efforts to build low‐income government‐subsidized hou... more This article examines racial conflicts over efforts to build low‐income government‐subsidized housing in Kansas City suburbs from 1970 to 1990. Drawing on public documents, housing reports and analyses, and local newspaper accounts, I examine how suburban residents have reacted to and organized against government attempts to construct housing for low‐income people outside the inner city. I argue that the mobilization of suburban Whites against low‐income housing has been due to the perceived threat state‐led integration efforts have posed to White privileged access to, and control over, suburban housing practices (i.e., single‐family homeownership, racially exclusive neighborhoods, etc.). An analysis of the racial conflicts and struggles over housing integration illustrates the social construction of White racial identity and the constructed identity of the suburban homeowner. In conclusion, I discuss how single‐family homeownership, a fundamental characteristic of American suburbs, imputes distinct social meaning to urban space and serves as a basis of political mobilization along racial lines.
Recent critiques of conventional poverty research have highlighted the need to move beyond the co... more Recent critiques of conventional poverty research have highlighted the need to move beyond the conceptual limitations of "neighborhood effects" models and the use of the tropes of "adaptation" or "resistance" to explain the behaviors and actions of the urban poor. We use ethnographic field observations and interviews with publichousing residents to address these limitations in the poverty literature, assess competing explanations of poor people's agency, and provide insight into the importance of space as a mediating link between macrostructural constraints and locally situated behaviors. We theorize agency and identity as spatial phenomena-with spatial attributes and spatial influences-and examine how different spatial meanings and locations enable or constrain particular forms of social action and behavior. Our ethnographic and interview data depict several strategies by which residents "use space" to provide a measure of security and protection, to designate and avoid areas of criminality and drug activity, and to challenge or support the redevelopment of public housing. From these data we show that urban space is not a residual phenomenon in which social action occurs, but a constitutive dimension of social life that shapes life experiences, social conflict, and action. Notes 1 We use pseudonyms for persons and locations to ensure anonymity.
The author examines the U.S. real estate sector to show how the state shapes global real estate f... more The author examines the U.S. real estate sector to show how the state shapes global real estate flows and networks of activity through the creation and control of liquid resources. The analysis focuses on the role of state laws and regulations in the expansion of the mortgage-backed securities markets and the development of real estate investment trusts (REITs). These institutional developments represent a series of ad hoc state efforts to "delocalize" residential and commercial property, and embed real estate financing within global capital markets. Rather than viewing globalization as weakening the state, the author argues that the U.S. state's capacity to influence the degree and development of liquidity is a powerful mechanism of globalization.
Recent urban scholarship has questioned the validity, methodology, and assumptions of the invasio... more Recent urban scholarship has questioned the validity, methodology, and assumptions of the invasion-succession model of neighborhood racial transition but has yet to elaborate a framework that extends beyond a critique of ecological theory. In this article, I use the theoretical insights of the sociospatial approach and draw on census data, government documents and reports, in-depth interviews, and oral histories to examine the racial transition of southeast Kansas City, Missouri after 1950. I advance understanding of neighborhood transition by identifying the key actors, organized interests, and institutional forces that the invasion-succession model has neglected to incorporate into its explanatory framework. I investigate the critical links between discriminatory school boundary decisions and real estate blockbusting in determining the timing, pace, and magnitude of racial succession. My objective is to fashion an alternative theory of neighborhood racial transition that takes into account the power of events to shape and transform ecological patterns, illuminates the interconnectedness of structural factors and human agency, and highlights the role of powerful actors and organized interests in marketing racial exclusion and reinforcing racially segregated settlement spaces.
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Papers by Kevin Gotham