WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.920 Okay, we'll begin. My name's Mark Cully. I'm with the National Institute of Labor Studies at Flinders University, 2 00:00:06.640 --> 00:00:12.280 and it's my very great privilege to introduce this afternoon to you Professor Saskia Sassan, 3 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:17.920 who's been brought to us courtesy of the University of Adelaide as part of its Globalisation Series. 4 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:25.680 Now, if I was to reel off Saskia's full CV to you, my introduction would take up the best part of the time that we have, 5 00:00:25.860 --> 00:00:27.600 so I'm going to have to keep it brief. 6 00:00:28.660 --> 00:00:32.760 Saskia is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, 7 00:00:33.980 --> 00:00:42.960 and I should explain that after Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, sociology was practically invented in the Chicago school. 8 00:00:44.140 --> 00:00:49.760 If there was a Nobel Prize in sociology, then many of its recipients would have hailed from Chicago, 9 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:57.420 although Gary Becker, and this is an appropriate moment for you to boo, of the Economics Department in Chicago, 10 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.160 would inevitably claim that he'd been there and done that already. 11 00:01:01.800 --> 00:01:07.100 Now, sociologists have a very broad remit prying into any aspect of the social. 12 00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:13.440 It might be gambling addiction. It might be why women do all the unpaid work at home. 13 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:15.360 It might be teenage pregnancies. 14 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.500 Now, I've already told you that Professor Sassan has got to be smart. 15 00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:23.160 Well, she must be super smart, as her chosen specialism is cities. 16 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:25.320 You can imagine how it goes. 17 00:01:25.960 --> 00:01:26.720 Dear Dean, 18 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:28.940 She writes to the head of the faculty, 19 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:32.720 Here is my application for a grant for field studies this summer. 20 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:37.560 I'm going to be looking at the way in which cities draw in labor from outside 21 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:41.200 the city at the various stages in the historical development of capitalism. 22 00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:43.120 Consequently, I need to visit 23 00:01:43.960 --> 00:01:46.880 Amsterdam, London, New York, and Shanghai. 24 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:49.340 See you in the fall. 25 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:55.640 Let me be more serious. Professor Sassan is the author of several major books, 26 00:01:56.700 --> 00:01:57.460 all of them, 27 00:01:57.600 --> 00:01:59.700 dealing with the intertwining themes of cities, 28 00:02:00.020 --> 00:02:02.000 their place in the global economy, 29 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:06.180 and the way in which migrants, especially women, make that economy function. 30 00:02:06.580 --> 00:02:09.600 Her books include, going back to 1988, 31 00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:11.420 The Mobility of Labor and Capital, 32 00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:16.180 The Global City, which appeared in 1991 and is now in a second edition, 33 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:19.560 Cities in a World Economy in 1994, 34 00:02:20.480 --> 00:02:25.160 in 1996, Losing Control, Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization, 35 00:02:25.980 --> 00:02:27.080 in 1998, 36 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:30.200 a collection of essays, Globalization is Discontent, 37 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:33.400 and most recently, Guests and Aliens. 38 00:02:33.640 --> 00:02:36.720 Three of those books are for sale in the tent outside. 39 00:02:38.320 --> 00:02:42.740 Most of us academics suffer the ignominy of having our books remained it. 40 00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:44.700 Not so with Saskia, 41 00:02:45.440 --> 00:02:48.020 most of whose books have been reprinted multiple times 42 00:02:48.020 --> 00:02:49.940 and translated into several languages. 43 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:52.520 She is, to put it briefly, 44 00:02:52.720 --> 00:02:55.840 one of the most important theoreticians of our age 45 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:58.660 in understanding the workings of the global economy. 46 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:01.080 Let me give you an example. 47 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:03.360 Many of you might have heard of Paul Krugman, 48 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:05.280 who is a professor of economics at MIT, 49 00:03:05.940 --> 00:03:10.300 and who writes a fairly well-known weekly column on the dismal science. 50 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:15.360 A couple of years ago, he started puzzling over what he thought was a peculiar phenomenon. 51 00:03:15.880 --> 00:03:19.500 Given personal computers, given connectivity, 52 00:03:19.940 --> 00:03:22.860 and given rapidly falling telecommunication costs, 53 00:03:23.160 --> 00:03:25.820 one might expect to see employment become a very important part of the economy. 54 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.300 It is becoming more dispersed, more far-flung, 55 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:32.540 as so-called knowledge workers could work from home. 56 00:03:32.600 --> 00:03:34.440 They could, in fact, work from anywhere. 57 00:03:35.420 --> 00:03:37.220 Instead, what we observe is the reverse. 58 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:40.860 There has been a growing concentration of employment in cities, 59 00:03:41.100 --> 00:03:43.780 particularly in the major centres of financial services. 60 00:03:44.140 --> 00:03:45.160 Why was this? 61 00:03:45.760 --> 00:03:46.600 He wondered. 62 00:03:47.200 --> 00:03:49.360 Well, if he'd read a bit outside his discipline, 63 00:03:49.600 --> 00:03:51.720 he would have found the answers already contained 64 00:03:51.720 --> 00:03:54.720 within Professor Sassen's work from five or six years previously. 65 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:57.280 Capital always concentrates, 66 00:03:57.340 --> 00:04:01.140 and it also always commodifies what lies outside the market. 67 00:04:01.880 --> 00:04:04.760 Thus, migrant women are now meaningly paid 68 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:07.240 for performing the work that had previously been done, 69 00:04:07.340 --> 00:04:09.880 unpaid, by women within the household, 70 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:13.280 cleaning, childminding, and waiting on tables. 71 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:15.980 And I'm sure we're going to hear more on that topic this afternoon. 72 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:18.480 Now, before giving the stage to Saskia, 73 00:04:18.520 --> 00:04:23.780 I wanted to remind us that this festival is dedicated to the life work of Hugh Stratton. 74 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:28.680 Hugh has also contributed so much to our understanding of cities 75 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:30.440 and their place in the economy 76 00:04:30.440 --> 00:04:33.560 in his 1970 book, Ideas for Australian Cities, 77 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:37.740 in his Boyer Lectures of 1974 on Housing and Government, 78 00:04:37.900 --> 00:04:41.500 and as a Deputy Chairman of the South Australian Housing Trust. 79 00:04:42.820 --> 00:04:44.840 By looking at how cities actually work, 80 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:48.660 Hugh was able to show the interdependence of the private and the public, 81 00:04:49.200 --> 00:04:51.240 how the productiveness of the private sector 82 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:54.120 was built on what we might now call social capital. 83 00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:56.660 And these insights, in turn, 84 00:04:56.760 --> 00:04:59.820 fed through into his fundamental reworking of the core of economics. 85 00:05:00.440 --> 00:05:03.280 I count myself among the fortunate to have been one of his students, 86 00:05:03.540 --> 00:05:07.740 and Adelaide's been fortunate indeed to have provided a home for him for so long. 87 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:12.760 Now, it just remains for me to say on behalf of the good burghers of Adelaide, 88 00:05:13.340 --> 00:05:16.140 the last civilised city on earth, according to the New Yorker, 89 00:05:18.100 --> 00:05:19.820 welcome, Professor Saskia Sasson. 90 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:25.360 Thank you. 91 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:30.700 Well, I'm delighted to be here in Adelaide. 92 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:34.480 I want to thank the organisers of the Festival of Ideas, 93 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:36.900 and I want to thank the University of Adelaide. 94 00:05:37.460 --> 00:05:40.760 And I know I'm mispronouncing the name of your city, 95 00:05:40.780 --> 00:05:41.440 and I apologise. 96 00:05:41.640 --> 00:05:44.180 It's somewhere between Adelaide and Adelaide, 97 00:05:44.180 --> 00:05:45.980 and I'm still getting it wrong. 98 00:05:47.860 --> 00:05:52.380 I am really very impressed with your city, 99 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:54.700 and I don't know if any of you were here this morning, 100 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:57.980 but I mentioned the toilets. 101 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:01.720 I am so impressed with your half flusher and your full flusher. 102 00:06:03.840 --> 00:06:07.100 And as it happened, this morning we had a panel on water, 103 00:06:07.280 --> 00:06:13.780 and the first speaker began to talk about old temples that describe the waterworks, etc. 104 00:06:13.980 --> 00:06:18.000 And I, a subsequent speaker, found myself talking about the toilets, 105 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:21.260 and somebody wrapped it all up, from temples to toilets. 106 00:06:21.340 --> 00:06:23.260 And I thought that was so nice. 107 00:06:23.420 --> 00:06:23.800 Um... 108 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:25.360 All right. 109 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:29.320 On to immigrants and citizens in the global city. 110 00:06:29.820 --> 00:06:32.480 This is part of my new work, 111 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:35.140 where I'm trying to deal with questions of citizenship, 112 00:06:35.880 --> 00:06:40.960 and I return to older issues of immigration that I have long worked on. 113 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:45.460 And I'm going to speak for about half an hour 114 00:06:45.460 --> 00:06:47.760 about this very complicated subject, 115 00:06:47.860 --> 00:06:51.900 and I hope to sort of leave you with a few provocations. 116 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:53.540 And then in the discussion, 117 00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:56.220 I really would like a full half hour for discussion. 118 00:06:56.580 --> 00:06:59.620 We can maybe tease out some of these issues 119 00:06:59.620 --> 00:07:03.180 that I'm sort of going to speak about a bit in shorthand. 120 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:08.280 The basic notion that organizes this talk 121 00:07:08.280 --> 00:07:11.600 is that in the context of globalization, 122 00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:15.640 where national states partly withdraw 123 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:21.800 from some of the institutional arenas where they were very active, 124 00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:23.520 where large states, 125 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:26.780 where cities become increasingly internationalized, 126 00:07:26.880 --> 00:07:31.060 both through internationalization of the economy, 127 00:07:31.320 --> 00:07:33.920 but also through the arrival of immigrants 128 00:07:34.520 --> 00:07:41.160 and the emergence of voicing among sectors of the population. 129 00:07:41.540 --> 00:07:45.780 It could be African Americans in United States cities. 130 00:07:46.520 --> 00:07:50.460 It could be perhaps your indigenous people in Australian cities. 131 00:07:50.460 --> 00:07:55.320 But also feminists and gays and lesbians and queers, 132 00:07:55.380 --> 00:07:58.780 a whole variety of segments of the population 133 00:07:58.780 --> 00:08:02.540 which cannot fully identify with the national state 134 00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:05.960 in terms of their sort of identity and who they are. 135 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:08.060 That under these conditions, 136 00:08:08.380 --> 00:08:12.280 cities emerge as very interesting places 137 00:08:12.280 --> 00:08:19.200 where we might be seeing the beginnings of a micro history 138 00:08:19.200 --> 00:08:20.440 that is not just a micro history, 139 00:08:20.440 --> 00:08:22.960 but that raises the possibility, 140 00:08:23.320 --> 00:08:25.020 watch my careful language here, 141 00:08:25.460 --> 00:08:29.480 that raises the possibility that we are beginning to reconstitute 142 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:31.400 the notion of citizenship 143 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:34.580 and opening up that category, 144 00:08:34.820 --> 00:08:38.760 which right now is very tightly connected to the national state. 145 00:08:39.180 --> 00:08:40.700 So that is the notion. 146 00:08:41.160 --> 00:08:44.260 Basic to this dynamic is the fact 147 00:08:44.260 --> 00:08:48.420 that two very different types of actors, 148 00:08:48.740 --> 00:08:50.420 and they are sort of a model, 149 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:52.240 amalgamated actors if you want, 150 00:08:52.400 --> 00:08:56.760 are increasingly making claims on cities 151 00:08:57.440 --> 00:08:59.420 for their own particular reasons. 152 00:09:00.020 --> 00:09:02.960 Among these actors are at the top 153 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:05.560 what one could sort of summarily describe 154 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:09.320 as the international business community, 155 00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:12.280 whether that is in the form of foreign firms 156 00:09:12.280 --> 00:09:15.560 or in the form of globalized markets 157 00:09:15.560 --> 00:09:19.580 or certain kinds of elites that are connected to markets and firms. 158 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:22.940 But they are making growing claims. 159 00:09:23.260 --> 00:09:26.480 And while I don't want to talk a lot about why that is the case, 160 00:09:26.740 --> 00:09:28.660 Mark already alluded to it, 161 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:30.740 this is sort of a bit the syndrome of the global city, 162 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:33.440 the fact that in a globalized economic system, 163 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:37.800 given the complexity that firms face 164 00:09:37.800 --> 00:09:41.400 if they have factories, offices and service outlets 165 00:09:41.400 --> 00:09:44.340 in 30 countries, 40 countries, etc., 166 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:48.740 a very specialized and highly networked service sector 167 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:50.260 becomes a crucial input 168 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:53.320 for these global operations of markets and firms. 169 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:57.700 So that means that the globalized sector of our economies 170 00:09:57.700 --> 00:10:00.060 is making claims on cities 171 00:10:00.060 --> 00:10:04.980 that come via the expansion of a specialized professional workforce, 172 00:10:05.340 --> 00:10:08.800 the growing attractiveness of locating in cities 173 00:10:08.800 --> 00:10:11.380 for those firms that are heavily involved in global markets. 174 00:10:11.620 --> 00:10:14.700 At the other end, at the bottom of the system, 175 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:18.240 or at least in some of the edges of the system if you want, 176 00:10:18.340 --> 00:10:20.120 another type of actor, 177 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:23.700 really an enormous variety of actors, 178 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:27.260 I'm just, for the sake of simplicity right now, 179 00:10:27.300 --> 00:10:29.280 going to say another type of actor, 180 00:10:29.420 --> 00:10:32.280 is also making growing claims on cities. 181 00:10:32.680 --> 00:10:35.680 Now let me illustrate what some of these actors are, 182 00:10:35.880 --> 00:10:39.620 but first say that in this context, 183 00:10:39.800 --> 00:10:41.840 where these two types of actors, 184 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:43.820 one, let's say, marginal, 185 00:10:44.040 --> 00:10:46.760 and the other, the new type of power, 186 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:48.440 globalized power, 187 00:10:48.640 --> 00:10:50.420 in the context where these two types of actors 188 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:52.260 make claims on the city, 189 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:57.000 something happens which has actually become very difficult. 190 00:10:57.320 --> 00:11:00.100 And that is the possibility by the disadvantaged 191 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:07.020 to directly engage these increasingly invisible forms of power 192 00:11:07.020 --> 00:11:09.660 and privatized form of power. 193 00:11:09.860 --> 00:11:13.900 A power that every now and then hits the ground. 194 00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:17.140 And it tends to hit the ground in these global cities. 195 00:11:17.400 --> 00:11:20.420 So the irony is that in this globalized world, 196 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:20.700 in this globalized era, 197 00:11:20.940 --> 00:11:27.180 that also produces a vast number and variety of disadvantaged people. 198 00:11:27.640 --> 00:11:32.000 It is in these cities where the disadvantaged are positioned in a way 199 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:36.040 that they can directly engage this globalized power. 200 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:38.980 Now who are these other types of actors? 201 00:11:39.280 --> 00:11:42.020 Depending on the city that you're looking at, 202 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:45.680 like if you think of the large mega cities in the global south, 203 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:50.640 there are often people who are coming from the countryside, 204 00:11:51.240 --> 00:11:54.820 a countryside that is increasingly under military control. 205 00:11:57.080 --> 00:12:02.080 In other places, they might be coming from suburban areas, 206 00:12:02.300 --> 00:12:04.680 increasingly surveyed, 207 00:12:04.680 --> 00:12:06.600 in the case of the United States, 208 00:12:06.700 --> 00:12:08.100 I don't know in the case of Australia, 209 00:12:08.420 --> 00:12:12.320 but the whole notion of the orderliness of the suburb, 210 00:12:12.420 --> 00:12:14.980 which then functions, if you want, 211 00:12:14.980 --> 00:12:16.920 as an evictor of those, 212 00:12:17.020 --> 00:12:19.940 it evicts those who do not fit quite that orderliness. 213 00:12:21.100 --> 00:12:24.680 And here I can also think of gays, lesbians, and queers 214 00:12:24.680 --> 00:12:28.320 who may find their lifestyle more easily enacted, 215 00:12:28.540 --> 00:12:32.360 accommodated in a larger city rather than, say, in a suburban setting. 216 00:12:32.660 --> 00:12:34.520 I'm thinking again of minorities, 217 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:37.760 internal minorities, discriminated minorities, etc. 218 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:40.000 Certain kinds of activism. 219 00:12:40.900 --> 00:12:42.100 And immigrants. 220 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:44.940 It is astounding to us 221 00:12:44.980 --> 00:12:48.360 to what extent in most of the countries in the world, 222 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:52.720 immigrants are disproportionately concentrated in cities. 223 00:12:53.020 --> 00:12:56.220 So the city becomes a space where, 224 00:12:56.980 --> 00:13:01.040 again, in a context of militarization of non-urban areas 225 00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:02.480 in many parts of the world, 226 00:13:02.540 --> 00:13:06.840 and of growing surveillance in the global north, 227 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:10.080 the large city with its messiness 228 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:14.740 and its sort of vague anarchic qualities, 229 00:13:14.740 --> 00:13:18.540 becomes one of the last public spaces 230 00:13:18.540 --> 00:13:21.720 for certain types of people 231 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:24.300 to enact their life project. 232 00:13:25.340 --> 00:13:28.980 In many ways, they are often disadvantaged, 233 00:13:29.740 --> 00:13:32.720 or they are marginal because of their lifestyle 234 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:34.940 or their beliefs, their politics, whatever. 235 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:38.560 So it is these two types of actors, 236 00:13:38.680 --> 00:13:41.420 and again I repeat, especially at the marginalized, 237 00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:43.340 the semi-marginalized ones, 238 00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:44.800 enormous variety, 239 00:13:45.100 --> 00:13:48.700 but these two types of actors are making increasing claims 240 00:13:49.340 --> 00:13:51.040 on the space of the city. 241 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:54.780 I go back now to the broader story. 242 00:13:55.280 --> 00:13:59.480 The globalized economic system within which we live, 243 00:14:01.400 --> 00:14:05.100 the increasing privatization of land, 244 00:14:05.300 --> 00:14:07.820 but also of power, also of governance, 245 00:14:08.140 --> 00:14:09.060 also of regulation. 246 00:14:09.560 --> 00:14:12.080 A lot is becoming privatized. 247 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:14.460 As it becomes globalized, 248 00:14:14.540 --> 00:14:16.520 as it becomes privatized, 249 00:14:16.580 --> 00:14:18.080 as it becomes digitized, 250 00:14:19.580 --> 00:14:20.420 dematerialized, 251 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:22.000 many, many parts, 252 00:14:22.160 --> 00:14:24.940 many of the building blocks of our societies 253 00:14:24.940 --> 00:14:28.080 are becoming either globalized or privatized 254 00:14:28.800 --> 00:14:31.020 or digitized or dematerialized. 255 00:14:31.220 --> 00:14:35.200 Overall, we're dealing with crucial components 256 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:38.980 of power and of governance 257 00:14:38.980 --> 00:14:41.320 that are becoming removed 258 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:44.540 from the possibility of direct engagement, 259 00:14:44.920 --> 00:14:47.500 that are becoming less legible, 260 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:49.720 less identifiable. 261 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.120 In this context then, 262 00:14:52.260 --> 00:14:56.060 the fact that for their own particular reasons, 263 00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:58.720 these two types of actors, 264 00:14:58.800 --> 00:15:00.620 which in their most extreme form, 265 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:03.180 let's say low-wage immigrants, 266 00:15:03.340 --> 00:15:05.000 discriminated minorities, 267 00:15:05.260 --> 00:15:07.460 whether indigenous or not, 268 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:11.000 that these two types of actors should find 269 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:12.160 in the global city 270 00:15:12.160 --> 00:15:16.160 a site where they're both making claims 271 00:15:16.160 --> 00:15:17.640 on the city, 272 00:15:17.820 --> 00:15:20.140 becomes, in my reading, 273 00:15:20.300 --> 00:15:21.460 and it's a bit speculative, 274 00:15:21.660 --> 00:15:22.700 a bit experimental, 275 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:24.040 and a bit provocative, 276 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:27.540 should become, find in this city, 277 00:15:27.660 --> 00:15:30.340 the site for their engagement. 278 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.900 Now, in a city like Adelaide, 279 00:15:33.980 --> 00:15:34.800 I have the impression 280 00:15:34.800 --> 00:15:37.520 that there is so much space. 281 00:15:38.500 --> 00:15:41.300 When I sit on the 18th floor of my hotel, 282 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:41.540 here, 283 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:44.380 I see a city that stretches. 284 00:15:45.160 --> 00:15:48.460 And then there is a whole vast expanse of land 285 00:15:48.460 --> 00:15:49.780 that also stretches. 286 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:52.640 I don't know what the actual empirics are, 287 00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:54.080 but the impression is, of course, 288 00:15:54.100 --> 00:15:55.500 of an abundance of space. 289 00:15:56.160 --> 00:15:58.000 But in many cities of the world, 290 00:15:58.040 --> 00:15:59.080 that is not the case. 291 00:15:59.140 --> 00:16:00.100 Whether that is Paris, 292 00:16:00.280 --> 00:16:01.340 whether that is New York, 293 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.400 Bombay, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, 294 00:16:03.540 --> 00:16:06.420 you have a sense of space 295 00:16:06.420 --> 00:16:08.720 becoming an issue in itself. 296 00:16:09.020 --> 00:16:10.560 Now, I want to remind us 297 00:16:10.560 --> 00:16:13.000 of Max Weber, the sociologist. 298 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:14.220 You mentioned him, 299 00:16:14.300 --> 00:16:16.440 so I sort of feel that I can bring him up. 300 00:16:16.920 --> 00:16:19.280 Max Weber, in his work on the city, 301 00:16:19.880 --> 00:16:21.860 shows us, the medieval city, 302 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:24.120 shows us how the burghers 303 00:16:25.400 --> 00:16:27.760 use the space of the city 304 00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:30.620 as a place to make claims 305 00:16:31.560 --> 00:16:33.400 to the right of property, 306 00:16:33.620 --> 00:16:34.780 to the right to property, 307 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:36.820 to protect their property 308 00:16:36.820 --> 00:16:39.120 from various despots, big and small, 309 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:41.640 tyrants, the church, whoever, 310 00:16:43.040 --> 00:16:45.680 that contested this right to their property. 311 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:47.720 And Max Weber then goes further 312 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:48.620 and shows us how, 313 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:50.980 out of these informal practices 314 00:16:50.980 --> 00:16:53.020 of the burghers in the work 315 00:16:53.020 --> 00:16:53.820 that they were doing 316 00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:56.940 to secure their right to property, 317 00:16:58.140 --> 00:16:59.540 create the conditions 318 00:16:59.540 --> 00:17:01.720 for what eventually becomes formalized 319 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:04.060 into citizenship, modern citizenship. 320 00:17:04.460 --> 00:17:06.540 Whether one agrees or not with this account, 321 00:17:06.800 --> 00:17:08.600 I think it's a very compelling account, 322 00:17:08.600 --> 00:17:08.720 but I think it's a very compelling account. 323 00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:10.480 In my reading, 324 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:12.920 what we're beginning to see 325 00:17:13.600 --> 00:17:15.420 is the possibility, at least, 326 00:17:15.580 --> 00:17:17.140 that through these practices 327 00:17:17.140 --> 00:17:19.280 of engagement, of contestation, 328 00:17:19.300 --> 00:17:21.640 that come out of the claim 329 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:24.060 to the right to the city, 330 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:26.520 not the right to property, 331 00:17:27.120 --> 00:17:28.220 in this case, 332 00:17:28.320 --> 00:17:30.060 but the right to the city, 333 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.160 the right to a place in the city, 334 00:17:32.280 --> 00:17:35.000 out of this may well also come 335 00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:37.820 a set of informal practices 336 00:17:38.600 --> 00:17:43.440 that eventually become formalized elements 337 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:45.820 of something that we can think of 338 00:17:45.820 --> 00:17:46.520 as citizenship. 339 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:49.200 And I want to sort of elaborate that a bit. 340 00:17:50.820 --> 00:17:53.380 Let me use as a concrete example 341 00:17:53.380 --> 00:17:55.860 that illustrates this notion 342 00:17:55.860 --> 00:17:57.700 of claims to the city, 343 00:17:57.800 --> 00:17:59.200 the people who are engaged 344 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:01.860 in anti-gentrification struggles. 345 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:04.320 That makes it very, very clear. 346 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:06.100 I don't know if in your city 347 00:18:06.100 --> 00:18:07.780 you have experienced that, 348 00:18:07.780 --> 00:18:10.020 but I know that in Sydney 349 00:18:10.020 --> 00:18:10.800 and in Melbourne, 350 00:18:11.120 --> 00:18:13.100 there has been sort of 351 00:18:13.100 --> 00:18:15.480 anti-gentrification struggles going on. 352 00:18:15.540 --> 00:18:16.680 There have been such struggles. 353 00:18:16.800 --> 00:18:19.000 And certainly in New York 354 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:19.820 and in London 355 00:18:19.820 --> 00:18:20.920 and in Amsterdam 356 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:21.980 and in Berlin, 357 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.100 there is a lot of this going on. 358 00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:25.340 Also in Sao Paulo, 359 00:18:25.500 --> 00:18:26.400 also in Bombay. 360 00:18:26.600 --> 00:18:28.860 The anti-gentrification struggles 361 00:18:28.860 --> 00:18:31.720 capture the way in which 362 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:33.680 there are claims on space 363 00:18:34.420 --> 00:18:36.140 that are being, of course, 364 00:18:36.180 --> 00:18:37.760 won by those who have the money, 365 00:18:37.780 --> 00:18:38.760 and the resources, 366 00:18:39.100 --> 00:18:40.620 whether that is foreign firms 367 00:18:40.620 --> 00:18:44.520 or high-level, high-income households, etc. 368 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:47.760 But the fight does also engage 369 00:18:47.760 --> 00:18:49.760 those who have fewer resources, 370 00:18:50.060 --> 00:18:51.500 who have their own reasons, 371 00:18:51.600 --> 00:18:53.600 because either they are going to suffer displacement 372 00:18:53.600 --> 00:18:54.340 and homelessness 373 00:18:54.340 --> 00:18:59.020 or increases in prices of housing, etc. 374 00:18:59.780 --> 00:19:01.240 But again, the gentrification struggles 375 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:04.120 capture this notion of fighting 376 00:19:04.780 --> 00:19:07.440 for a place in the city, 377 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:08.760 and this is a very important issue. 378 00:19:08.760 --> 00:19:09.720 We hardly think 379 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:12.500 of the international real estate development companies 380 00:19:12.500 --> 00:19:15.360 and international financial firms 381 00:19:15.360 --> 00:19:17.940 as fighting for a place in the city, 382 00:19:18.020 --> 00:19:19.060 but they actually are. 383 00:19:19.760 --> 00:19:20.700 They win. 384 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:22.440 It doesn't look like a fight, 385 00:19:22.620 --> 00:19:24.500 but they have to make claims, 386 00:19:24.620 --> 00:19:26.260 and they have to secure guarantees 387 00:19:26.260 --> 00:19:28.020 from local governments 388 00:19:28.020 --> 00:19:29.480 and national governments involved. 389 00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:31.700 There is much more of a struggle 390 00:19:31.700 --> 00:19:33.320 around these questions of claims 391 00:19:33.320 --> 00:19:34.800 on the space of the city 392 00:19:34.800 --> 00:19:36.100 than we might think. 393 00:19:36.280 --> 00:19:37.120 But again, I repeat, 394 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:39.400 this just captures one aspect 395 00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:40.880 of this broader history. 396 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:46.880 Now, let me focus on citizenship briefly 397 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:48.320 to try to illustrate 398 00:19:48.320 --> 00:19:50.760 in what ways these claims 399 00:19:50.760 --> 00:19:52.220 and these practices 400 00:19:52.220 --> 00:19:54.900 might actually be feeding 401 00:19:54.900 --> 00:19:57.740