Tuesday, March 27, 2012

DISTRICT 9: NO HUMANS ALLOWED!

An alternative way to criticize the reality of exclusion and displacement!

Talking about social and cultural mosaic of cities I think you didn't expect to see a movie like that! District 9, written by Blomkamp and Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, is an impressive movie, a cult classic to be. It is briefly about aliens landed in Johannesburg and somewhat 'normalized' in the urban life. They became part of the city, being isolated in a shanty town in district 9. It is not, of course, a coincidence that the movie is plotted in a city with most multicultural conflict and exclusion issues in reality. It is an excellent illustration of how ghettoization, isolation and exclusion can take place and be normalized and legitimised by the authoritarian power and the host community. Alians, who are now called by the 'host community' as 'prawns', live in unhealthy conditions and mingling with illegal activities with the black Nigerian community, who profits from illegal trade of guns and cat food, for which apparently the prawns are addicted to.

The film very nicely sets the plot for us to understand that there are human rights organisations and civil movements that forced the authority (MNU) to find more 'human' and legal ways to move the prawns out of the city to 'solve' the issue, or rather to ignore it, to a guarded and gated tent-town by asking them one by one to approve the 'displacement'. The author Blomkamp indicates that the alien homes in the movie were actually shot in a recently evacuated area of impoverished housing in an area called Chiawelo, which is a suburb of Soweto, Johannesburg. The homes you see the aliens getting evicted from were homes that humans had recently been kicked out of, for real! In reality the people living in this area are moved to the government-subsidised housing called RDP housing. Here is a quote from Blomkamp (see the full interview at http://io9.com/5341120/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-district-9): 'And there is this thing in Africa called RDP housing, which are government-subsidised housing. Where they will build you a brick house in a different area of the city. And you get put put on a waiting list if you're a South African impoverished resident, until you are able to get one of these houses. So the area we filmed the movie in, what plays as District 9, every single resident in that area was being removed to be put into RDP housing. Although not all of them had been given the green light on the RDP housing, most of them had, but all of them were going to be moved, whether they liked it or not. So we ended up with this open piece of land with all these shacks on it...each day we came to set, there were fewer and fewer people.'

The movie also displays some real interviews with the South Africans, who are answering the question 'What do you feel about Zimbabwean Africans living here?', while in the movie it appeared as if they were answering the question 'What do you feel about the aliens (the prawns) living here'? Brilliant isn't it? Absolutely brilliant to show exclusion, isolation, ghettoisation and displacement without even talking about it! Although it sounds like an impossible situation nowadays, I think we can think of many urban histories in which this kind of alienation (literally) took place (and still does)....


I simply love this movie, and, I guess, despite the fact that we were all grossed by some scenes, those of you who were with me last night did that too!

Looking forward to the field research in Rotterdam tomorrow...

Tuna

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Hi

Having the Spring Break behind us I am full of energy again to continue our journey in urban geography! When I posted last time here we had wealth creation in our plate and we have covered a few topics since then including housing markets, residential preferences and gentrification.

The research teams have also successfully completed the first step of the field research in Antwerp despite the wet and cold weather. The results are slowly appearing in the blogs of each team but what I have heard so far has been very exciting. Research team one has conducted interviews around the Het Eilandje project to understand the social impact of this large scale urban regeneration project in the social composition of the area. Team two was interviewing a local government official who was one of the key persons in the revision of the Antwerp Central Station. Team three went deep into the gentrifying neighborhoods around the 'red light district', Schipperskwartier and interviewed people experiencing gentrification. Team four was in Berchem interviewing ethnic communities and shop owners while team five in the same area tried to understand the participation of immigrant community in the urban matters. And finally team six went to the other side of river Schelde to conduct interviews with people who devoted themselves to urban agriculture. All extremely fascinating and in one dark rainy day! I am absolutely thrilled with the enthusiasm and motivation of each of you and very proud already...

On Monday we'll talk about the social and cultural mosaic of Rotterdam as it is going to be the next step in your field research. Wednesday the 28th of March research teams will be exploring Rotterdam. I hope for us a better weather and a great experience.

Looking forward to seeing you on Monday the 26th of March at 08:45 (watch out for the spring time!).

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok

Friday, March 2, 2012

Geography of wealth creation



I think the timing of the lecture on geography of wealth creation was perfect right after my arrival back from New York! What a place...what an energy...what an incredible amount of wealth created on urban land!

I didn't cover the whole chapter not because I was terribly jet lagged but because I wanted you to concentrate on cities not only as generators of wealth but also as places where wealth is redistributed via diverse channels including property markets. I introduced the entrepreneurial city concept and mentioned how city marketing plays a role in capturing global capital flows. Property-led urban development has been the final point on which we had an extended discussion (thanks to the research team 1).

I think, if you are interested in urban geography, you should really begin to understand the roles of diverse actors in shaping cities. Dynamics of capital accumulation and urban governance mechanisms are very much related to each other as I briefly summarised in the lecture. Increasing involvement and influence of private sector actors in decision-making mechanisms leads to fragmented developments in the city, and increasing segmentation of the urban society.

We have discussed the role of public private partnerships within the framework of property-led urban development. Some of you have heard about them but were not really aware of what are they there for and how do they work. I find it extremely useful that we go through concepts like that and soon enough the pieces will begin to get together to make a whole picture for you. Having all these in mind and browsing through internet have a look what I've found in this website:

http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org

Members of this Foundation, most of which are large scale for-profit organizations, state that '...building more sustainable and dynamic urban communities can only be done through innovative partnership'. And this is exactly what I've been talking about within the framework of the entrepreneurial cities! See it happening...

See you on Monday at 08:45 (without a jet lag hopefully). I look forward to go down to the main principles of geography: location, location, location!

Have a great weekend !

Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok