The concept of scale in human geography has been profoundly transformed over the past 20 years. And yet, despite the insights that both empirical and theoretical research on scale have generated, there is today no consensus on what is meant by the term or how it should be operationalized. In this paper we critique the dominant – hierarchical – conception of scale, arguing it presents a number of problems that cannot be overcome simply by adding on to or integrating with network theorizing. We thereby propose to eliminate scale as a concept in human geography. In its place we offer a different ontology, one that so flattens scale as to render the concept unnecessary. We conclude by addressing some of the political implications of a human geography without scale.

/pdf/human-geography-without-scale-ckthh2kr5u.pdf

Human geography without scale

https://blogs.ubc.ca/lebillon/files/2015/01/ecowar.pdf

The political ecology of war: natural resources and armed conflicts

Issues of space, place and politics run deep. There is a long history of the entanglement of the conceptualisation of space and place with the framing of political positions. The injunction to think space relationally is a very general one and, as this collection indicates, can lead in many directions. The particular avenue to be explored in this paper concerns the relationship between identity and responsibility, and the potential geographies of both.

/pdf/geographies-of-responsibility-q1vh6johrg.pdf

Geographies of Responsibility

Neoliberal nature and the nature of neoliberalism

Recent years have seen an extraordinary resurgence of interest in the process of gentrification, accompanied by a surge of articles published on the topic. This article looks at some recent literature — both scholarly and popular — and considers the reasons why the often highly critical perspectives on gentrification that we saw in earlier decades have dwindled. Whilst a number of reasons could be put forward, three in particular are discussed. First, the resilience of theoretical and ideological squabbles over the causes of gentrification, at the expense of examining its effects; second, the demise of displacement as a defining feature of the process and as a research question; and third, the pervasive influence of neoliberal urban policies of ‘social mix’ in central city neighbourhoods. It is argued that the ‘eviction’ of critical perspectives from a field in which they were once plentiful has serious implications for those at risk from gentrification, and that reclaiming the term from those who have sugarcoated what was not so long ago a ‘dirty word’ (Smith, 1996) is essential if political challenges to the process can be effective.

/pdf/the-eviction-of-critical-perspectives-from-gentrification-46p9oqzen7.pdf

The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research

During the 1990s, local and federal urban policymakers, neoliberal politicians, and advocates for the poor came to a broad consensus: the geographic concentration of low-income, minority residents 

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/d306

Deconcentration by Demolition: Public Housing, Poverty, and Urban Policy:

Spaces of globalization, reasserting the power of the local

Exurban areas are the fastest growing type of residential development in the United States. Although exurbia may represent a distinctly new settlement pattern, to date relatively little is known about why people choose to live in the exurbs. The purpose of this article is to examine the factors underlying the residential choices of suburban and exurban residents of Sonoma County, California. The research question is, Why do some people choose to live in an exurban setting, whereas others move to suburban locations? The findings of the study indicate that exurban residents are motivated by the desire to live in a rural environment. In contrast, suburbanites are more concerned with the cost of housing and access to highways. These results support the conclusion that exurban growth is a distinctive phenomenon reflecting residents’ desire to live in a rural setting.

Finding A Place In The Country Exurban and Suburban Development in Sonoma County, California

In this article I argue that the US public housing policy, as codified by the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (QHWRA), is helping to reconfigure the racial and class structure of many inner cities. By promoting the demolition of public housing projects and replacement with mixed-income housing developments, public housing policy is producing a gentrified inner-city landscape designed to attract middle and upper-class people back to the inner city. The goals of public housing policy are also broadly consonant with those of welfare reform wherein the ‘workfare’ system helps to bolster and produce the emergence of contingent low-wage urban labor markets. In a similar manner, I argue that public housing demonstration programs, such as the ‘Welfare-to-Work’ initiative, encourage public housing residents to join the lowwage labor market. Although the rhetoric surrounding the demolition of public housing emphasizes the economic opportunities made available by residential mobility, I argue that former public housing residents are simply being relocated into private housing within urban ghettos. Such a spatial fix to the problems of unemployment and poverty will not solve the problems of inner-city poverty. Will it take another round of urban riots before we seriously address the legacy of racism and discrimination that has shaped the US city?



Cet article demontre que la politique du logement public americaine, telle que la reglemente la Loi de 1998, Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act, contribue a remodeler la structure par races et classes de nombreux quartiers desherites des centres-villes. En favorisant la demolition d'ensembles de logements sociaux et leur remplacement par des complexes urbanises a loyers varies, la politique publique genere un embourgeoisement des centres-villes destinea y ramener les classes moyennes et superieures. Les objectifs de la politique du logement rejoignent largement ceux de la reforme sociale ou le systeme de ‘l'allocation conditionnelle’ facilite et nourrit la creation de marches contingents du travail a bas salaires. De meme, les programmes experimentaux de logements publics, telle l'initiative Welfare-to-Work (De l'aide sociale au travail) poussent les habitants des logements sociaux a rejoindre le marchede la main d'œuvre a bas salaires. Bien que les discours autour de la demolition des logements sociaux mettent en avant les ouvertures economiques creees par la mobilite residentielle, leurs anciens habitants sont simplement en train d'etre deplaces vers des logements prives situes dans des ghettos urbains. Ce genre de solution spatiale aux problemes du chomage et de la pauvrete ne viendra pas a bout du denuement des quartiers desherites du centre. Faudra-t-il une autre serie d'emeutes urbaines pour que l'on aborde serieusement l'heritage de racisme et de discrimination qui a faconne les villes americaines?

Jeffrey R. Crump

Papers

Deconcentration by Demolition: Public Housing, Poverty, and Urban Policy:

Spaces of globalization, reasserting the power of the local

Finding A Place In The Country Exurban and Suburban Development in Sonoma County, California

The end of public housing as we know it: public housing policy, labor regulation and the US city

What cannot be seen will not be heard