‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society

Benedict Anderson’s deservedly famous thesis about the origins and nature
of modern nationalism turns around the central notion of an “imagined
community.” This category provides him with a matrix out of which one
can apprehend-theoretically and historically-the different variants of nationalist discourse formulated over the last two hundred years. We will refer,
in the brief comments that follow, to three basic dimensions structuring
the fabric of Anderson’s argument: 1) the presuppositions implicit in the
notion of an “imagined” community; 2) the kind of substitutability or solidarity which is required to be a member of such a community; 3) the kind
of relationship that is established between such a community-which is by
definition finite or limited-and its outside. Before that, however, let us
describe the main features of Anderson’s thesis.

On Imagined Communities

This book engages with the politics of social and environmental justice, and seeks new ways to think about the future of urbanization in the twenty-first century. It establishes foundational concepts for understanding how space, time, place and nature the material frames of daily life are constituted and represented through social practices, not as separate elements but in relation to each other. It describes how geographical differences are produced, and shows how they then become fundamental to the exploration of political, economic and ecological alternatives to contemporary life.

Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference

/pdf/modern-social-imaginaries-3bxtlxvdjy.pdf

Modern Social Imaginaries

In inner-city neighborhoods in Kingston, Jamaica, criminal "dons" have taken on a range of governmental functions. While such criminal actors have sometimes been imagined as heading "parallel states," I argue that they are part of a hybrid state, an emergent political formation in which multiple governmental actors—in this case, criminal organizations, politicians, police, and bureaucrats—are entangled in a relationship of collusion and divestment, sharing control over urban spaces and populations. Extending recent scholarship on variegated sovereignty and neoliberal shifts in governance, I consider the implications of this diversification of governmental actors for the ways that citizenship is experienced and enacted. The hybrid state both produces and relies on distinct political subjectivities. It is accompanied by a reconfigured, hybrid citizenship, in which multiple practices and narratives related to rule and belonging, to rights and responsibilities, are negotiated by a range of actors. - See more at: http://www.anthrosource.net/Abstract.aspx?issn=0094-0496&volume=40&issue=4&doubleissueno=0&article=339507&suppno=0&jstor=False&cyear=2013#sthash.6XmjPANm.dpuf

/pdf/the-hybrid-state-crime-and-citizenship-in-urban-jamaica-3hsxbhhcau.pdf

The hybrid state: Crime and citizenship in urban Jamaica

Alternative forms of tourism such as eco-tourism feature prominently in development policy and literature This article focuses on international volunteer tourism, a specific form of tourism that is closely linked to a range of development projects in low-income countries This form of ‘tourism with a development agenda’ has become increasingly popular among young people from developed countries We argue that volunteer tourism both reflects and contributes to a new logic of development This form of travel can be understood as a particular, neoliberal form of development practice, in which development is not only privatized but can be packaged as a marketable commodity We focus critically on the process of volunteering and the interactions that take place within this form of tourism, with a focus on the concurrent commercialization of development and cultural difference

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fejdr.2010.55.pdf

Save the World in a Week: Volunteer Tourism, Development and Difference

This article discusses the poorly assessed topic of informal waste management systems, in which there appears to be a high level of heterogeneity throughout the world. The article considers the ways scavengers function within the broader context of waste management; they show a wide range of locally formed and adapted activities and social systems. Examples from different cultures are included: the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, Egypt and Indonesia. The authors advocate comparative research and find a contextual, holistic approach to be the most appropriate. Using such an approach, they isolate the important factors that characterize these systems: technical, socio-cultural, socio-political and organizational aspects are elaborated. Experiments in intervention have been undertaken at various levels, from varying ideological and theoretical backgrounds. Academic analyses have ranged from neo-Marxist political economy models to neo-liberal development approaches. As expressed in the title the authors conclude that informal waste management systems are unjustifiably considered problematic whereas they often reveal great development potential.

Informal Waste Management

The concept of the ghetto, referring to specifically urban experiences of sociospatial marginalization, has played a prominent role in black popular culture. This article explores the role of the ghetto as a discursive space of immobility and traces its global journey as a mobile imaginary. Focusing mainly on the US and the Caribbean, it explores how this popular culture imaginary is produced and employed to frame and negotiate social and spatial marginalization in a broad range of urban settings. As ‘the ghetto’ begins to travel through the global dissemination and appropriation of black popular culture, its relation to racialized understandings of blackness shifts. This move, in which the ghetto can belong to anyone, allows the imaginary both to function as a site for the production of transgressive, cosmopolitan ‘immobile subjects’, and to be transformed by commercial forces into a global commodity.

Talkin' 'bout the ghetto: popular culture and urban imaginaries of immobility

This article discusses the poorly assessed topic of informal waste management systems, in which there appears to be a high level of heterogeneity throughout the world. The article considers the ways scavengers function within the broader context of waste management; they show a wide range of locally formed and adapted activities and social systems. Examples from different cultures are included: the United States,Jamaica,Brazil,EgyptandIndonesia.Theauthorsadvocatecomparativeresearchandfindacontextual, holistic approach to be the most appropriate. Using such an approach, they isolate the important factors that characterizethesesystems:technical,socio-cultural,socio-politicalandorganizationalaspectsareelaborated. Experiments in intervention have been undertaken at various levels, from varying ideological and theoretical backgrounds. Academic analyses have ranged from neo-Marxist political economy models to neo-liberal development approaches. As expressed in the title the authors conclude that informal waste management systems are unjustifiably considered problematic whereas they often reveal great development potential.

Rivke Jaffe

Papers

The hybrid state: Crime and citizenship in urban Jamaica

Save the World in a Week: Volunteer Tourism, Development and Difference

Informal Waste Management

Talkin' 'bout the ghetto: popular culture and urban imaginaries of immobility

INFORMAL WASTE MANAGEMENT Shifting the focus from problem to potential