Infrastructural Citizenship Revision

What is the ‘right to the city’?

A concept developed by Marxist geographies and harnessed as a political slogan protesting against political oppression in urban spaces; urban movements demand greater democratic control over the urban landscape and the right to change the city after one’s own desires

What kind of right is the ‘right to the city’?

It is not a singular right, but a set of rights including legal, moral, generational or absolute rights; the racial openness and capaciousness allows for solidarity across urban political struggles

Where was the ‘right to the city’ first observed and by who?

The Paris university students May ‘68 protests by Henri Lefebvre

Why is resistance inevitable in the city according to Marxist scholars?

Cities are critical to capitalism as urbanisation plays an active role in absorbing surplus capital and reproducing the search for surplus value; this sees the development of political and class struggle as social movements seek to gain greater control over the use of the surplus and the right to shape the city

Why is the city a dominant arena for citizenship?

There are multiple forms of belonging and the city is a space for the mixing of traditions and a politics of difference to form; the physical urban space is also key for demonstrations of citizenship as civil society can mobilise in the streets

What is insurgency and how does this form in the city?

The opposition to spaces of citizenship that dominate cities; this opposes the modernist political project where citizenship is a plan of state building and rejects the idea that the state is the only legitimate source of citizenship rights, meanings and practices; this embodies alternative futures to the state’s utopian urban planning and disturbs historical societal processes

Where is the politics of presence used as a reclamation of the right to the city?

Urban housing squats, Rome

How are housing squats used to assert the right to the city in Rome?

Native and migrant marginalised communities tackle conditions of housing deprivation and form new forms of life by reoccupying abandoned buildings in housing squats that increase in numbers and become firmly settled political, cultural and social touchstones where new citizenships and formed and urban citizens are re-enfranchised e.g. Metropoliz allows urban dwellers to overcome a lack of legal rights and realise inclusion in the city

Which city is referred to as a ‘rebel’ or ‘angry’ city and why?

El Alto, Bolivia due to social organisation and protests attempting to overcome state abandonment and poor social provisioning to claim the right to constitute itself as a city in it’s own right, it is Latin America’s first Indigenous city and is defined by political mobilisation as an epicentre for resistance against neoliberal policies

Which pub in East London is an example of the contested ‘right to the city’ and how has this developed?

The Joiners Arms was a messy space for queer lower and middle class people who lived in radical ways during the night; it was closed by 2015 and promised to replace it with an LGBT venue; however, this discriminated against working-class queer people and only attempted to be ‘sufficiently gay’, it was challenged for becoming a high end space, losing its late licence and straightening wonkiness of queerness according to straight norms and capitalist ventures

Which housing estate in London has been contested and what groups/processes have been a part of this?

The Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle was regenerated in 2004 but was met with organised resistance to gain compensation and raise awareness for displacement though the Elephant Amenity Network, Archive Group and those involved in the legal appeal to gain the attention of national media such as the BBC to discuss housing issues, keep the physical site open, protest and give legal evidence about the effect of direct displacement and exclusionary practices; although the estate was demolished resistance challenged regeneration and the estate became a symbol for the scandal of council housing demolition in the city

What are mundane infrastructures?

The material and immaterial underlying structures that allow systems to function, the ‘matter that moves other matter’

How can infrastructures be reframed as political?

They are sites of power and political struggles as they are inherently tied to the state due to depending on finances and national standards, planning, legal restrictions etc. to become key technologies for the state to enact its goals

What is techno politics and how is this applied to infrastructure?

The analytical framework used to understand how the state seeks to organise populations through technological domains in an apparatus of governmentality

Which key cultural theory can be applied to this and how does this work?

Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory where the world is understood to be constructed through dynamic networks of human and non-human entities each possessing equal agency, shows how infrastructure can transmit political messages and shape the ideal citizen

How do pre-paid water metres in South Africa work as political infrastructures evolving over time?

The installation of pre-paid water meters initially serviced to depoliticise service and rent boycott under the apartheid state and recover costs; once debt had been collected the infrastructures did not become obsolete but continued to influence citizens to become responsible, entrepreneurial and take a calculative approach to water metres to encourage neoliberal ideology and create a market-style citizenship

How do water supplies in India work as political infrastructures?

In Mumbai city dwellers are subject to precarious water supplies forcing them to engage in complex relations with engineers and politicians or contrast their own illegal connections to gain access to water; urban elites have reliable water pressure and access at all times seeing hydraulic infrastructures reinforce class segregation and allow for claims to the city and belonging based on hydraulic citizenship

How does the Trans-African Highway work as a political infrastructure?

This was built to connect Africa’s newly independent cities but is a large capitalist driven injustice as it is linked to infrastructures such as the luxury Ocean Hotel which allow African elites to celebrate their ability to travel, consume technology and become post-independence citizens; but for the lower classes this was disastrous with many sections left unfinished, alienating communities and disposing important land to promote the political economy of the ruling elites but entrench the exploitation of lower urban classes

How do coastal infrastructures in Peru work as a political infrastructures?

There have been protests against road expansion in Costa Verde in Lima as surfers sought to ensure ongoing conditions that form rideable waves; this is linked to border class divisions as the coast has historically been an elite, economically exclusive enclave with rich citizens able to engage in surfing; they are not being challenged by informal urbanisation so protests occur though discourses of protection of nature but also as a means to protect wealthy, exclusive landscapes and infrastructures

How is insurgency evidenced in South Africa?

In June 2018 residents of Westlake, public housing settlement in Cape Town protested by throwing petrol bombs and burning types to prevent people from entering a nearby business park, private school and US Consulate; this dissent was fuelled around inequalities in proper infrastructural service provisioning as well as see in communities acting on care ideologies to construct shelters on their homes and build walls to improve their livelihoods and reduce overcrowding

How is insurgency evidenced in a global feminist movement?

Collective walks evolving from Jane Jacobs have evolved into a global effort allowing women and marginalised bodies to ‘Reclaim the Night’; women walk in the streets to overcome patriarchal cultural norms through presence as a form of local democracy and has been successful in translation to city planning initiatives including reconsideration of lighting, building design and pathways overcoming fear to reshape the night as a space of possibility and care

How is insurgency evidenced in Houston civic power?

In North East Houston residents face higher flood risks due to clay like soils, concrete and asphalt, carless placement of highways and railcards and open drainage ditches improperly maintained in contrast to private flood defences in the affluent Western part of the city; the state does not respond adequately leading to civic water management techniques through rain gardens and the creating of a new hydraulic citizenship challenging infrastructural inequality through civic power and geosdolidarity

What are examples of digital infrastructures?

Data centres, internet connectivity, data sharing, biometrics etc.

What are biometrics and how do these draw on Foucault’s theories?

Ways of denoting and recognising humans based on physical or behavioural traits, often involves images and databases with implications for privacy; this also marks a new era of surveillance where the body becomes a target and instrument of control to exercise biopolitical power over the population at borders and in everyday life

How do India’s technopolitical responses to COVID-19 work as exclusionary infrastructures?

In smart cities citizens are encouraged to participate in the state online to connect with medical personal, public services, provisions, information etc. with almost all essential urban services exclusively digital; this excluded those lacking in digital infrastructure, literacy and competency to undermine their ‘pandemic citizenship’

How do India’s technopolitical responses to COVID-19 work as surveillance infrastructures and what was the backlash to this?

Monitoring and tracking was implemented through a surveillance culture with a tracing app that informed citizens if they were at risk, helped self quarantine and access public health information but became coercive as it was mandatory for key workers and led to widespread arrests, forced quarantine and violation of citizenship rights based on information gathered through the app; this was resisted through online digital activist protecting exclusion and control

How do biometric technologies in Afghanistan work as a form of biopolitics?

Biometric technology is used to provide humanitarian assistance through iris-recognition in 2002 used to repatriate Afghan refugees; this formed new categories and was able to enforce authoritative distinction on valuable and non-valuable forms of life based on ‘genuine’ and ‘fake’ refugees but there were risks of false matches translating into failures to assist; this was also associated with risks of privacy, tracking and governing digital refugees and donor state funding

How do biometric borders in the US work as a form of biopolitics?

During the contemporary War on Terror the scientific technologies and managerial expertise at the border uses risk profiling to govern mobility by separating ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ bodies; there is a new risk that is traceable and attached to the body rather than a territorial border; risks of error may lead to algorithmic injustices and depoliticises the sorting of groups at the border

Which US community utilises the organising power of social media and where?

1776 Community, Charlotte, North Carolina

How does the 1776 Community use digital infrastructures to form new build environments?

Far-right worldviews become digitally encoded and strategically assembled through built environments to create new communities; the algorithmically driven constellations of texts, slogans, images etc. embark on a new project to build in the material world such as the 1776 private residential development aiming to honour America’s past and blend patriotism and home ownership in honour of the Declaration of Independence and Trump’s nationalist agenda; far-right websites can become far-right places both online and offline

How does mobile connectivity act as exclusion in Australia, how does this shape mobility?

In a ‘digital first’ model the mobile phone becomes a prerequisite for citizenship but the homeless Australian youth are systematically excluded due to costs and unreliability they are not able to access information and communicate; they must navigate cities as critical sites for connectivity but there are risks of loss of power, theft or time-limitations as well as surveillance but this is an everyday practice of survival infrastructure to overcome structural digital inequalities

How is the Arab Spring an illustration of digital insurgency?

Social media organised and magnified the Arab Spring to facilitate a new model of protest based on virtual communications; this allowed for media and coverage of calls and protests for regime changes in countries such as Tunisia to spread to Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Syria to inspire hope and motivation to challenge their own governments; Facebook was often used due to not being censored by the government and this was passed on to other platforms for those who could not access internet; virtual claims came together and pushed action that bought about political change despite a digital divide dissent was amplified to fight foe the benefit of society

What is ordinary citizenship?

The combination of legal citizenship (passports, laws, state rulings etc.) and acts of citizenship where people participate in political processes and actions demonstrate citizenship

What is disjunctive citizenship?

The notion that citizenship is unevenly accessible to district groups, genders, races and classes; this sees citizenship play out in heterogenous ways in cities and this inequality can inspire insurgency