Uneven development: island gentrification and environmental conflicts

Eric Clark

Lund University

Department of Human Geography

and

Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability (LUCID)

Advanced course on the analysis of environmental conflicts and justice, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, June 27 – July 10 2010

STRUGGLES FOR POWERenvironmental conflicts, conflicts

over land

The core of geography: “struggles for power over

the entry of entities and events into space and time”

Torsten Hägerstrand (1986) Den geografiska traditionens kärnområde Svensk Geografisk Årsbokk

SPACE WARS

“Urban [and island, indeed all] territory becomes the battlefield of continuous space war, sometimes erupting into the public spectacle of inner-city riots … but waged daily just beneath the surface of the public (publicized), official version of the routine urban order.”

Zygmunt Bauman (1998) Globalization: the human consequences

Gentrification: creative destruction

“Modernity is always about ‘creative destruction’, be it of the gentle and democratic, or the

revolutionary, traumatic, and authoritarian kind.” David Harvey (2003) Paris: capital of modernity

Gentrification is a common manifestation of modernity, a mode of creative destruction that in

’gentle and democratic’ form easily passes unnoticed.

GENUINE POLITICS

A genuine politics “demands the restructuring of social space, the recognition of conflict as constitutive of the social condition and the naming and counting of the socio-ecological spaces that can become.”

(Slavoj Zizek 1999)

Gentrification is a process involving change in the population of land-users such that the new users are of a higher socioeconomic status than the previous users, together with an associated change in the built environment through reinvestment in fixed capital.

What is gentrification?

Gentrification

Residential mobility: upward shift in class/socioeconomic status

+Reinvestment in built environment

Flows of people and capital across land/space

change in land use / occupancy

Opposite of gentrification: filtering (slum formation)

Residential mobility: downward shift in class/socioeconomic status

+Disinvestment in built environment

Flows of people and capital across land/space

change in land use / occupancy

Gentrification

Ruth Glass (1964) inner city London, working class, residential, renovation, market-driven

Not only inner city, working class, residential,renovation, market-driven, global city, ’new middleclass’, or otherwise particularly defined:

► Rural gentrification► New-build gentrification► State-led gentrification► Commercial gentrification► Super-gentrification► etc => Generic

gentrification

What are the necessary relations underlying gentrification?

Commodification of space

Polarized power relations

Dominance of vision over sight, characteristic of ‘the vagrant sovereign’

Commodification of space opens up space for conquest, facilitating ‘highest and best’ land uses to supplant present uses, i.e. “forcing the proper allocation of capital to land” (Harvey 1982, 360).

It works in tandem with the seeking of vagrant sovereigns to realize visions through the exploitation of potentials, destroying the actual in the process.

The more polarized the power relations, the more forceful the dynamic.

Vision over sight (the colonial impulse)

“We came with visions, but not with sight. We did not see or understand where we were or what was there, but destroyed what was there for the sake of what we desired. … And this habit of assigning a higher value to what might be than to what is has stayed with us, so that we continue to sacrifice the health of our land and of our communities” Wendell Berry (1982) The gift of good land

To accomplish more, sometimes you need to see less.Go on. Be a Tiger.

High performers don’t allow themselves to be distracted.

Generic gentrification: structural undergirding (take two)► Inequality/polarization► Commodification of land/space► The set of fictions that naturalize the logic

of capital, which is thereby successfullyimposed upon social life (Harvey 2006)

Gentrification: a form of accumulation by dispossession

“Generation after generation, those who intended to remain and prosper where they were have been dispossessed and driven out … by those who were carrying out some version of the search for El Dorado. Time after time, in place after place, these conquerors have fragmented and demolished traditional communities … They have always said that what they destroyed was out-dated, provincial, and contemptible. And with alarming frequency they have been believed and trusted by their victims, especially when their victims were other white people.” Wendell Berry (1977) The unsettling of America

The semiotics of gentrification…

Urban renewalRegenerationRevitalization‘sanering’Urban frontierPioneersTaming the wild wild east…

A vocabulary of colonialism

Gentrification: what it comes down to

Whose visions of a place actually take place?

“Those ‘ ‘low down’ happen time and again to be thrown out from the site

they would rather stay in.” (Bauman 1998)

[yes, this is general… sshhh!]

Potential land rent

Capitalized land rent

Buildingvalue

The Rent Gap

What ‘vagrant sovereigns’ (powerful actors) are willing to pay to move in, take over space and realize their visions/projects

What present users can afford to stay put and continue with their lives and livelihoods, and realize their visions/projects

Building value

The rent gap

Potential land rent

Capitalized land rent

1

Do you see opportunities where others don’t? Go on. Be a Tiger.

The competitor who is first to spot an opportunity is usually in the best position to capture it. By working to sharpen your vision, we can help you become a highperformer.

(2004)

(1996)

New York, 1990s, 6 – 10 % of all moves displacement (Newman & Wyly 2006)

Displacement: more than re-location

“Losing one’s place can be much more traumatic than simply changing location.” Finding cases is not difficult: “the tragedy is that there is so much from which to choose.”

David Smith (1994) Geography and Social Justice

International Herald Tribune May 20, 2008

Rent gaps at the global scale

Development opportunity

Condaleeza Rice described the tsunami as “a wonderful opportunity” that “has paid great dividends for us”.

The second wave of risk is when catastrophe for some becomes opportunity for others

Placing visions entails displacing the visions of present users

Tourism is the solution! Dagens Nyheter December 28, 2004

Tourism is the best aidSydsvenskanJanuary 7, 2005

Mind the gap

“More equal societies are less stressful: people are more likely to trust each other and are less hostile and violent towards each other.”

Nature, 30 April 2009

Wilkinson’s model

Conflicts over land

Hostility, experience of conflict

Trust

TrustTrustInequality and social mobility

Freedom: more than just another word

Inequality and de-democratization

“… increases in categorical inequality ... tend to de-democratize regimes.”

Increased inequality threatens democracy

Inequality reexamined

“Relative deprivation in the space of incomes can yield absolute deprivation in the space of capabilities.”

The moral significance of class

“Material conditions such as the spatial segregation of the dominant and the oppressed reduce pressures to work towards more inclusively beneficial forms of social organisation.”

The EconomistThe Economist

Island gentrification?

Challenges to island development►Peripherality in decision making►Limited diversity of natural

resources and skills base►Small domestic markets►Income volatility►High transportation and

communication costs►Access to capital

Flexible adaptation; pragmatism

Utilizing jurisdiction

Rent-based income▬►

Economies of place can make up for diseconomies of scale

Island “success” stories

Models of island development

►MIRAB►PROFIT►SITE► and ??

MIRAB

►MIgration►Remittances►Aid►Bureaucracy

PROFIT

►People►Resource management►Overseas

engagement/recognition►FInance►Transportation

SITE

►Small►Island►Tourist►Economies

Connecting MIRAB, PROFIT, SITE, ETC

“Dislocation there certainly was, but the Cayman Islands successfully made the transition from one of the poorest to one of the three richest Caribbean island communities.” (Bertram 2007)

The Challenge

The challenge for island communities is to take control over the development process and strengthen their local economies, while avoiding being displaced in the process.

SödraSkärgården

Gothenburg,Sweden

Gentrification: historical context inSödra Skärgården

“For centuries, Styrsö and neighboring islands remained a cluster of poor and shabby communities. But soon there came a day when a happier and warmer sun started to shine over Styrsö. Styrsö was ‘discovered’.” Landelius 1924

Strindberg’s ‘modern spirit’

“My great novel … in an aristocratic, modern spirit, it asserts the incontestible right of the Stronger (i.e. the shrewder) to oppress and treat the Underdog as dung for his own good, he doesn’t understand.”August Strindberg in letter to Ola Hansson, 13 June 1890, regarding his new novel I havsbandet (By the open sea)

“The corps of professional fishermen in Sweden has dwindled to half during the last ten years, and many fishing hamlets have transformed into the summer residences of urban dwellers.” Löfgren 1974

Declining year-round population+

Increasing numbers of houses

Gentrification: historical context inSödra Skärgården

Snobbrännan (Snob channel)Snobbrännan (Snob channel)

Snobbrännan (Snob Channel)

Sweden: a country of Sweden: a country of islandsislands

Gentrification in Södra Skärgården‘bofasta’ vs ‘sommargäster’

“The surface of conflict is between permanent residents and the summer guests. That is the conflict that is most visible. When a house changes owners and is dark most of the year – that is the problem.” Interview, March 2006

Gentrification in Södra Skärgården‘bofasta’ vs ‘sommargäster’

“People complain about others who sell to summer guests, and say they would never do that. But later, when they move, they do the same thing. You are a fool not to take the market value. That is just to give the difference to the next owner.” Interview, March 2006

Gentrification in Södra Skärgården‘bofasta’ vs ‘sommargäster’

Absentee ownership provides “freedom from the duty to contribute to daily life and the perpetuation of the community.” Bauman 1998

Gentrification in Södra Skärgården:replacement or displacement?

“It is getting more and more difficult for people with low incomes who work in health care or the public sector to be able to afford housing on the islands. They are forced to move to the mainland and commute. This is more and more noticeable, due to increasing prioperty prices.” Interview, March 2006

Gentrification in Södra Skärgården:forms of resistance

Political mobilization

Boplikt (duty to dwell)Tax reductions for year-round residentsFöreningen för åretruntboende och

frivillig boplikt

The great transformation

Market and Nature“What we call land is an element of nature inextricably interwoven with man’s institutions. To isolate it and form a market for it was perhaps the weirdest of all the undertakings of our ancestors.”

“We might as well imagine his being born without hands and feet as carrying on his life without land.”

(1944 [2001])

Joseph Stiglitz (Foreword to new edition of Polanyi’s The Great

Transformation)“The freedom to move capital in and out of a country at will is a freedom that some exercise, at an enormous cost to others. Unfortunately, the myth of the self‐regulating economy, in either the old guise of laissez‐faire or in the new clothing of the Washington consensus, does not represent a balancing of these freedoms, for the poor face a greater sense of insecurity than everyone else, …”

“… and in some places, such as Russia, the absolute number of those in poverty has soared and living standards have fallen. For these, there is less freedom, less freedom from hunger, less freedom from fear. Were he writing today, I am sure Polanyi would suggest that the challenge facing the global community today is whether it can redress these imbalances – before it is too late.”

Joseph Stiglitz (Foreword to new edition of Polanyi’s The Great Transformation)

Can gentrification be avoided?

Yes, but resistance against gentrification involves a struggle for power over the entry of other entities and events into time-space: not only blocking gentrification, but creating alternative regimes for development.

The invention of capitalism, and the

invention of something else

The invention of new socioecological relations upon which to build institutions which manage conflicts over land and dampen drivers of conflicts such as excessive inequalities.

(2000)

The invention of new forms of land management which include the recovery of commons in land.

We need to invent new relations that can counter:

Commodification of space

Polarized power relations

Dominance of vision over sight, characteristic of ‘the vagrant sovereign’

Penghu Islands

President Ian Irvin's speech at the formal signing of the 'Land Purchase Agreement' between Penghu County Government and

Amazing Ltd. (2000/6/27)

Today we are creating a solid foundation that will eventually lead to the Penghu Islands becoming the first, and probably the only, high quality tourist destination within Asia. Tim Potter first told me this a little over a year ago and since then Amazing Limited has spread the news very quietly, to some senior and influential people throughout the world and together we will put these islands on the international map.

It is the people of the Penghu Islands that hold the key to success, because I believe that we have before us the sort of opportunity that come but once in a lifetime. The Penghu Islands are the best kept secret in Asia. There is an opportunity for the venture on which we are embarking on today to lead to a resort that can rival the best the world has to offer. The challenge that lies before us now is to do with managing the developments that will follow Project Thistle. It is vital that we all manage that progress and that we do not allow it to manage us. For it all to work properly you will need to bring in people from the big bad world out there. We are the first, we are your friends, but we will not be the last.

The key to success rests with ensuring that the major international companies that will come to these islands come on your terms, and we at Amazing Lim will do all that we can to help you manage those relationships to everyone’s benefit. …

This however is all just the “tip of the iceberg” because it is the establishment of our own office here in Makung that is the true test of our commitment to you. …

Before I propose a toast to this venture I would like to extend a special vote of thanks to Governor Lai and his staff, in particular Hong and all the people at the land bureau, because without their help and professionalism we simply would not have got this venture off the ground. Governor Lai is a man of true vision and is a pleasure to work with.Today is also the first day of the next chapter in the life of the Penghu Islands and I hope that in years to come people will look back on this day as being day it all began. The 27th June 2000 should go down in the history books of the Penghu Islands as being the day that the proper globalization of these islands started.

Ian Irvin, President, Amazing Ltd.

http://www.phhg.gov.tw/english/intro/text2.htm

Amazing Holdings PLC websiteAmazing Ltd. is a property development group involved in the establishment of a Casino hotel resort in the Pescadores (locally know as Penghu). The company is 75% controlled by MaiDor Ltd. and Bayside Development Corporation Ltd., both registered in the Isle of Man, and wholly owned by their respective founding entrepreneurs. Until recently, the Pescadores was off-limits for development during the martial law era, but since the rapid democratization of Taiwan, conditions have improved and Amazing Ltd. is now well positioned to take advantage of this pristine location as the first major beach front development on the islands.