... Angeles. International Jour-nal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 5, 546563.Harley, JB, 1... more ... Angeles. International Jour-nal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 5, 546563.Harley, JB, 1989, Deconstructing the map. Cartographica, Vol. 26, 120. Legg, S., 2007, Spaces of Colonialism. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Los ...
This polemical article uses Los Angeles as a template to challenge existing theoretical and empir... more This polemical article uses Los Angeles as a template to challenge existing theoretical and empirical research traditions in the study of urban politics. The precepts of the “Los Angeles School” exemplify the shift from a modernist to a postmodern urbanism in which altered geographies are redefining the meaning and practice of urban politics. Los Angeles challenges an urban political scholarship that is overly focused on empirical analysis at the expense of theory, too constrained by conventional categories, and divorced from adjacent disciplines with much to contribute to the understanding of contemporary politics, including urban political economy.
When did critical geography stop making maps? Did it follow the generalized “crisis of representa... more When did critical geography stop making maps? Did it follow the generalized “crisis of representation” and J. B. Harley’s deconstruction of the map? Or does a field of increased theoretical dexterity and political commitment necessarily shed Cartesian modes? To begin to address these questions, this commentary considers what a map of the struggle over the “right to the city,” or neoliberal urbanism, might look like, and opens up a line of inquiry into the conceptual possibilities of mapping the urban process. The entry point is the struggle over the gentrification and policing of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, which the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless ignominiously anointed, in 2009, the “Meanest City” in the United States, for its criminalization of the homeless and poverty. Part of an ongoing research program, this commentary explicates mapping the heart of the “meanest city” and the sociospatial struggles that constitute its landscape
From the perspective of our Skid Row community, the City of Los Angeles, the State of California,... more From the perspective of our Skid Row community, the City of Los Angeles, the State of California, and the federal government are failing in their solutions to the current budget crises. These political decisions further intensify the effects of policies that produce poverty while eliminating the last traces of safety nets that help reduce the violence of poverty and homelessness. Our daily life experiences in Skid Row represent a particularly intense intersection of failed policies and short-sighted budget decisions that affect those in poverty nationwide. Nevertheless, our struggles and victories serve as hopeful reminders of the power of poor people’s movements and collective organization in fighting social funding cuts and disproportionate spending on police budgets.
... Angeles. International Jour-nal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 5, 546563.Harley, JB, 1... more ... Angeles. International Jour-nal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 5, 546563.Harley, JB, 1989, Deconstructing the map. Cartographica, Vol. 26, 120. Legg, S., 2007, Spaces of Colonialism. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Los ...
This polemical article uses Los Angeles as a template to challenge existing theoretical and empir... more This polemical article uses Los Angeles as a template to challenge existing theoretical and empirical research traditions in the study of urban politics. The precepts of the “Los Angeles School” exemplify the shift from a modernist to a postmodern urbanism in which altered geographies are redefining the meaning and practice of urban politics. Los Angeles challenges an urban political scholarship that is overly focused on empirical analysis at the expense of theory, too constrained by conventional categories, and divorced from adjacent disciplines with much to contribute to the understanding of contemporary politics, including urban political economy.
When did critical geography stop making maps? Did it follow the generalized “crisis of representa... more When did critical geography stop making maps? Did it follow the generalized “crisis of representation” and J. B. Harley’s deconstruction of the map? Or does a field of increased theoretical dexterity and political commitment necessarily shed Cartesian modes? To begin to address these questions, this commentary considers what a map of the struggle over the “right to the city,” or neoliberal urbanism, might look like, and opens up a line of inquiry into the conceptual possibilities of mapping the urban process. The entry point is the struggle over the gentrification and policing of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, which the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless ignominiously anointed, in 2009, the “Meanest City” in the United States, for its criminalization of the homeless and poverty. Part of an ongoing research program, this commentary explicates mapping the heart of the “meanest city” and the sociospatial struggles that constitute its landscape
From the perspective of our Skid Row community, the City of Los Angeles, the State of California,... more From the perspective of our Skid Row community, the City of Los Angeles, the State of California, and the federal government are failing in their solutions to the current budget crises. These political decisions further intensify the effects of policies that produce poverty while eliminating the last traces of safety nets that help reduce the violence of poverty and homelessness. Our daily life experiences in Skid Row represent a particularly intense intersection of failed policies and short-sighted budget decisions that affect those in poverty nationwide. Nevertheless, our struggles and victories serve as hopeful reminders of the power of poor people’s movements and collective organization in fighting social funding cuts and disproportionate spending on police budgets.
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