Disoriented Life: A Review of Ami Harbin, Disorientation and Moral Life

This article reviews Ami Harbin’s recent book, Disorientation and Moral Life. It summarizes and affirms the book’s attention to the moral and political significance of moments of disorientation, moments in which people lack certainty regarding what to do, how to do it, or both. It also suggests two ways in which the book’s analysis could be extended, including an exploration of more extensive and systemically produced disorientations. &nbsp

"We are damaged" : planning and biopower in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1880-2010

This dissertation examines how modern urban planning has sought to manage human life in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Covering the period between 1880 and 2010, the dissertation examines a series of key moments and initiatives in the history of urban planning in Halifax. Drawing on archival research, semi-structured interviews, and social theory, it examines how planning sought to protect, improve, or otherwise alter the condition of human life; how power was implicated and exercised in these initiatives; and how acts of violence were committed against certain individuals or groups in the paradoxical name of safeguarding “life.” Drawing centrally on Foucault’s analysis of biopower, this dissertation argues that the seemingly paradoxical character of modern planning – its stated commitment to protecting or improving life, on the one hand, and its observe capacity to damage life, on the other – can be connected to the particular configurations of knowledge and power through which life is managed in modernity. Consistent with Foucault’s analysis, life is shown to be perceived by urban planning in relation to certain norms, and those who are perceived to betray these norms are liable to be exempted from the benefits of planning, compelled to bear its costs, or both. Across a series of initiatives, from the construction of “model tenements” in the early 1900s to the mobilization of public “participation” in the 1970s, planning is shown to operate within a divided, bifurcated conception of human life. Damaged lives, and a damaged city, are often a consequence of such divisions. In contrast to analyses that attribute the damage caused by modern planning to a deviation from its proper (or possible) role as a guardian of life, this dissertation concludes that damage is often integral to precisely the latter role, and it argues for a deeper interrogation of the configurations of knowledge and power that planning has come to serve.Arts, Faculty ofGeography, Department ofGraduat

La diversité sans diversité : différences "raciales" et accès au logement dans deux villes plurielles francophones (Montréal et Saint-Denis)

International audience"This article examines how the production of racial differences intersects with urban policies concerned with housing rights in two diverse, French-speaking cities in France and Quebec (Canada). We proceed through an analysis of two efforts to promote housing rights : the policies of a progressive municipal government in areas of Jamaican inhabitation inMontréal and a state project to relocate the residents of a slum in Saint-Denis (Paris region). By examining these two processes, we show how racial differences are produced and how policies aiming to reduce socio-economic differences can contribute to the marginalization of racialized populations"Cet article examine comment la production de différenciations raciales interagit avec les politiques urbaines sur la question du droit au logement dans deux villes plurielles francophones, en France et au Québec (Canada). Nous procédons par une analyse croisée de deux processus de droit au logement : les politiques d'un gouvernement municipal progressiste dans des secteurs où vivent des Jamaïcains à Montréal et un projet étatique de relogement d'un bidonville rom à Saint-Denis (Région parisienne). En examinant ces deux processus, nous montrons comment des différenciations raciales sont produites et comment des actions qui visent à réduire les différences socio-économiques peuvent contribuer à la marginalisation de populations racisées