Disrupting Risk Governance? A Post-Disaster Politics of Inclusion in the Urban Margins

Facing climate emergency and disaster risks, cities are developing governing arrangements towards sustainability and resilience. Research is showing the ambivalent results of these arrangements in terms of inclusion and (in)justice, as well as their outcomes in emptying the ‘properly political’ through depoliticised governing techniques. Acknowledging this post-political thesis, however, critical analyses must also engage with re-politicization and focus on disruptive and transformative governance efforts. This article addresses the dual dynamics of de—and re-politicisation, focusing on the interplay of different modes of governing urban risk. We follow the political philosophy of Jacques Rancière and related interpretations in critical urban studies to recover the politics of the city. We focus on a post-disaster area in the foothills of Santiago, Chile. After a 1993 disaster, the State constituted a mode of governing risks based on physicalist interventions that discouraged local conflicts. This techno-managerial policing order made risks invisible while favouring real estate development. However, we show how local initiatives emerge in the interstices of formal and informal arrangements that contest this course. This emerging mode of governing risk, we argue, has the potential to recover incrementally urban politics and disrupt the dominant one through an egalitarian principle on the margins. Our contribution shows that, although these modes of governance coexist and are still evolving, advancing more just and inclusive cities require moving beyond consensus-based governance and focusing on the role of dissent and disruptive politics

Planning for Exclusion: The Politics of Urban Disaster Governance

Many disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives, including land use planning, tend to ignore existing long-term inequalities in urban space. Furthermore, scholars working on urban disaster governance do not adequately consider how day-to-day DRR governing practices can (re)produce these. Hence, following a recent interest in the political dimensions of disaster governance, this article explores under what conditions the implementation of DRR land uses (re)produce spatial injustice on the ground. We develop a theoretical framework combining politics, disaster risk, and space, and apply it to a case study in Santiago, Chile. There, after a landslide disaster in the city’s foothills in 1993, a multi-level planning arrangement implemented a buffer zone along the bank of a ravine to protect this area from future disasters. This buffer zone, however, transformed a long-term established neighbourhood, splitting it into a formal and an informal area remaining to this day. Using qualitative data and spatial analysis, we describe the emergence, practices, and effects of this land use. While this spatial intervention has proactively protected the area, it has produced further urban exclusion and spatial deterioration, and reproduced disaster risks for the informal households within the buffer zone. We explain this as resulting from a governance arrangement that emerged from a depoliticised environment, enforcing rules unevenly, and lacking capacities and unclear responsibilities, all of which could render DRR initiatives to be both spatially unjust and ineffective. We conclude that sustainable and inclusive cities require paying more attention to the implementation practices of DRR initiatives and their relation to long-term inequities

Beyond the Boundaries:Addressing social and spatial inequality with digitally based mobility? The case of Cape Town, South Africa

Over the last decade, the Smart City concept has increasingly become a popular urban policy approach of cities across the globe, including in Africa. Smart city approaches are often based on idealized, utopian visions of the future, digital and technology-driven urban innovation as well as on new data analytics (Kitchin 2014). They are also considered as universal solution to varied urbanpolicy problems in different cities, however, they do not take sufficiently into account lived experiences, ordinary urban places and needs, issues of marginalisation and exclusion (Slavova and Okwechine, 2016; McFarlane and Söderström 2017). How Smart City policies operate in contemporary cities is being examined in the emerging, but still underdeveloped, academic field of‘smart urbanism’

Home-Based Economic Activities and Caribbean Urban Livelihoods : Vulnerability, Ambition and Impact in Paramaribo and Port of Spain

Poor urban households in the economic 'south' deploy various livelihood activities. One of these is a Home-Based Economic Activity (HBEA), e.g. sales of home-made snacks or car maintenance. This study examines the prevalence, organisation and relevance of HBEAs in four neighbourhoods in the Caribbean cities Paramaribo (Suriname) and Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago). Recent economic developments in these countries diverge; Suriname recovers slowly from a crisis while Trinidad and Tobago's economy is buoyant. These economic features together with local political developments have produced distinct institutional contexts. This gives ground for a comparison between the two cities. In addition, the study discusses the relevance of currently popular policies on entrepreneurship and micro-finance. The above issues have been assessed through use of multiple quantitative and qualitative methods. The study shows that forty percent of households in the examined neighbourhoods earn money through operating HBEAs. These are mainly operated by women and assist households in improving their livelihoods from a level of survival to a level of security. Most HBEA-operators aim at earning additional incomes and reducing vulnerability. Only a small group meets the image of the classic operator who innovates, takes risk and aims at growth and profit. The two groups organize their HBEA in very distinct ways. Differences between Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are small. First of all economic growth has limited impact on assets and vulnerability of low-income groups. Moreover, policies aiming at stimulation of entrepreneurship such as micro-credit are relevant to classic entrepreneurs and not to the large group of security-seeking HBEA-operators

Elaborating the urbanism in smart urbanism: distilling relevant dimensions for a comprehensive analysis of Smart City approaches

Over the last decade, Smart City has increasingly become a popular urban policy approach of cities in both the Global North and Global South. Such approaches focus on digital and technology-driven urban innovation and are often considered to be a universal solution to varied urban issues in different cities. How Smart City policies operate in contemporary cities is being examined in the emerging, but still underdeveloped, academic field ‘smart urbanism’. The considerable consequences of Smart City strategies call for critical engagement with the rationale, methods, target group and implications of Smart City approaches in different urban contexts. The aim of this paper is to further such critical engagement by distilling dimensions absent in current smart urbanism. We do so by exploring both the academic field of critical urbanism and smart urbanism and through that develop our contributions to the smart urbanism debate from existing theoretical and conceptual approaches within critical urbanism. We distilled three dimensions that require further development to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of what Smart City policies mean for contemporary urban life: (1) the acknowledgement that the urban is not confined to the administrative boundaries of a city; (2) the importance of local social-economic, cultural-political and environmental contingencies in analysing the development, implementation and effects of Smart City policies; and (3) the social-political construction of both the urban problems Smart City policies aim to solve and the considered solutions. As such, we argue that there is a lack of consideration for ‘the urbanism’ in smart urbanism

Zewnętrzne CSR jako strategiczne działanie w cieniu komercyjnych interesów. Badania firm naftowych i gazowych w Trynidadzie i Tobago

In countries such as Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), the energy sector can make a significant contribution to country and community development, through corporate social responsibility (CSR). Focusing on socioeconomic and environmental domains, this paper examines what drives companies to develop external CSR activities. Taking an institutional approach, combining internal features of companies with the national and international institutional context, it studies the external CSR behaviour of three energy companies operating in T&T. It concludes that the companies develop external CSR activities hardly in alliance with their core business but do show a strong interest in fence line communities. While the companies’ external CSR might contribute to public goals, it is developed in an ad hoc manner, and in isolation of public policy. Instead it results from streetwise tactic behaviour. As civil society holds a weak position and the state opts for a laissezfaire approach, leaving room for the mother companies to shape CSR behaviour.W krajach takich jak Trynidad i Tobago (T&T) sektor energetyczny może w znaczącym stopniu przyczyniać się do rozwoju kraju i społeczności poprzez społeczną odpowiedzialność biznesu (CSR). Koncentrując się na społeczno-gospodarczych i środowiskowych aspektach, niniejszy artykuł przedstawia badania dotyczące czynników skłaniających przedsiębiorstwa do rozwoju zewnętrznych działalności w ramach CSR. Stosując podejście instytucjonalne, połączono wewnętrzne cechy przedsiębiorstw z instytucjonalnym kontekstem narodowym i międzynarodowym, dzięki czemu przestudiowano zewnętrzne zachowanie w ramach CSR trzech firm energetycznych funkcjonujących w T&T. stwierdzono, że przedsiębiorstwa rozwijają CSR nie tyle w obrębie swojej głównej działalności, co by pokazać silne zainteresowanie społecznością. O ile zewnętrzne CSR może przyczyniać się do osiągania celów publicznych, o tyle jest rozwijane na zasadzie ad hoc i w izolacji od polityki publicznej. Wynika natomiast z „cwanego” zagrania taktycznego, ponieważ społeczeństwo posiada słabą pozycję, a państwo optuje za podejściem laissez-faire, umożliwając spółkom matkom kształtować dowolnie ich CSR

Zewnętrzne CSR jako strategiczne działanie w cieniu komercyjnych interesów. Badania firm naftowych i gazowych w Trynidadzie i Tobago

In countries such as Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), the energy sector can make a significant contribution to country and community development, through corporate social responsibility (CSR). Focusing on socioeconomic and environmental domains, this paper examines what drives companies to develop external CSR activities. Taking an institutional approach, combining internal features of companies with the national and international institutional context, it studies the external CSR behaviour of three energy companies operating in T&T. It concludes that the companies develop external CSR activities hardly in alliance with their core business but do show a strong interest in fence line communities. While the companies’ external CSR might contribute to public goals, it is developed in an ad hoc manner, and in isolation of public policy. Instead it results from streetwise tactic behaviour. As civil society holds a weak position and the state opts for a laissezfaire approach, leaving room for the mother companies to shape CSR behaviour.W krajach takich jak Trynidad i Tobago (T&T) sektor energetyczny może w znaczącym stopniu przyczyniać się do rozwoju kraju i społeczności poprzez społeczną odpowiedzialność biznesu (CSR). Koncentrując się na społeczno-gospodarczych i środowiskowych aspektach, niniejszy artykuł przedstawia badania dotyczące czynników skłaniających przedsiębiorstwa do rozwoju zewnętrznych działalności w ramach CSR. Stosując podejście instytucjonalne, połączono wewnętrzne cechy przedsiębiorstw z instytucjonalnym kontekstem narodowym i międzynarodowym, dzięki czemu przestudiowano zewnętrzne zachowanie w ramach CSR trzech firm energetycznych funkcjonujących w T&T. stwierdzono, że przedsiębiorstwa rozwijają CSR nie tyle w obrębie swojej głównej działalności, co by pokazać silne zainteresowanie społecznością. O ile zewnętrzne CSR może przyczyniać się do osiągania celów publicznych, o tyle jest rozwijane na zasadzie ad hoc i w izolacji od polityki publicznej. Wynika natomiast z „cwanego” zagrania taktycznego, ponieważ społeczeństwo posiada słabą pozycję, a państwo optuje za podejściem laissez-faire, umożliwając spółkom matkom kształtować dowolnie ich CSR