Harvey: The Capitalist City

In his essay on the nature of capitalist urban development,* David Harvey describes some of the many ways in which such developments act to prevent the masses of the people (i.e. the non-elites or non-rich) from accessing the spaces and services of the city. Historically, of course, we are familiar with idea of the city centres being filled with the poor housing and hygiene associated with the homes provided for the urban proletariat: the book The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 by Engels is the most obvious example of this but it was clear in the wake of the disaster of Hurricane Katrina that the centre of New Orleans was the preserve of the urban poor unable to afford accommodation on the more attractive and costly higher ground and effectively left to fend for themselves. Other North American rust belt cities also share similar characteristics: the archetype is perhaps the Baltimore pictured in The Wire.

When urban redevelopment is made possible, perhaps because of the award of a significant international festival such as the Olympic Games or because of the election (or seizure of power) by right-wing neo-liberalist interests, then various steps are taken to make the city experience more amenable to the rich and more and more inconvenient for the poor who are, nevertheless, still required in the city to do the menial service and retail sector work on which a happy city experience for the rich relies. The first such step, of course, is the clearing of slums and the forcible relocation of unwanted people to new places far from the city centre. The cleared land is then claimed for capitalist investment that generally constructs high-end apartment buildings, shopping malls and office complexes that are aimed at the middle and upper classes (and, in many countries, armed guards make sure that the poor are not permitted to enter).

The second step is to reconfigure the infrastructure so that it favours the preferred usage. The construction of large, wide roads permitting rapid transportation between the residential, working and leisure areas of the moneyed classes also has the effect of reducing the ability of the poor to move about the city as their modes of transport, walking, bicycles, pushed trolleys, can all be banned from the roads or simply made too dangerous. The construction of urban light rail or subway schemes, meanwhile, both necessitate the re-designation of privately-owned or occupied land and can also be priced so as to prevent the poor from using the services.

Once these steps are in place, it becomes increasingly possible to make the poor almost completely invisible with a view to promoting the city as a ‘world-class’ destination for tourists and international investors.

* From David Harvey, “Right to the City,” New Left Review, No.53 (September-October, 2008), pp.23-40.