Empezamos el año con este texto que llega desde Miami.
Título impactante, hipótesis igual de impactante.
El autor afirma que con el cambio de las reglas de juego económicas -un
escenario post-gentrificación con "desinversión"- se deben también
cambiar las tácticas de los movimientos sociales.
Para esto se dan varios análisis de dónde estamos y hacia dónde podemos
ir. De no adentrarnos en estos análisis, estaremos luchando, como el
autor dice, una "lucha estática contra un enemigo dinámico".
Fundamental!
El texto está online en http://takebacktheland.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=19
El PDF aquí: http://thepanafrican.org/images/misc/Gentrification%20is%20Dead.pdf
Y también lo he pegao abajo... ;)
Salut!
más info en: http://delicious.com/krax/miami
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Gentrification is Dead
A Proposition By The Center for Pan-African Development
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THE PDF PRINT VERSION.
I. Introduction
The modern era of gentrification, starting approximately in mid 2002 and ending abruptly towards the end of 2007, is possibly the most extreme- and brutal- since the term was coined in England in the late 1800s. In June 2005, The Economist magazine, widely regarded as the world's most respected financial periodical, argued, with documentation, that never in history have home prices rose so high, for so long and across so many countries, bestowing upon the “housing boom” a more appropriate moniker: "the biggest bubble in history." A significant and integral component of that bubble was speculative gentrification.
The social justice movement in the United States proved woefully ill prepared to counter what became a national crisis with devastating impacts on the local communities the movement serves. Consequently, many organizations and activists entered the gentrification game well in the fourth quarter, down by too many points to compel meaningful compromises from the forces of capital dictating and profiteering from gentrification.
Once the severity of the crisis was properly recognized, however, organizations eager to mute it's effects, retooled and positioned themselves to fight gentrification. As a result, half way into 2008, countless social justice organizations focus at least a portion of their time, resources, campaigns and political outlook on the battle against gentrification, developing theories about how it works and how to combat it, including detailed and complex political objectives and campaigns.
At this juncture, however, for better or worse, the rapidly deteriorating economy, along with other factors, including the collective work of the social justice movement, have effectively ended gentrification as an economic cycle.
Consequently, organizational orientation directed towards fighting gentrification as an active economic cycle is obsolete, and those organizations still fighting a phenomenon whose life cycle has expired are shadow boxing with ghosts. By default, time devoted to fighting a problem which is no longer an active threat, is time directed away from fighting current and active threats, specifically the post-gentrification economic cycle of capital divestment, and its own devastating economic consequences.
Every movement must engage, without fear of the results, in regular and rigorous re-assessments of assumptions, strategies, tactics and objective material conditions, including those of the prevailing economic data and cycles. The failure to engage in such analysis will result in a static fight against a dynamic enemy, a formula guaranteed to fail.
This proposition- that the economic cycle of gentrification is over and, therefore, we must shift our strategies and tactics to fight the next economic cycle- is not intended as a definitive piece to be wholly accepted or entirely rejected. Nor, due to the nature of local real estate markets, will this piece apply to every region in the US, as there are some areas where the possibilities of gentrification remain strong, including well known places, such as New Orleans, and lessor known markets, such as small cities in the Carolinas. Rather, this is an attempt to identify a prevailing, if not obvious, economic trend, thereby initiating a movement wide assessment of the conditions under which we engage in our work.
This piece seeks to accomplish four objectives:
- first, define gentrification, including the elements required and their relationship to one another;
- second, articulate, in the context of the definition and elements, why the economic cycle of gentrification is effectively over;
- third, hypothesize what economic cycles might follow that of gentrification; and
- fourth, propose strategic and tactical shifts to improve living conditions and grow power in impacted communities
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