Shaw, IGR orcid.org/0000-0002-4289-1740 (2019) Worlding austerity: The spatial violence of poverty. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 37 (6). pp. 971-989. ISSN 0263-7758
Abstract
The enforced poverty of austere capitalism continues to wreck the worlds we inhabit. These worlds are built with a variety of social infrastructures: houses, pipes, schools, parks, libraries, and other sites of coexistence. Austerity, in turn, is spatialized and experienced across this built environment – slashing the potential of everyday worlds to provide a dignified life. By ‘worlding’ austerity, I thus argue that violence against the built environment – or what I term ‘slow urbicide’ – is simultaneously a violence against people. My focus is on the UK, and housing in particular, where government austerity continues to inflict an insidious spatial trauma. As spatial beings, our physical and mental wellbeing is bound to the landscapes we inhabit. If these landscapes are ruined by government cutbacks – compounding the already violent production of neoliberal space – a deep world alienation and insecurity can set in. I thus reflect on the ruined social and psychological geographies of austerity. But I also offer a positive political vision: an imperative to work for the world and repair the blasted landscapes of our coexistence. The paper finishes by outlining a new right to the world: a rallying cry to flourish in more dignified spaces.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2019 This is an author produced version of an article published in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Austerity, worlds, housing, urbicide, violence, poverty |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Nov 2020 10:46 |
Last Modified: | 16 Nov 2020 22:28 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0263775819857102 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:167782 |