RESCALING URBAN POVERTY “In this path-breaking book, Mahito Hayashi explores the rescaled geographies of homelessness that have been produced in contemporary Japanese cities. Through an original synthesis of regulationist political economy and immersive place-based research, Hayashi situates urban homelessness in Japan in comparative-international contexts. The book offers new theoretical perspectives from which to decipher emergent forms of urban marginality and their contestation.”
—Neil Brenner, Lucy Flower Professor of Urban Sociology, University of Chicago
“Mahito Hayashi traces the shifting spatial strategies of unhoused people as they create spaces of emancipation within Japanese cities. Attending to the complexities of contentious class politics and livelihoods barely sustained by the survival economies, Rescaling Urban Poverty is a unique and valuable contribution to the study of the geographies of urban social movements.”
—Nik Theodore, Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois Chicago
Rescaling Urban Poverty discloses the hidden dynamics of state rescaling that ensnares homeless people at the fringes of mainstream society and its housing regimes/classes.
Explains the oppressive effects of rescaling and its limits in the interplay of the state, domiciled society, public space, urban class relations, social movements, and capitalism Uses ethnography as a re-ontologising medium of critical theorisation in Lefebvrian, Gramscian, Harveyan, and other Marxian strands Develops rich context-based and field-based arguments about social movements, poverty and housing policy, and public space formation in Japan Uncovers the radical geographies of placemaking, commoning, and translation that can create prohomeless urban environments under rescaling Refines the method of abstraction to broaden the international scope of critical literatures and links different scholarly standpoints without obscuring disagreements
By advancing a broad research program for homelessness and poverty, Rescaling Urban Poverty provides the essential understanding of how state rescaling ensnares homeless and impoverished people in the interplay of the state, domiciled society, public space, urban class relations, social movements, and capitalism. Its three angles – national states, public and private spaces, and urban social movements – uncover the hidden dynamics of rescaling that emerge, and are resisted, at the fringes of mainstream society and its housing regimes/classes. Evidence is drawn from Japanese cities where the author has conducted long-term fieldwork and develops robust urban narratives by mobilising spatial regulation theory, metabolism theory, state theory, and critical housing theory. The book cross-fertilises these Lefebvrian, Gramscian, Harveyan, and other Marxian strands through meticulous efforts to reinterpret both old and new texts. By building bridges between classical and contemporary interests, and between the theories and Japanese cities, this book attracts various audiences in geography, sociology, urban studies, and political economy.
By:
Mahito Hayashi (Kinjo Gakuin University Japan)
Imprint: John Wiley & Sons Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 24mm
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9781119690979
ISBN 10: 1119690978
Series: RGS-IBG Book Series
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 16 November 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
"List of Figures xii List of Tables xiv List of Abbreviations xv Series Editor's Preface xvi Preface and Acknowledgements xvii Part One Theory, Method, Context 1 1. Introduction and Theoretical Framework 3 Urban Political Economy: For Homelessness? 7 State Rescaling: The Central Concept of this Book 9 Subcomponent 1: National States 13 Subcomponent 2: Public and Private Spaces 17 Subcomponent 3: Urban Social Movements 21 The Method of Theorisation in this Book 26 Postcolonial Urban Theory 30 Between Abstract and Concrete 30 The Structure of this Book 32 2. Japanese Context and the Regulationist Ethnography 37 Theory Specification 1: National States 38 Theory Specification 2: Public and Private Spaces 40 Theory Specification 3: Urban Social Movements 44 Regulationist Ethnography 45 Sites of Participatory Observation 49 The Nature of Data 53 Subaltern Materials 56 Conclusion 59 Part Two National States and Public and Private Spaces 61 3. Scales of Societalisation: Integral State and the Rescaling of Poverty 63 Theory and Its ""Deviants"" 64 Theoretical Framework 67 Mobilising the Theory for Japan 77 Nationalised Space of Poverty Regulation in Japan 79 New Regulatory Spaces in Japan 93 Conclusion 100 4. Rescaling Urban Metabolism I: Homeless Labour for ""Housing"" 103 The Urban Matrix and the Housing Classes 104 Metabolism, Societalisation, Rescaling 107 Specification of Theory 116 Metabolism and Regulation I: Locational Ethnography 122 Metabolism and Regulation II: Multicity Ethnography 130 Conclusion 132 5. Rescaling Urban Metabolism II: Homeless Labour for Money 135 Homeless Recyclers: A Regulationist Approach 136 Homeless Recyclers in Japan 139 Regulationist Ethnography I: Regulating the Recycling Metabolism 143 Regulationist Ethnography II: New Recycling Strategies 147 Regulationist Ethnography III: Movements for Homeless Recyclers 150 Conclusion 153 Part Three Urban Social Movements 155 6. Placemaking in the Inner City: Social and Cultural Niches of Homeless Activism 157 The Inner City: Beyond Regulation 158 Lefebvre in the Inner City 159 Japanese Contexts 166 Placemaking in Yokohama's Inner City: From Run-Ups to the 1970s 170 Placemaking in Yokohama's Inner City: The 1980s 176 Placemaking in Yokohama's Inner City: The 1990s 180 Conclusion 183 7. Commoning around the Inner City: Whose Public? Whose Common? 186 Commoning, Habiting, Othering 187 Commoning against Othering 189 Japanese Parameters of Commoning 191 Commoning in Yokohama in the 1970s 192 Commoning in Yokohama in the 1980s 198 Commoning in Yokohama in the 1990s-2000s 203 Conclusion 214 8. Translating to New Cities: Geographical and Cultural Expansion 216 Outlying Cities 217 Brokerage and Translation 220 Placemaking in the Outlying Cities 224 Commoning in the Outlying Cities 229 Solidarity against a New Rescaling 234 Conclusion 236 Part Four Towards the Future of Rescaling Studies 239 9. New Rescalings in Japan 241 Upscaling of Homeless Politics in the Late 2000s 241 Neoliberalisation and Workfarist Reform in the 2010s 246 Rescaling for All 249 When Public Spaces Are Closed 251 Repoliticising the Urban 253 The Inner City against Gentrification 254 COVID-19, Rescaling, Recommoning 256 10. Conclusion 258 Urban Theory and Ethnography 261 Remapping Urban Political Economy 262 Habitat and Urban Class Relations 263 Integral State Rescaling 264 References 265 Index 294"
Mahito Hayashi teaches urban studies and comparative Japanese studies at Kinjo Gakuin University, Japan. His research focuses on poverty, labour, social movements, urban theory, and sociospatial approaches to state and regulation theory. Professor Hayashi is the author of Homelessness and Urban Space (2014, in Japanese) and has published widely in notable journals.
