Geog 448 Option: Accumulation by Legal Dispossession

G448 option

Accumulation by

Legal Dispossession

Do the two-step:

One. Watch Susan Saladoff (2011). Hot Coffee. New York: HBO Films.

Two. Analyze, measure, and mobilize, drawing on relevant literatures from geography and related disciplines to write a paper.

Here are a few quick brainstorms to give you a few ideas of the connections I see. Consider the interpretation of what is portrayed in Saladoff's film through the lens of David Harvey's (2003) theory of "accumulation by dispossession." Analyze the geography of Astroturf and U.S. Chamber of Commerce thuggery with the help of the "legal geographies" framework (Blomley et al., 2001). Situate the battle for corporate control over the courts in American federalism -- the negotiated patchwork of rules and procedures between the federal government and the States -- in terms of Don Mitchell's (1997) memorable analysis of "the annihilation of space by law." If you want to transnationalize the story beyond the terribly parochial American perspective of ekw, then one of many possible connections that combines a critical analysis of U.S. law with the transnational circuits of contemporary lives is William C. Terry's (2009) "Working on the Water." This reminds me of a segment of our Urban Studies seminar from a few years ago that I playfully dubbed "Cities on Cruise Control." Draw the connections between the battles in the courts and in the legislatures with the theoretical and ideological justifications built by the Right over the past forty years (Peck, 2010).

This is just a very short sample. There are so many other connections and possibilities. Speak with me face to face or by phone if you'd like to explore this Geog 448 option. If you know me at all (or if you've rooted around this crazy website for a few minutes) you will know that I'm an incurable data-junkie. So another option here is for you to compile, organize, and document a database of important legal and political-economy developments in the Right's blatantly unconstitutional attempts to shut the courthouse doors to people, all the better to protect the corporate sociopaths that now rule our lives. If you compile a database, then we could go into the lab and use some critical spatial analysis tools -- of the kind we explore in Geog 450, Urban Research -- to support a strategic positivist project of socio-spatial justice.

References

Blomley, Nicholas, David Delaney, and Richard T. Ford, editors (2001). The Legal Geographies Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Harvey, David (2003). The New Imperialism. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mitchell, Don (1997). "The Annihilation of Space by Law: The Roots and Implications of Anti-Homeless Laws in the United States." Antipode 29(3), 303-335.

Peck, Jamie (2010). Constructions of Neoliberal Reason. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press Canada.

Terry, William C. (2009). "Working on the Water: On Legal Space and Seafarer Protection in the Cruise Industry." Economic Geography 85(4), 463-482.