EXPULSIONS: COMPLEXITY AND BRUTALITY BASED ON 2 BOOKS: TERRITORY, AUTHORITY, RIGHTS (IN GERMAN: PARADOX DES NATIONALEN, SUHRKAMP) AND EXPULSIONS (PUB. SEPT 2013)

Saskia Sassen Columbia University www.saskiasassen.com

Framings/Structurations

Territory, Authority, Rights—capabilities whose intersection can vary across time and space.

Liberal state is one mode of intersection

Foundational flaw at the heart of the Liberal state : the two foundational subjects are profoundly unequal

But: A working state is a more complex capability than the richest multinational corporation

Beyond Inequality and Social Exclusion Expulsions: What happens at the systemic

edge

Two modes of surveillance

When complexity produces elementary brutalities

Finance: a capability: the steam engine of our epoch…only more complex and dangerous

Organizing logics: Systemic edges

What flows happen at a system’s edge.

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5

Expulsions: Foreclosures

2006 : 1.2 million foreclosures, up 42% from 2005. This is: One in every 92 U.S. households

2007: 2.2 million forecls, up 75% from 06

2008: 3.1 million, up 81% from 07

2009: 3.9 million (or 1 in 45 US hholds)

(From 2007 to 2009: 120% increase in forecls)

2010: 2.9 mill forecls. (2006-2010: over 13 mil)

Source: RealtyTrac 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010; Blomquist 2011

When modest neighborhoods become part of global finance

1. They key is that the source of profits for financial

firms of sub-prime and other mortgages for low- and modest-income households is NOT payment on the mortgage.

2. The source of profits is the bundling of a large

number of these mortgages to sell them on to investors, including banks and foreign investors. It worked because they were mixed up with high quality debts of all sorts.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Pakis

tan

Indonesia

Bangla

desh

India

Chin

a

Philippin

es

Thaila

nd

Kore

a

Taiw

an

Mala

ysia

Hong K

ong

Sin

gapore

Source: Warnock, Veronica Cacdac and Warnock, Francis E.,Markets and Housing Finance(February 2008).

Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=981641, retrieved 24 August 2008.

Table 2: Ratio Residential Mortgage Debt to GDP: Emerging Asia

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Sovenia

Pola

nd

Slo

vakia

Hungary

Czech

Lithuania

Italy

Austr

ia

Greece

Latv

ia

France

Esto

nia

Fin

land

Belg

ium

Malta

Luxem

bourg

Sw

eden

Germ

any

Spain

Portu

gal

Irela

nd

Neth

erla

nds

UK

Denm

ark

Sw

itzerla

nd

Source: http://www.germany-re.com/files/00034800/MS%20Housing%20Report%202007.pdf

Table 1: Ratio Residential Mortgage Debt to GDP (Select countries/end 2006)

Table 8: Ratio of Household Credit to Personal Disposable Income (2000-05)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Emerging Markets

Czech Republic 8.5 10.1 12.9 16.4 21.3 27.1

Hungary 11.2 14.4 20.9 29.5 33.9 39.3

Poland 10.1 10.3 10.9 12.6 14.5 18.2

India 4.7 5.4 6.4 7.4 9.7 …

Korea 33.0 43.9 57.3 62.6 64.5 68.9

Philippines 1.7 4.6 5.5 5.5 5.6 …

Taiwan 75.1 72.7 76.0 83.0 95.5 …

Thailand 26.0 25.6 28.6 34.3 36.4 …

Mature Markets

Australia 83.3 86.7 95.6 109.0 119.0 124.5

France 57.8 57.5 58.2 59.8 64.2 69.2

Germany 70.4 70.1 69.1 70.3 70.5 70.0

Italy 25.0 25.8 27.0 28.7 31.8 34.8

Japan 73.6 75.7 77.6 77.3 77.9 77.8

Spain 65.2 70.4 76.9 86.4 98.8 112.7

United States 104.0 105.1 110.8 118.2 126.0 132.7

Source: IMF Staff estimates based on data from country authoriies, CEIC, OECD, and Bloomberg

Table 11: Share of Foreign-Currency-Denominated Household Credit, End-2005 (In percent of total household credit)

Source: IMF 2006. “Global Financial Stability Report: Market Developments and Issues.” IMF: World

Economic and Financial Surveys. September, 2006. Retrieved August 26, 2008.

[http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/GFSR/2006/02/pdf/chap2.pdf] p. 54

Super-Prime Housing Market

• Monaco 18.9 million $

Russian, CIS, UK, Italian, Scandinavian, Swiss

• London 15.9 million$

Russian, French, South African, Italian, Indian, UAE, Greek, Australian, US, Canadian

• New York City 10 million$

UK, French, Italian, Spanish, Mainland Chinese, Singaporean, Australian, Brazilian, Argentine, Canadian

more

Dubai $8.0m

African (Kenyan, Somali, Tanzanian), Saudi Arabian, Russian, Indian, Iranian

-Paris 8.8 million$

Russian, CIS, Middle Eastern, Italian, French, Benelux, German, UK, US

Moscow $7.8m CIS

More

-Singapore 8.3 m$

Indonesian, Mainland Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, Australian, UK

-Shanghai 6.4 million $

Hong Kong,Taiwanese, US, Canadian, Korean, Singaporean, Australian, Japanese, Malaysian, German, French

- Hong Kong 15.4 m$

Mainland Chinese

Income Share of top 10% earners, 1917-2005

*Income is defined as market income but excludes capital gains Source: Mishel, L. 2004. “Unfettered Markets, Income Inequality, and Religious Values.” Viewpoints. May 19, 2004.

Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved July 26, 2008 [

www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_viewpoints_moral_markets_presentation.]

% Growth in After-Tax Income, USA 1979-2007

In the shadows of “urbanization” In all the talk about the growth of urban

populations there is never mention of what processes are feeding this growth.

One set of processes consists of expulsions –of people from their land due to “landgrabs” or mining.

Where do they go? To cities, where they will add to the homeless and to the slums.

One instance

From 2006 to 2010: 70million hectares of land in Afri ,LatAm, Cambodia, Ukraine bought/leased by rich govts,firms,fin firms

IF WE CONSIDER ONLY SALES: 220 mill hectares

The land is now more valued than the people or activities on it

The active making of surplus populations

Novel assemblage of Territory/Authority/Rights

Africa: main target for land acquisitions. Sudan: South Korea has signed deals for

690,000 hectares and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for 400,000 hectares.

Ethiopia: Saudi investors are spending $100m to raise wheat, barley and rice on land leased to them by Ethiopia’s government; they received tax exemptions and export the crop back to Saudi Arabia.

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Congo: China secured the right to grow palm oil for bio-fuels on 2.8m hectares –this would make it the world's largest palm-oil plantation.

Zambia: China is negotiating to grow palm oil for bio-fuels on 2m hectares.

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Russia and Ukraine

Much buying of privatized land in the former Soviet Union, especially in Russia and Ukraine: some cases in 2008:

A Swedish company (Alpcot Agro), bought 128,000 hectares in Russia.

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries paid $6.5m for a majority stake in Khorol Zerno, a company that owns 10,000 hectares in eastern Siberia.

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More Russia and Ukraine

Morgan Stanley bought 40,000 hectares of agricultural land in Ukraine.

Gulf investors are planning to acquire Pava, the first Russian grain processor to be floated on the financial markets to sell 40% of its landowning division, giving them access to 500,000 hectares.

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Land plus military protection Pakistan is offering half a million hectares of

land to Gulf investors with the promise of a security force of 100,000 to protect the land.

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Shift from National Territory to Global Commodity/Jurisdiction

The Repositioning of Territory in the Global Division of Functions.

Making alternative jurisdictions: going beyond older forms of extraterritoriality.

Making parallel geopolitical circuits.

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Security regime

1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the US

.

Of the estimated 265,000 private companies doing intelligence work, 1,931 do work at the top-secret level.

Out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearance, an estimated 265,000 are private contractors

MAP OF GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SECURITY AGENCIES IN THE US

Source: Washington Post. 2010. “Top Secret America,” Interactive Maps. Washington Post, July 2010. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/map/

A turnkey surveillance state. Who are we the ‘citizens’—the new colonials? When the pursuit of “national security” produces urban insecurity .

The Global Street

A space for making by those who lack access to formal instruments for making.

-making presence/estamos presentes

-no explicit (conventional, standard) objective

Urban capabilities –arising out of a mix of people and space

Does the City Have Speech