Permeability and Protest in Lane 49: Entangling Materialities of Place with Housing Activism in Shanghai. Issue 1 (29th September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Larrington‐Spencer, Harriet; Browne, Alison; Petrova, Saska
• Is Part Of: Antipode. Volume 53:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 222
• Page End: 241
• Publication Date: 2020-09-29
• Subjects: housing activism -- permeability -- place -- materiality -- China; Geography -- Periodicals; 910.5
• DOI: 10.1111/anti.12681
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0066-4812

Abstract

Abstract: Since China's implementation of a neo‐liberal housing regime, housing activism has boomed. Whilst activism is ultimately in place, as increasingly recognised within protest work, there is limited reflection upon how permeable material histories are entangled with the throwntogetherness of place as a site for protest. Employing ethnography over three months, this article follows the emergence, organisation and implementation of housing activism in Lane 49, a public housing community in downtown Shanghai. Utilising feminist geography and feminist political theorisations of material permeability this article contributes to Chinese geographies of protest, providing a local epistemology of housing activism which demonstrates the importance of drawing materiality into understandings of activist tactics. The article also contributes to radical geographies of protest by deconstructing the idea of public protest in a public place and thus offering opportunities to demonstrate how, through blurring public‐private binaries, protest can emerge and survive in authoritative governance regimes. Abstract : 自从中国实行新自由主义住房制度以来，住房行动主义蓬勃发展。尽管行动主义不断体现在抗议活动中并最终得以实现，人们却鲜少反思具有渗透性的物质历史如何被卷入作为抗议地点的被"丢在一起"的地方。经过三个多月的民族志，本文探寻了上海市中心的一个公共住房社区49号巷中住房行动主义的产生、组织和执行。透过女性主义地理学和女性主义政治理论化对物质渗透性的解释视角，本文提供了一种对住房行动主义的地方性的认识论，证明了将物质性纳入理解行动者策略的重要性，从而对中国抗议地理学作出贡献。此外，通过解构在公共场所进行公共抗议的观点，并说明通过模糊公/私的二元划分，抗议如何在权威治理体制中出现并生存，本文也为抗议激进地理学作出贡献。