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The State and Governance from Above and Below, Ethnicity and the nation State

The State and Governance from Above and Below, Ethnicity and the nation State. Kevin Stenson University of Kent Mannheim Centre, LSE. Synopsis. Example of Newham Sketch key elements of political economic explanations of urban marginality and statecraft strategies

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The State and Governance from Above and Below, Ethnicity and the nation State

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  1. The State and Governance from Above and Below, Ethnicity and the nation State Kevin Stenson University of Kent Mannheim Centre, LSE

  2. Synopsis • Example of Newham • Sketch key elements of political economic explanations of urban marginality and statecraft strategies • Realist Governmentality theory, highlighting sovereignty, nation building governance from `above & below` - key role of ethnic/cultural sites of governance

  3. Newham – multicultural contested space

  4. Newham – multicultural contested space

  5. London Borough of Newham • Newham - > 50% population Black/Minority Ethnic – largest UK % of non- Whites • 62% residents UK born. Of 38% born abroad, 90% born in 47 different countries (E Europe etc), – 24% of Newham residents self assigned – Muslim • `White & black flight` • 11% of secondary school population `white British` (UK – 27% primary school children ethnic minorities – upward trend)

  6. Newham – marginalised urban space • High deprivation scores, 15% unemployment • Knife & `gang` crime – postcode wars • Radical Islamist activity • Riot August 2011

  7. Newham – marginalised urban space • Local politics based on shifting inter-ethnic/faith coalitions – flashpoint issues: siting of mosques, Olympic Park etc • Extra Government grants for education, welfare urban regeneration/Olympic Park under New Labour – now threatened by Cameron coalition government cuts

  8. Borough Crime rates • Nearby boroughs • BoroughCrime countCrime rate • Bexley 1182 5.41 • Redbridge 2055 8.61 • Greenwich 2109 9.84 • Brking/Dag1809 11.03 • WlthmForst2510 11.50 • Newham 3054 12.52 • TwerHmlts 2542 12.96 • Hackney 2670 13.16

  9. MET Newham Crime Mapping text view: Total notifiable offences, July 2010 • WardCrime countCrime rate per 1000 • East Ham North 69 6.06 • Wall End 100 7.73 • Green Street East 109 8.25 • West Ham 108 8.55 • East Ham South 109 8.74 • Green Street West 124 9.64 • Plaistow North 128 9.67 • Manor Park 118 9.75 • Little Ilford 134 10.05 • Forest Gate North 145 11.48 • Custom House 143 12.04 • Canning Town Sth 139 12.32 • Forest Gate South 177 12.71 • Boleyn 160 13.02 • Beckton 172 13.12 • Plaistow South 156 13.18 • Canning TownNth 179 14.84 • Royal Docks 122 9.72 • East Ham Central 260 21.38 • Stratford/NewTown 363 29.33

  10. Urban Control Strategies • `Prevent` anti-terrorism and Olympic security strategies. • Anti-terrorism legislation – police stop and search & surveillance, blanket CCTV • Unintended consequences – resentment, alienation of young people/Moslems through `over-zealous` policing, may reinforce radicalisation, gang crime, inter-ethnic conflict, `white and black flight`

  11. Urban Control Strategies(class narrative?) • D. Garland thesis – economic insecurity of urban middle class leads to `culture of control` – dominant classes seek to maintain power over capital & space

  12. Urban Control Strategies(class/ethnicity/nation) • Gwen Van Eijk – Rotterdam city policy study: - De-concentration, creating mixed neighbourhoods, integration create new forms of difference & are rooted in cultural insecurities over social order & national identity (liveablity/Dutchness/ethnicity) • C.f. Stephen Scheffer `Immigrant Nations` - Social science role in creating policy discourses of multi-culturalism – similar problems across Europe

  13. Wacquanton Neoliberal project – Advanced MarginalityNeo-Marxist Political Economy + Cultural Analysis • Functionalist explanation of regulation of urban marginality/attempts to equip populations to adjust to neo-liberal globalisation? • Wacquant - `a rough post-hoc functionality`→ (a) low-skill employment market, (b) public aid, and (c) criminal justice` (2009) • Paternal & maternal strategies of statecraft punitiveness/workfare

  14. Social Disorganisation Delinquency/penal control • Decline of solidaristic ghettoes → anarchic, welfare dependent, mono-cultural, high crime, racially homogeneous `hyper-ghettoes` - W.J. Wilson - • Social disorganisation - not just labelling difference! – (c.f. Hall & Winlow) • Limited potential for collective action/resistance

  15. Delinquency/penal control • Illegal economies/volatile violence flourish in vacuum of governance/punitiveness (c.f. J. Hagendorn) • 2003 US– 81 white women/100k incarcerated, 359 black women, 717 white men, 4,919 black men 1717 Latino men

  16. National/Regional Variants • International convergence – minority concentration, high crime, unemployment, disaffection, riots & resistance in France etc • In US immigration disrupts old majority/minority relations/racism narratives • W Europe maternal hand of state still advanced & minority areas less isolated, more ethnically plural

  17. National/Regional Variants • UK no ghettoes (Ceri Peach). Mass immigration – diversity. – 45% non-whites in London, 13% W. Midlands, 8%, S. East, N. West 8%, Yorkshire 7% • Inter-ethnic/class relations, lateral and vertical. Economic agency inter-twined with ethnic/cultural group formation/governance • Decline of unions/socialist parties bridging ethnic/racial/religious groups • (Barry Hindess – politics constructs classes/alliances)

  18. Realist Governmentality Theory – Bringing Sovereignty & Nation Back In Realist Governmentality theory rejects nominalist (Valverde, O’Malley, Rose) claim you can differentiate study of the mentalities of liberal governance from ways that politicians, officials, professional agents etc interpret/ apply them in everyday contexts (Stenson – Lippert, c.f. Lea and Stenson)

  19. Realist Governmentality Theory • Territoriality/governance from below – multiple sites of governance • Sovereignty: meeting point, in advanced democracies, for liberalism & nationalism. Sovereign techniques of governance exercise of or threat of force to maintain physical security through force – control over life & death

  20. Realist Governmentality Theory • Plus agencies & processes: to exercise fiscal & monetary controls, foster centripetal cultural solidarity among diverse populations • Key question: `who rules this land & its people & in whose name?`

  21. Realist Governmentality Theory • Reject base/superstructure split & right & left political economy. Economic relations politically/culturally constructed – capitalism = cultural processes, not a system (Weber to Keynes to Ha-Joon Chang)

  22. Realist Governmentality Theory • Economics as neo-liberal `governmental savoir` - knowledge/power complex • Economic activity made possible by activities of nation states, social life driven by political, symbolic & military drivers

  23. Realist Governmentality Theory Universalistic values of liberalism - equality, human rights etc, emerged with nationalist ideologies - ethnic, religious and other values, identities, histories and solidarities particular to a given nation Liberalism as `cosmopolitan universalism` Neil Walker and Ian Loader

  24. Realist Governmentality Theory • Nation states not in decline, still most significant unit of political authority, UN, IMF etc use delegated powers • Dependence by financial services companies on nation state governments/tax payers bailing them during 2007-9 banking crisis – role of sovereign wealth funds

  25. Realist Governmentality Theory • Tensions between ethnic & civic nationalism (c.f. Jon Cruddas MP) • 20th c – welfare nation states social & nation intertwined • Citizens/groups not just economic actors – group formation & politics complex, tensions between strategies of governance from above & below

  26. Realist Governmentality Theory • Collective actors at every level have identities, values, lifestyles, agendas of governance (Gwen Van Eijk, urban policy in Rotterdam – Dutchness & `liveability`) • Official liberal discourse recognise race, hides ethnicity/intersections with class – white working class? (C. Webster, K. Hayward)

  27. Conclusion • Political economic explanations over-emphasise economic marginality & our role as economic agents • Western states are liberal/national/sovereign • Governance includes left and right hand state technologies of control & also nation building cultural governance processes from above that interact with strategies from below in diverse communities

  28. Conclusion • `Labour has to win back this terrain with a language that can encompass both cosmopolitan modernity and English conservative culture, linking them together in a sense of national purpose. It would incorporate all the things Blair dismisses as anachronisms: tradition; a respect for settled ways of life; a sense of local place and belonging; a desire for home and rootedness; the continuity of relationships at work and in one’s neighbourhood…. An English leader of the Labour Party offers the opportunity to build an identity to respond to white English ethnic nationalism` (Jon Cruddas, MP New Statesman Aug 2, 2010)

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