The following is an important quote to think about:
"The urban population of the earth will outnumber the rural population and since slum inhabitants will compose the majority of the urban populations we are in n o way dealing with a marginal phenomenon. We are thus witnessing the fast growth of a population living outside the law, in terrible need of minimal forms of self-organization. Although this population is composed of marginalized laborers, sacked civil servants and ex-peasants, they are not simply a redundant surplus: they are incorporated into the global economy in numerous ways, many of them working as informal wage workers or self-employed entrepreneurs, with no adequate health or social-security coverage...They are the true "symptom" of slogans such as "Development," "Modernization," and the "World Market": not an unfortunate accident, but a necessary product of the innermost logic of global capitalism." -Zizek
An interesting and important thought on the expanding slums in the world. Contrary--though similar in structure--to the arguments of Hernando De Soto that the problem of poverty can be entirely destroyed by parceling out rights/land and the access to capitol. What De Soto misses is that the global logic of capitalism is inherently marginalizing even though it does offer to some the power economic prosperity--even if those who are offered prosperity are the poor.
No comments:
Post a Comment