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  Realist Governmentality theory, highlighting sovereignty, nation building governance from `above & below` - key role of ethnic/cultural sites of governance

Newham – multicultural contested space

Newham – multicultural contested space

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)

Newham – marginalised urban space

  High deprivation scores, 15% unemployment Knife & `gang` crime – postcode wars  Radical Islamist activity  Riot August 2011

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

Borough Crime rates

         

Nearby boroughs Borough Crime count Crime rate

Bexley 1182 5.41

Redbridge 2055 8.61

Greenwich 2109 9.84

Brking/Dag 1809 11.03

WlthmForst 2510 11.50

Newham 3054 12.52

TwerHmlts 2542 12.96

Hackney 2670 13.16

                    

MET Newham Crime Mapping text view: Total notifiable offences, July 2010 WardCrime

East Ham North Wall End Green Street East

count Crime rate

69 6.06

per 1000

100 7.73

109 8.25

West Ham East Ham South Green Street West Plaistow North Manor Park Little Ilford Forest Gate North 108 8.55

109 8.74

124 9.64

128 9.67

118 9.75

134 10.05

145 11.48

Custom House Canning Town Sth Forest Gate South Boleyn Beckton Plaistow South Canning TownNth Royal Docks East Ham Central Stratford/NewTown 143 12.04

139 12.32

177 12.71

160 13.02

172 13.12

156 13.18

179 14.84

122 9.72

260 21.38

363 29.33

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`

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

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

Wacquant on Neoliberal project – Advanced Marginality Neo-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

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

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



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

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)

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)

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

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?`

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)

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

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

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

Realist Governmentality Theory

 Tensions between ethnic & civic nationalism (c.f. Jon Cruddas MP)  20 th 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

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)

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

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)