CIRCULATIONS AND CIRCULATIONS AND METABOLISMS:METABOLISMS:

HYBRID NATURES AND HYBRID NATURES AND CYBORG CITIESCYBORG CITIES

Erik SwyngedouwErik Swyngedouw

Geography – School of Environment and Development, Geography – School of Environment and Development, University of ManchesterUniversity of Manchester

Environmental Conflicts Summer SchoolEnvironmental Conflicts Summer SchoolICTA-AUB, 26 June – 10 July 2010ICTA-AUB, 26 June – 10 July 2010

Circulations and MetabolismsCirculations and MetabolismsHybrid Nature and Cyborg CitiesHybrid Nature and Cyborg Cities

1. The Urbanisation of Nature and the Making of Hybrid Worlds

2. Historical-Materialist Perspectives1. Socio-Natural Metabolisms2. The Invention of Circulation

3. The Cultural Turn: from Binaries to Back to the Future

4. Cyborg Cities and Flows of Power: Guayaquil’s Waters

The Urbanisation of Nature and The Urbanisation of Nature and the Making of Hybrid Worldsthe Making of Hybrid Worlds

Cyborg Cities and Hybrid Natures

The City in a Cup of Coffee London’s Piccadily Circus Jakarta’s Dengue and Cholera plague Urban Climates and ‘Accumulation by

Contamination’ (Allier) Guayaquil’s waters as Flows of Power

Historical-Materialist PerspectivesHistorical-Materialist Perspectives

1. Socio-Natural Metabolisms

The materialist foundation

“The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals. Thus the first fact to be established is the physical organisation of these individuals and their consequent relationship to the rest of nature… The writing of history must always set out from these natural bases and their modification in the course of history through the action of men … [M]en must be in a position to live in order to be able to ‘make history’… The first historical act is thus the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material life itself.”

Labour as a ‘natural process’

“Labour is, first of all, a process between man and nature, a process by which man, through his own actions, mediates, regulates, and controls the metabolism between himself and nature. He confronts the materials of nature as a force of nature. He sets in motion the natural forces which belong to his own body, his arms, legs, head, and hands, in order to appropriate the materials of nature in a form adapted to his own needs. Through this movement he acts upon external nature and changes it, and in this way he simultaneously changes his own nature …. [labouring] is an appropriation of what exists in nature for the requirements of man. It is the universal condition for the metabolic interaction between man and nature, the ever-lasting nature-imposed condition of human existence” (Marx 1867 (1971): 283 and 290).

‘Metabolism’ as a central metaphor and practice

a) Von Liebig’s ‘stoffwechsel’.(transformation, qualitative change, maintenance,

thermodynamics, circular)

b) Darwin’s Evolution

c) Marx’s socio-natural metabolism“Actual labour is the appropriation of nature for the satisfaction of human needs, the activity through which the metabolism between man and nature is mediated” (Marx in Economic Manuscripts, 1861-1863).

2. The Invention of Circulation PRE-CIRCULATION : extraction (phlogiston, physiocrats,

malthus)

CIRCULATION: Lavoisier, William Harvey, Montesquie, Rousseau, Chadwick, Haussman, Harvey, Ricardo

Capitalism/Modernity as circulatory conduits organised through socially molecular strategies and activities, embedded in political-territorial forms regulation (Ricardo, Marx. Harvey).

 

“The economic circular flow then was closely bound up, in

Marx’s analysis, with the material exchange (ecological circular flow) associated with the metabolic interaction between human beings and nature” (Foster 2000: 157-158).

The circulation of capital is a metabolic circular process.

Product, thing: good, commodity, city, water are the result of socio-metabolic circulatory processes (tension/contradiction, separation (town/countryside; nature/society)

The Cultural Turn: from The Cultural Turn: from Binaries to Back to the FutureBinaries to Back to the Future

1. Critique of binaries“It is not the unity of living and active humanity the natural, inorganic conditions of their metabolic exchange with nature, and hence their appropriation of nature, which requires explanation, or is the result of a historic process, but rather the separation between these inorganic conditions of human existence and this active existence.” (Marx (1858 (1973): 489). Historical Materialist ‘transcendence’ of binaries

2. Binaries as cultural critique* Cultural Hybridity (post-colonial theory)* Hybridity as social/discursive construct (Hybrid geographies)* Binaries as the modern ‘constitution’ (Latour): reclaiming modernity Discursive/cultural ‘transcendence’ of binaries (the politics of

representation)

Historical Materialism:The Historical Materialism:The Making of HybridsMaking of Hybrids

1. From the Production of Space to The production of Nature (Lefebvre/Smith)

2. From the Critique of the Binary to Embracing Cyborgs (Haraway)

The material, representational and imaginary production of socio-ecological assemblages.

The dialectics (conflicting relationality) of socio-ecological metabolisms: urban metabolisms (transformative socio-ecological entanglements) and flows of power.

FLOWS OF POWER: THE FLOWS OF POWER: THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF WATER POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF WATER

AND URBANISATION AND URBANISATION The Case of Guayaquil, EcuadorThe Case of Guayaquil, Ecuador

Erik Swyngedouw

‘Agua, drama sin final’ (El Universo, 14/07/91)

FLOWS OF POWER: THE POLITICAL FLOWS OF POWER: THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF WATER AND ECOLOGY OF WATER AND

URBANISATION URBANISATION 1. Water and Cities

2. Flows of Power: The Case of Guayaquila) Uneven Waters

b) Cocoa and the Re-making of the Guayaquileno Bourgeoisie

c) Moving the Water Frontier: The Emergence of Exclusionary Water Practices

d) Watering with Bananas: Opening up a New Waterfront

e) Black Gold/Blue Gold:The Last Breath of the Urban Water Dream

3. Whose Water? Whose Nature? Whose City? Hydro-social Struggles

CITIES AND THE WATER PROBLEM

 City 

Year  Percentage water  % Sewerage

Cochabamba, Bolivia  

1997 2000

80.7 57

 20

Barranquilia, Colombia 1993 93.4  Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. 1993 86.8  

Managua, Nicaragua 1998 58.4  Panama, Panama 1990 81.7  Guatamala City, Guatamala 1993 52  

Recife, Brazil 1993 79 38San Salvador, El Salvador 1993 86 80La Paz, Bolivia 1993 55 58Lima, Peru 1993 70 69Asuncion, Paraguay 1993 58 10Guayaquil, Ecuador 1990

199364.080 

55.255

Blame it on Blame it on nature!nature!

The Myth of ScarcityThe Myth of Scarcity

Table 3. Average municipal water consumption in Latin American cities.

City Water consumption (lcd = litres per capita per day)

Buenos Aires 630Havana 500Guayaquil 429Monterrey 404Mexico City 360 - 527Lima-Callao 359Medellín 340Guadalajara 314Bogotá 304Santiago 300 - 555Caracas 300 - 388Montevideo 289Quito 286 - 301Sao Paulo 270 - 293Cali 237La Paz 177(Source: ANTON, 1993, p.156)

Table 4. Distribution of produced potable water in a number of Latin American Cities and average quantity of water produced per capita.

City Percentage Percentage Water produced of population of water per capita per received day (litre) Mexico City 3 60 386.2 50 3 Guayaquil 40 3 220.0 Lima 43 88 368 57 12 25 1.9 Barranquilla 30 5 Santiago 19 38 226 19.4 9.1 Cochabamba 27 50

Blaming Nature and the Blaming Nature and the Ideology of ScarcityIdeology of Scarcity

De-politicizationFrom Social Power to Nature’s PowerCelebrating Technical RationalityProducing Scarcity (consumption, culture,

pollution)Commodification as panacea

Flows of Power:

The struggle for water in Guayaquil

0. Introduction0. Introduction

Guayaquil: ‘Drowning in water and starving of thirst’

Guayaquil’s water struggles: splintered networks/broken lines/flows and drums

Urban metabolism and hydro-social circulation: re-writing the political-ecological history of urbanisation

Houses % Inhabitants %

Total 349176 100 1643207 100

in-house 163183 47 743978 45outdoor 43696 13 202476 12quarter 18887 5 92129 6no-water 123369 35 604624 37

public net 219439 63 1007574 61priv. vendor 121257 35 593731 36

Water accessibility and water provision in the metropolitan area of Guayaquil (City of Guayaquil plus Duran)

Sector Norte Central  Sur

Number of inhabitants 421214 422985 272393Water sup. (m3/day) 272471 99500 16000water/inhabitant/day 307 160 43Average hours of service 24 10 4

Geographical Distribution of water supply and consumption through the official network (1990)

1. Guayaquil as Hybrid1. Guayaquil as Hybrid

Transcending Binaries: ‘there is nothing unnatural about the city’ (D. Harvey)

H20, metabolism and circulation Social Power and the hydro-social cycles: on

bodies and cities, networks and connections Cyborg urbanisation: Hybridity and socio-

ecological processes The making of a cyborg city: urbanising water in

Guayaquil: a double socio-ecological conquest

2. Cocoa and the Re-making of the 2. Cocoa and the Re-making of the Guayaquileno Bourgeoisie (1880-1920)Guayaquileno Bourgeoisie (1880-1920)

Water and social stratification before 1880On water and cocoa: local cocoa

bourgeoisie, global cocoa flows, global capital flows, local water urbanisation

The premature end of ‘cocoa’ urbanisation (1920)

3. Moving the Water Frontier: The 3. Moving the Water Frontier: The Emergence of Exclusionary Water Emergence of Exclusionary Water Practices in an Age of Reformation Practices in an Age of Reformation

(1920-1945)(1920-1945)Cocoa bust and hyperurbanisationPolitical conflict and the premature end of

the water dreamFrom Ford’s dream to the emergence of the

‘third’ worldReformation and the water stratification

4. Watering with Bananas: Opening up 4. Watering with Bananas: Opening up a New Waterfront (1945-1965)a New Waterfront (1945-1965)

Globalising Bananas: socio-ecological transformations

From Euro-Cocoa to Yankee dollarsOpening a new waterfrontThe myth of urban oasis and the making of

dependencyThe ‘Chiquita’ drama and the end of

abundant waters

5. Black Gold/Blue Gold:The Last 5. Black Gold/Blue Gold:The Last Breath of the Urban Water Dream (1973 Breath of the Urban Water Dream (1973

– 2002)– 2002) Moving East – Petro-dreams/socio-ecological

nightmares Colouring Black Gold Blue Global Crisis, Local Catastrophe: Debt peonage Structural dependency and institutionalised water

exclusion Water scarcity and the panacea of the ‘market’

1. Dependence on external financing: Debt peonage and the export of nature

2. The myth of dependency and the realities of social power

3. Subsidizing the rich -- Excluding the poor4. Technological Fix: The Productivist Logic5. Land rent, urban development and the water fix

(speculation versus land invasions)

3. 3. Whose Water? Whose Nature? Whose Water? Whose Nature? Whose City? Hydro-social Whose City? Hydro-social

StrugglesStruggles

1. Water Terrorism and Water conflict2. Local social struggle 3. Expanding Water Frontiers: The

Metabolism of Water4. Globalized Water/Money Circulation

Price multiples and water prices charged by water vendors, mid 1970s-1980s and 2001

City Country Multiples of Water priceb

water charged U.S.$/m3 Tegucigalpa Honduras 16-34Lima Peru 17 20-50 intisBarranquilla Colombia 28    2.00Mexico City Mexico 40-114 400 pesosGuayaquil Ecuador 200-300 2.11-3.16Quito Ecuador 27 1.70-2.00

Data for 2001 Baranquilla Colombia 10-12 5.50-6.40Guatamala City Guatamala 7-10 2.70-4.50Lima Peru 8-10 2.40 Guayaquil Ecuador 3.20Cochabamba Bolivia 5 2.40 El Alto Bolivia 16 3.30

Examples of Reported Water Strikes by the Tanqueros, 1991-1993. Date Source Reason 25/02/91 El Universo Strike of 137 tanqueros on the Peninsula after the police arrested 17 tanqueros. 28/08/91 El Universo Strike of tanqueros after the police had arrested two who sold water without a permit. 27/08/92 Expreso 48 hour strike of tanqueros because EPAP suspended and fined fifty of them. 14/09/92 El Universo Tanqueros refuse to distribute water for three days after government announced price increases for gasoline. May 1993 El Universo Tanqueros go on strike after the relocation of the filling station from Bellavista to Via a la Costa 10 Km.

Examples of Reported Attacks and Sabotages of the Water System.

Date Source Nature of attack Place

12/02/88 Meridiano Breaking and stealing pipe Duran03/11/89 Telegrafo Attack on mains pipe SalinasFeb. 91 EPAP-G Sabotage aqueduct Guayaquil/Salinas13/03/91 Telegrafo Attack on mains pipe Between Duran and

La Puntilla20/05/92 El Universo Sabotage distribution pipes Guayacanes, Los Ceibos & SaucesSource: Newspaper articles, EPAP-G documentation.

3. Expanding Water Frontiers: Globalising Nature – Urbanising Water– A) Urbanising nature: Metabolising Cocoa,

Bananas, Oil– B) Local/Global Circulations

4. Globalized Water/Money Circulation: The ‘rush’ to privatisation

4.1. A discursive politics 4.2. An accounting exercise 4.3. The local politics of privatisation 4.4. The global politics of privatisation 4.5. The privatisation game

Proportion of Water and Sanitation Services Privatised1997 and 2010 projected

REGION % Privatised, 1997

% Privatised, 2010

Value of privatised

market (bUS$)

Western Europe

20 35 10

Central and East Europe

4 20 4

North America

5 15 9

Latin America

4 60 9

Africa 3 33 3Asia 1 20 10

Whose Water? Whose Water? Whose Nature? Whose Nature?

Whose City?Whose City?What kind of urban socio-What kind of urban socio-

natural metabolism and for natural metabolism and for whom?whom?