Abstract
Nicolas Pinet’s chapter draws on a four-year ethnography in a working-class Tokyo neighbourhood. Building on the distinction between two meanings of the ‘political’ (one related to the institutionalised sphere of the ruling, the other to the social system of power relations and its transformation), he analyses subaltern politics as practices that allow their actors, collectively or individually, to free themselves from subordinate positions in the net of power relations. Through this theoretical lens, he observes an array of collective or individual political practices through urban gardens of homeless people in Tokyo that contest, bypass, or elude unfavourable power relations in the city. In this context, subaltern political practices notably take the form of tactics aimed at negotiating, mitigating, or escaping economic dependencies.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Commodification’ points out the process of things, living beings, or persons being turned into commodities to which a value is assigned by the market.
- 2.
‘From 1986 to 1987, prices for residential land increased by 95% and those for commercial land increased by 79%’ (Sassen 1991, 347).
- 3.
An important proportion of them, at least in the north-east part of Tokyo, used to work as day labourers but as recruitment paths have changed and they got older, they are not able to secure jobs as they used to. Unable to pay the rent for the cheap accommodation they stay in, they are forced to move to the streets.
- 4.
This research was made possible thanks to the support of the Japan Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
- 5.
Finding a satisfactory word to speak about the neighbourhood I’m involved in is quite difficult. Strictly speaking, not all the families living there are working-class families. Some own their houses, which are sometimes two-storey structures. As I focus specifically on an extensive social housing complex situated in the neighbourhood, the word ‘working-class’ seemed to me the most adequate if we understand it as an equivalent of the French ‘quartiers populaires’ or the Spanish ‘barrios populares’. To preserve the inhabitants’ anonymity, I do not give more precision here about location.
- 6.
In Tokyo, as well as in other Japanese cities, the shitamachi (下町) refers to neighbourhoods situated in the lower parts of the city, in contrast with the upper, more upper-class parts—the yamanote (山の手), in Tokyo. In shitamachi neighbourhoods, small independent shops and factories (町工場, machikōba) were traditionally numerous. It is still the case in some parts of the city, but machikōba tend to be replaced by real estate apartment buildings, called mansions (マンション), and the small shops have suffered a lot from supermarkets’ competition: the age of the shop tenants is an indication that the next generation will probably not follow their path.
- 7.
During the last four years, I visited the park community at least once a week, sometimes more, depending on the circumstances and occasions. All observations have been noted down in a digital field diary from which the details given here are drawn. No formal interviews have been conducted and there is really no need to. After four years, I can just ask the questions that come up. According to the subject, I might get, or not, an answer. I have transcribed fragments of conversations I wanted to keep a trace of, and recorded (audio or video) specific moments as, for example, negotiations and conflicts with the city officers.
- 8.
Tōkyō-to is composed of 23 self-governing special wards (特別区, -ku in Japanese)—the city proper—26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages.
- 9.
As the institutional political field is only one region of the more comprehensive system of power relations , the second meaning of ‘political’ includes the first.
- 10.
The typology distinguishes for the sake of analysis types of practices that are often mixed up in the real world.
- 11.
Whereas in some other wards, garbage collection is now handled by private companies, it is still managed by public officers in this ward.
- 12.
This holds true also for the furniture or cookware they use, which are usually salvaged goods.
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Pinet, N. (2017). Facing Commodification: Subaltern Tactics in a Working-Class Tokyo Neighbourhood. In: Erdi, G., Şentürk, Y. (eds) Identity, Justice and Resistance in the Neoliberal City. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58632-2_2
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