Exposing Necroburbia: Suburban Relocation, Necropolitics, and Violent Geographies in Manila

Abstract

When accumulation in southern cities entails the dispossession of informal settlers, where do they go and what spatialities emerge out of their dispossession? In Manila, this occurs through a violent form of suburbanisation. To make way for modern and investment-friendly spaces, informal settlers are exiled to relocation sites in the suburban fringe. This process of accumulation by suburban relocation engenders necroburbia, a dystopic suburban periphery constituted by distant relocation sites where evicted settlers are subjected into violent and asphyxiating everyday geographies. It serves as a spatial fix to enable metropolitan accumulation. Drawing on Achilles Mbembe's notion of necropolitics, I expose necroburbia as a deceptive and violent space, produced through three spatialities: (1) demolition; (2) relocation; (3) necro-suburbanisms, or everyday ways of necropolitical living. These processes illustrate how urban fantasies of growth in cities like Manila are predicated upon necropolitical realities rendering informal settlers as expendable populations, deserving of everyday brutalities.Abstrak: Kung ang paglago ng mga lungsod ay nakabatay sa pagpapalayas ng mga maralita, mahalagang itanong kung saan sila napapadpad at anong mga espasyo ang maaring umusbong mula sa kanilang karanasan? Sa Kamaynilaan, naisasagawa ito sa pamamagitan ng marahas na porma ng urbanisasyon. Upang mapasinayaan ang moderno at angkop na espasyo para sa pamumuhunan, pinapalayas at nililipat ang mga maralita sa mga relokasyon na nasa malalayong kanugnugan ng Kamaynilaan. Ibinibunga ng prosesong ito ang nekroburbya, isang marahas na espasyo na dinadanas ng mga tinataboy na mararalita at nagsisilbing aregladong espasyo ('spatial fix') upang ipadaloy ang kapital. Hango sa teorya ni Achille Mbembe na nekropolitiks, nilalayon kong ilantad ang nekroburbya bilang isang mapanlinlang at marahas na espasyo na binubunga ng tatlong proseso: (1) demolisyon; (2) relokasyon at; (3) nekro-suburbanismo o ang marahas na pang-araw-araw na pamumuhay sa ilalim ng nekropolitiks. Ang mga prosesong ito ay nagpapakita sa pantasiya ng kalungsuran kung saan ang paglago ng syudad gaya ng Maynila ay batay sa realidad ng nekropolitiks na ang mga maralita ay tinuturing mga hamak at patapon, hinahayaang mamuhay ng walang katiyakan, at tinitignan na karapat-dapat lamang na dumanas ng hirap at dahas.We are slowly being killed here. (Interview, relocated residents, 2012) In "off-city" relocation sites of Manila's fringe, death looms as a force defining the lives of residents. Justine Billones, the three-year-old daughter of a relocatee family died of severe diarrhoea, allegedly due to water poisoning in one of the villages

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