Activity 1: Classifying Unruly Practices and Power Relations in Unruly Practices (Activity 1.1: 15 mins, Activity 1.2: 15 mins) by Rawya Khodor

EXAMPLE: Illegally reconnecting electricity in Atteridgeville

tamlynmonson — 2021-02-24 10:05:54 UTC

When the municipality cut off electricity to the township, reconnections were made by an organised informal group as part of the township ungovernability campaign in South Africa. This practice clearly goes beyond the range of activity sanctioned by the state, and the practice is directed quite clearly against the state.

Monasticism

quynhnguyen201 — 2021-03-02 06:30:41 UTC

Many have engaged in monasticism for religious/ spiritual purposes as well as to stay detached from the 'normal life'. For some this can be a way to demonstrate their opposition and resistance against a way of living (system) of inequality and power domination.

Disciplinary committee

quynhnguyen201 — 2021-03-02 06:40:37 UTC

The formation of Penpeng (disciplinary committee) in the squatter camp was in order to keep a certain level of order and security in the area, for example by responding to residents reporting crime (by whistling) and protecting the criminal from being attacked once arrested. Even though details were not provided regarding this aspect of Penpeng, I suspect that at some point Penpeng was, to an extent, controlled or manipulated by (a) certain group(s) with more power to suppress the others, and thus did not survive as it failed to perform its expected role.

Facing government negotiations

ucfuiue — 2021-03-04 21:24:15 UTC

Slum dwellers negotiate with international organizations and national governments to re-protect their citizenship and rights. The different experiences of urban poor displacement complicate the homogenization and classification of slum residents, and people re-examine the liberation potential of mass movements.

The Church

ucfuiue — 2021-03-04 21:48:43 UTC

The church has a very important influence both in the rich areas and in the slums. It is the center and meeting place of the community. Every Sunday afternoon, the residents of the community have to go to church. The church occupies an important place in the daily life of the poor.

The church is directly involved in the governance of slums. In slums, violence and crime are serious problems. The work of the local church is not only responsible for mediating violent conflicts that may occur in the community, but also gives spiritual comfort to the poor. The church is called the "safe haven for the poor" by the locals. In addition, the church also provides material assistance within its capacity to impoverished communities. For example, many slums have built mobile kitchens to provide free three meals to the poor elderly or children in the community. The church gives these mobile kitchens a certain amount of subsidy, so that the poor can really feel it. Help and care.

Informal vendors

zclerli — 2021-03-05 07:20:53 UTC

The urban space houses numerous informal street vendors. Xue and Huang's article from unit 14 illustrates how informal street vending constitute an everyday unruly practice. Informal vendors challenge state regulations without articulation of demands or conspicuous actions, but through everyday continuation of their business to acquire basic necessities.

Whistles

zclerli — 2021-03-05 07:23:59 UTC

What i found interesting in this week's case study is the fact that after the change in political context of South Africa, judiciary structures in squatter camps like the disciplinary committee remains but the actual law enforcement duties were disaggregated amongst residents themselves. Residents were given whistles to blow out when they witness a crime. Although at first glance this might seem like a decentralization of power and inclusion of residents to have shared responsibilities as well as exercising their citizenship, it is in fact covering up the failures of the state. The state is allowing these informal unruly practices because they alleviate state burdens to ensure good enforcement law in squatter camps and exculpates their inefficiencies. Therefore, this further cements state power and their own position of vulnerability.

claiming services

manjinwei — 2021-03-06 08:47:58 UTC

As for the patient practices, it focus on the negotiation over everyday services or needs as an entry point to forge new relationships with state actors and re-constituting citizenship. Besides the Slum/Slack Dwellers International example mentioned by Huishu in above, after the change in politicfal context from the case study, the state open the spaces for pubklic to challenge the policy publicly to achieve the bill of rights. After the evolution, the claiming services changed to attention in the contributions and labour services which provide the opportunities to forge the new connection with state.

Not naming the roads and alleyways in Jeffsville:

danielvasquez19 — 2021-03-06 17:37:20 UTC

For me, this represents an everyday act of resistance. Despite this is not a decision the squatters make every day (i.e. gathering all nights to decide if they will name their roads or not), they permanently live in these conditions, and they are conscious about it. It is a subtle intentional decision that tries to undermine power without a direct confrontation and aims to make it harder or impossible to police to know where activists are located and allow them to keep confronting power to improve the community's conditions.

Unfair landlords in Jeffsville:

danielvasquez19 — 2021-03-06 18:02:49 UTC

People that built backyard shacks and rented them to families or individuals could be entrenching the same power relations they aimed to subvert if they mistreat their tenants.
It could be understood as exploitation from this landlord class because their tenants cannot do much if they have claims and have to accept unfairly ruling to have a place to live due to the shacks' illegal status.

case of Kesovo from Muungano movement

glizhiwen — 2021-03-06 18:45:34 UTC

This is an example from the reading. The Kosovar community in the Mathare settlement has long been unrecognized as an informal residential area, and the water supply scheme proposed by the Federation is extremely expensive due to the local black market system and complex reasons.In order to solve this problem, Muungano DMM system was put forward, with traditional negotiation strategy not persuade water companies and local community groups began to mobilize residents digging gutter pipe need, through hard work and patience for a long time, the company agreed to provide more flexible DMM for settlement, also allows the residents to build, manage and collect feed for street level lines.Instead of violent protests, the local residents have proved the feasibility of a plan that can make the company profitable and have eased the long-standing antagonistic relationship between the residents and the water company. So, I think it is a good example of patient practices.

Occupying lands

dzifaagbodah19 — 2021-03-06 20:05:53 UTC

The people of Jeffsville were occupying lands at night in order to get space leading the police into dismantling their structures during the day. People Like Jeff jumped on Police vehicles to fight them to take back their materials used in building the structures. Even though the police was always destroying their structures, they continued to occupy the lands at night until the police got tired and left them alone. In as much as it was obvious that they were trying to fight for the right to space, the manner in which it was done clearly shows they were not adhering to the rules of the state and exhibiting an act of violence against the state

Patient Practices

1345808043 — 2021-03-06 23:26:39 UTC

Patient Practices has a wide range of practice applications in China. Due to China's unique property system and the large amount of infrastructure construction in recent years, the Chinese government has had many problems with "demolition" and rebuilding. A good example of this is the construction of new dams, which often require the eviction of local residents, but where the terms of resettlement and compensation do not meet the needs of all residents, this often leads to conflict between the government and local residents. Of course, I think this is a necessary process for democracy and the defence of rights. As it turns out, after the conflict, the government has indeed improved the relevant regulations and compensation measures.

Occupy the land and fight against the state according to their own rules

ucfulz4 — 2021-03-07 10:03:09 UTC

Around 1991, the state allowed people to live temporarily in designated areas under strict rules. Jeffsville moved people to that area, but refused to comply with the rules. They thought it was their own place and dug trenches around it to prevent the police from entering. Also, they did not name the roads, which made it difficult for the secret police to identify where the militants were hiding. And they organised informal patrols to check for criminal activity. If criminals were found, they were taken to an informal court where a group of people decided on their punishment. The punishment was usually lashing. Moreover, there was daily surveillance and if new faces appeared around, people were required to report to the leaders to prevent undercover agents from entering. In these practices, although they are fighting for the right to a living space, they are not following the rules of the state and want to occupy the land and fight the state according to their own rules. And the practice of informal courts shows that they try to redefine equity and social justice.

Jeffsville newcomers

ballaschkarin — 2021-03-07 10:23:20 UTC

After the "neighborhood" of Jeffsville was more "consolidated" they stablished an informal system to monitor the new squatters seeking land to live.

Essentially, older dwellers were supposed to report to the local leaders who these people were and give some kind of profile about them. This dynamic relates to point B hence, by insofar they had control over the neighborhood, they took it upon themselves as well to decide who else could made use of these lands. i.e just as the government did with them along the years.

Informal court

ucfulz4 — 2021-03-07 10:37:49 UTC

The case study mentions people who have been punished by informal courts causing serious harm. The informal courts have no real responsibility to use excessive force. It is also mentioned in the case study that the leaders of the informal courts was favouring their comrades when they were brought to the courts. Also sometimes the court was used in the interests of those comrades. These may entrench the same power relations that they aim to subvert. Social justice and equity are defined by those who have the power, and that has not changed.

Power relationship

YuanMeng — 2021-03-07 11:11:56 UTC

During the Civil War, Squatters and their leaders would band together to resist the eviction of the police. In practice, self-governing committees were set up. At this stage, although faced with land on track problems and housing safety issues. The power of the people has prevailed a little. However, as they did not have equipment and other elements, Police Power later gained the upper hand. The autonomy of the people became a form of mutual aid and supervision.

Jeffsville-Founding settlement of Mshongo

ucfutli — 2021-03-07 13:31:23 UTC

From my point of view, the behaviors of residents in Jeffsvillein are a sort of Insurgent citizenship, as people gathered to search for insurgent spaces to claim their rights to the land, becoming active citizens in the process. Holston mentioned, “this process as a conscious and confronted exclusionary land and housing regulations through self-organized action to build housing.” To be specific, residents in Jeffsville were seeking claims on everyday necessities, like space and security:

Claiming space:
-repeated land occupations
-refusal to comply with municipal rules

Claming Security
-this settlement is Inaccessible to policy
-Unmapped space so that no sort of addresses would be meant for police to pinpoint
-Informal security function with patrols
-Everyday surveillance
-Informal ‘court’

Repeatedly build shacks

ucfurya2 — 2021-03-07 13:57:58 UTC

The rights defense movement started when people repeatedly occupied the land. They built some shacks, which would be demolished the next day, rebuilt and demolished again and again, and there were also arrests in the middle. In short, it was a process of building shacks and losing them. The small and long-lasting daily activities that people carry out to improve their conditions will not have very positive conflicts, but they are long-term and direct activities.

Only when the insurgent citizenship appeals to a common view of political justice, the insurgent citizenship is justified. This means that a rebel needs to prove that the law they are trying to change does not currently conform to a common sense of justice, and therefore the law should be changed. The question is, what is this shared sense of justice? For example, if I believe that private property is immoral and should be abolished, I cannot take civil disobedience to try to abolish private property. why? Because private property rights are part of what Rawls considers a sense of common justice. Nor can I participate in the disobedience of citizens who support apartheid, because a common sense of justice requires citizens to regard each other as free and equal, and apartheid is incompatible with this. In other words, Rawls' description of civil disobedience limits civil disobedience to those behaviors that can be appealed to a sense of common justice.

ywei201 — 2021-03-08 00:49:37 UTC

Should political leaders violate the deepest constraints of morality in order to achieve great goods or avoid disasters for their communities?city bombings were simply immoral (as were the city bombings of Japan, including the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and could not be justified by supreme emergency.But we can’t ignore this contribution to anti-fascism

ywei201 — 2021-03-08 01:00:23 UTC

Some insurgent practices happen because the huge gap between formal and subtantive citizen rights. For some excluded or marginalized people, to be honest, this approach is an 'opportunity' for them to change the difficult situation. However, this practice is really negative to social arrangement. For some speciific resources or products , once the insurgent practice happens, these goods and materials may be threatened and cannot be used as original plan. So this practice threats to social stability to a certain extent.

chenkunyue20 — 2021-03-08 02:16:19 UTC

Power relations

ucfurya2 — 2021-03-08 02:20:59 UTC

The crimes may be taken to an informal court to decide the punishment to be received. But even if a kind of security is created, there are some dangers and shortcomings. Informal courts have no real responsibility system, so the use of force is more arbitrary, and some people will be beaten very badly. At the same time, informal courts are sometimes used for other purposes. This is a very unfair behavior.

Power relations

KechunXu — 2021-03-08 02:42:15 UTC

As there was no well-developed power operation and supervision system to regulate the members in higher positions, the informal court leader could favour his comrades and used the court for their own interests at the expanse of others' rights. Moreover, the unequal relations between landlords and tenants continued as people who came later had to pay for their places in the squatter camp. The tenants still had to face low-quality dwellings while being mistreated.

As far as the informal courts are concerned, they provide legal assistance to these groups in a way that was previously unhelpful.But it is worth checking whether such a civil court works in full compliance with a strict system of laws and regulations.Moreover, this lack of accountability system is easy to develop the antagonistic relationship between judges and other people in need of legal aid, and even some conflicts and incidents will occur.In informal courts, judges, if left unchecked, will abuse their power or misjudge cases, and this mechanism will exacerbate internal conflicts.So how to improve this situation in the future is worth thinking about.

chenkunyue20 — 2021-03-08 03:24:31 UTC

power relations

ucfusf1 — 2021-03-08 03:32:38 UTC

In terms of the power relation within the informal settlements, people who build backyard shacks could have more power over the tenants. Even if the informal tenants might be treated unfairly by the house owners, they cannot access to the policy for justice. Although informal courts have been established within the community, the lack of accountability mechanisms may also reduce the capacity of the courts.

Insurgent Practices

yangyufan20 — 2021-03-08 04:45:12 UTC

Segregation and civil society hindered - create informal groups within the townships (troops out of the townships) - repeatedly occupy land/‘claiming security’ and struggle with the police (the example of Jeffsville).In this kind of direct confrontation with the police, 'people search for insurgent Spaces to claim their rights' (Weinstein and Ren, 2009)

Power relations

yangyufan20 — 2021-03-08 04:54:54 UTC

In the case study mentioned that landlord class (who had formal housing and made money from the renters) and informal security functions (punishment without accountability) appeared in these processes, which means that new internal exploitation may occur with the strength of these informal powers in townships.

Everyday surveillance

YunGu — 2021-03-08 07:49:35 UTC

Squatters need to report the new faces appeared around them to the leaders, then they would look into the new persons to check if he or she was an informant or a police agent. Besides, squatters didn't name the roads and sites in this area in order not to let secret police make a clear location, which was for protecting the activists.

YunGu — 2021-03-08 08:04:28 UTC

“Some people also built backyard shacks and rented them out, but this meant tenants have to pay for these poor quality dwellings, and as the shacks are illegal, there was no recourse to the police if your landlord treat you unfairly. So in that way, it also create a kind of landlord class within the township, of people who had formal housing but made money out of those who had no choice but to the tenants.” The landlord class here is a more powerful group than the tenants group and these landlords make their benefits by putting other vulnerable people in a very disadvantageous position, which is something similar to the oppression they are experiencing.

Establishing Jeffsville

ritwikadeb20 — 2021-03-08 10:04:12 UTC

The founding of the squatter camp of Jeffsville in itself is an example of Insurgent Practice which brings to life Sandercock’s (1999, p.42) definition of it being a practice which is ‘instigated by mobilizd communities, acting as planners for themselves’. In Jeffsville, practices wherein Jeff and his comrades solved problems for the residents of the township by manually reconnecting the electricity, building shacks etc. are unruly, insurgent practices where they collectively claimed their rights to the city.

Charges levied for 'later tenants'

ritwikadeb20 — 2021-03-08 10:08:32 UTC

The practice of levying charges for rent and other services to people who came later is one out of the many examples of unruly practices in this case which entrenched the same power relations that it aimed to subvert. By creating this distinction between original squatters and later tenants, this practice created inequalities within the camp once again. Moreover, squatters who were inherently unable to pay high prices for their space elsewhere were once again expected to do so.

Original Squatters and Later Tenants

boyuanzhang20 — 2021-03-08 11:43:35 UTC

The earliest informal settlements originated as a resistance to inequality, but as time went on and those who came later needed to pay to live in the squatter camp. The gap with past residents produced new inequalities, and perhaps the so-called change in the past was essentially an illusion.

In my opinion, every In my opinion, spontaneous migration from rural areas to cities is itself an unmanageable process, which affects the formation of marginalized and unmanageable citizens.

meerimosmonalieva20 — 2021-03-08 12:20:30 UTC

Example

runjunzuo20 — 2021-03-08 12:35:01 UTC

In the informative court, some people accused him of being sentenced to "compulsory patrol duty" so that the informative magistrate could take advantage of him to have an affair with his wife when he was out at night. This behavior is obviously a performance of sacrificing the rights of some people and benefiting others.

Power relations

unfuxzo — 2021-03-08 12:40:56 UTC

The case studies refer to favouritism on the part of the leaders of the informal courts and the fact that the courts are sometimes used for the benefit of these comrades. There is a misalignment of power relations.